Unrelated to wiki.  Some notes on getting t-shirts made

Goal: full color t-shirt.  Lowish volume (1-20).  Focus on quality over cost

TLDR:

    * If you want heavyweight fabric, Cafepress is most economical for qty 1 or qty 6+ with designashirt.com taking the lead otherwise
    * I liked Cafe Press' website the best, but vistaprint is fine.  I didn't like designashirt
    * Reviewed 2016-09-05

FIXME : gah wiki software messed up the table…badly.  Don't trust below

^Vendor ^T-shirt ^Print quality ^Web UI ^1 $ ^2 $ ^20 $ ^1000 $ ^Inf $ ^LT ^Misc |
|Cafepress |   \\ Hanes BeefyT    \\   \\ (6.1oz, 100% Cotton)    \\  \\ Only choice?  |  Sufficient |   \\ Easy to use    \\   \\ Stable  |  19.99 |  19.99 |  11.71 |  |  |2 wk? |Separate charge men/women.  Made a few women's t-shirts more expensive |
|CustomInk |  |  |  |20.95 |20.80 |18.30 |5.85 |3.19 |2 wk |  |
|Designashirt |Hanes Tagless Tee      \\   \\ (5.2 oz., pre-shrunk 50/50 cotton/polyester) |TBD |Buggy |21.61 |16.88 |13.11 |4.11 |3.32 |  |Doesn't offer men vs womens? |
|Designashirt |   \\ Hanes BeefyT    \\   \\ (6.1oz, 100% Cotton)  |  TBD |  … |  23.10 |  18.38 |  14.60 |  5.60 |  4.82 |  |"ORDER 20000 SHIRTS FOR $4.82 PER ITEM" |
|ooshirts |  Gildan 5.3 oz cotton  |  |  |  <18.58 |  <15.58 |  <7.78 |  |  |  |Free S/H |
|Vistaprint |   \\ SignatureSoft Men’s T-shirt    \\   \\ 4.5-ounce, 100% ring spun combed cotton  |  TBD |  |10.49 |10.49 |9.74 |  |  |1 wk |  |
|Vistaprint |   \\ Basic T-shirt    \\   \\ 5.3 ounce, 100% cotton  |  TBD |  |7.49 |7.49 |7.49 |  |  |1 wk |  |

Notes:

    * I primarily use Firefox, but switch to Chrome with website issues
    * Pricing for medium

====== CafePress ======

Summary:

    * Material: Hanes BeefyT, 6.1oz, 100% Cotton
      * FIXME : verify

Very easy to use.  Website worked smoothly (Firefox)

Price something like

    * 1-6: $20

{{:mcmaster:ref_cafepress_mod.png?300}}

Above: preview

====== designashirt.com ======

Don't like their website

    * Separate username and password login.  WTF?
    * Preview showing where t-shirt prints wasn't even on the person
      * Note: full print preview looked as expected
    * Upload image button didn't show up
      * Suspect related to not having flash initially enabled, which caused some sort of glitch
    * Upload image faulty progress bar: counted down from 200% or something like that
    * General website presentation seems rough / needs editing
      * Ex: "Are you looking for a shirt, sweatshirt, hat, or bag? Check out the Change Shirt/Color button to see the many styles and colors available."
      * The value add is buried in a list of what applies
    * At first I thought it required a login to try it out, but now think I just misunderstood the UI
    * Has a tool to assist with alpha transparency
    * Web UI does not snap center

{{:mcmaster:designashirt_web_mod.png?300}}

Above: editing window showing poor centering / faulty print

{{:mcmaster:ref_designashirt_mod.jpg?300}}

Above: preview looks okay

====== VistaPrint ======

Had to apply my own alpha or preview looked wonky.  Unclear if this would have actually impacted print quality (white box)

Snaps on web UI to center easier

Aggressive marketing.  They repeatedly tried to sign me up for stuff I didn't want

Male + female ordering process streamlined, unlike CafePress

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