Designing for a tote bag

Before you open any design software, think about who will carry the bag and where. It changes the design more than anything else.

• A giveaway or event bag needs to say who it's from at a glance. A clear logo and perhaps a web address or a short line is plenty. Our conference bags page has more on this.
• A bag you're selling has to be something people want to carry for its own sake. Illustrations, a witty line or a local landmark sell; a big corporate logo rarely does. See our merch tote bags page.
• A shop bag works hardest when it's simple and recognisable from across the street: your name, your mark, and plenty of space around them.

The bags that get kept and carried for years are the ones people like. That's good for your brand, and it's what makes a reusable bag worth making. Need ideas? Our tote bag design ideas post has plenty, sorted by industry.

Screen printing prints each colour from its own screen, using inks mixed to a single flat shade. So the first rule is to design with a small number of solid colours, and to count them as you go:

• Every ink is a colour, including black and white.
• The bag is free. Any part of the design that's the same colour as the bag isn't printed at all.
• A lighter shade of the same colour usually needs its own ink, so it counts as another colour.
• Gradients, shadows and photos don't break down into a few flat inks. Redraw them as solid shapes, or see our print methods guide for other options.
• Light inks on dark bags need a white underbase, which counts as one more colour. Our guide to printing on dark bags explains.

Design	Bag	Colours
Black logo	Natural	1
Navy and gold logo	Natural	2
White logo	Black	1
Yellow logo	Black	2 (underbase and yellow)
Red, green and black illustration	White	3

Each extra colour adds a screen charge and a little to the price of every bag, so it's worth asking whether a colour is earning its place. Many of the best bag designs use one or two. Our colour cost calculator shows what each one adds, and our Pantone and spot colours guide covers matching your brand colours.

How big should the design be?

The print sits on the flat front of the bag, clear of the seams, the hem at the top and the stitching where the handles join. On a standard 38 x 42cm shopper, a large front print is often around A4 size, while a small logo might be 10cm wide. On gusseted totes the print goes on the front face, and on our jute bags with canvas panels it goes on the canvas.

The simplest test is to print your design at full size on paper, cut it out and hold it against a bag, or against an unprinted sample from the bag's page. Things that look big on screen often look small on a bag, and the other way round. Tell us the size you want when you order, and your proof will show it on the bag before anything is printed.

Lines and text

Woven fabric isn't as smooth as paper. Ink sits on a textured surface, so very thin lines can break up and tiny text can fill in. As a rule of thumb:

• Keep lines no thinner than about half a millimetre, and a little bolder on heavy canvas and jute.
• Keep text large enough to read at arm's length. Small print on a bag goes unread anyway.
• Make text that's reversed out of a solid colour, so the fabric shows through, a touch bolder than you would on paper.
• Avoid hairline slivers of one colour squeezed between two others. Each colour is a separate screen, and slivers are hard to line up.

Our free artwork check will flag anything too fine before you order.

Both sides

You can print both sides, with the same design or a different one on the back. Each side has its own screens, so a second side is priced as a second print. Some of the best bags keep the logo small on one side and put the fun on the other.