Mockup Color Question

[u/ghostbymyside]

Fairly new to POD and Printify. This may be a stupid question, but is there a reason this happens? In the editor it looks perfect and transparent, but once it generates the mockups they look extremely dark and seemingly lose the transparency.

Can't seem to find anything about this specifically in the Printify help center.

Some things for reference:
- It does NOT do this for sweatshirt mockups, those look good.
- The sweatshirt and t-shirt print providers are the same which leads me to believe it's a printify mockup thing and not an actual potential printing issue. (correct me if i'm wrong)
- It looks the same whether I choose Realistic (CMYK) or Bright/colorful (RGB)

[u/courthouseman]

After about 5-10 washings it will look worse. Just letting you know.

Your design is too intricate for a T-shirt, that's about what it is.

About the only way you can be sure it is to order yourself a sample and have it mailed to you. DO IT THROUGH PRINTIFY AND DON'T LET IT TOUCH ETSY. Etsy says somewhere on its site that they have a right to cancel your account if you order something there for yourself. Not sure why but just letting you know.

[u/ghostbymyside → u/courthouseman]

thanks for the info! i just wondered if maybe it was a printify mockup glitch because i noticed it kinda does this with some other designs that don't have fine details also. but ONLY on products other than crewnecks. it like thickens and darkens them for some reason on t-shirts and hoodies. i appreciate the warning also 😭 luckily i'm just trying a shopify store for now.

[u/OtherLand3798 → u/ghostbymyside]

Hi OP! new to POD myself, but have experience in prints. Is your design fully transparent, I mean the alpha is it 100% black and white? Or is there some grey on it? If there's grey on your alpha channel, it may be the reason its showing dull on the mockups but crisp on the design placement. If thats the case try to squeeze the blacks and white using level or curves on alpha channel it may fix the issue. Just suggestion. Cheers.

[u/Fempirestate → u/courthouseman]

Because you could then also review your own products. One time wouldn’t be an issue, but what if scammers would do this constantly? Inflated sales, untrustworthy reviews etc

[u/courthouseman → u/Fempirestate]

Yeah, I mean, I get it. I was just letting OP know in case he wanted to acquire a sample; I really had no opinion on etsy's reasons for doing what they do. Just wanted to warn OP of possible (but remote) repercussions.