r/printondemand

What are best way to automate 1000 mug printing or tshirt design printing. What commercial companies make those equipments?

12,900 sales and I'm standard account status since being on there since 2020, I haven't uploaded a design since they switched to account tiers because of this. I used to make $1,000 during the winter holiday season I made $35 this last time. F*** Redbubble

After my previous post and my experience over the last few weeks, I've decided to stop using Gelato.

I'm not happy with the print quality, and unfortunately I also haven't been able to get a helpful response from their customer support.

This is my first time building a POD business for a new online store, so I'm looking for recommendations from people with real experience.

What I'm looking for:

• Shopify integration
• Etsy integration
• Fast and reliable shipping, mainly within the US, but with international shipping as well
• Good and consistent print quality

It would be a big plus if they offer one or more of these shirts:

• united athle 5001
• Comfort Colors 1717

I'd really appreciate hearing which POD providers you've had good experiences with and why.

Thanks!

I keep running into the same wall and I can't tell if I'm overcomplicating it. When I generate a detailed, busy design in ChatGPT or Grok, none of the AI tools output a true transparent background, so I always have to remove it myself.

Canva, Kittl, even Printify can do the removal. But on complex artwork there's always leftover background color — not just a thin halo around the outer edge, but stray bits scattered anywhere the background showed through the design: between letters, in gaps between tree branches, inside small enclosed areas. Simple vector-style text cuts out perfectly, no problem. It's the detailed illustrations where it gets messy.

And here's the part that really gets me: even when I spot a leftover speck and want to erase it manually, the eraser in these tools — even at its smallest size — is way bigger than the artifact itself. So I can't clean it without wiping out part of the actual design around it.

Cleaning that by hand in Photoshop is fine for one image, but it's not realistic once you're doing volume.

Example attached — this one had a magenta background removed, and you can see the leftover color clinging to the edges.

So my questions for people actually shipping designs:

1. What's your go-to tool for background removal on detailed art, and why?
2. How do you get rid of leftover background color — both edge fringing and stray bits inside the design — without hand-editing every image?
3. Am I missing something obvious about the workflow, or is this just the reality of working with AI-generated art?

Would love to hear what actually works for you at scale.

https://preview.redd.it/6gopjop7xdbh1.png?width=2788&format=png&auto=webp&s=de34cbac997b3eb318cdbb278f677d3bebd4f8ac

Hey everyone! I’m in the early stages of starting my own little baby care shop/bazaar. I plan to sell baby care products (skincare, feeding, bath, accessories, maybe some toys) both offline and eventually online. I’m looking for some no-BS advice from those who’ve done this before.

A bit about my situation:

· I’m on a tight budget and can’t hold huge inventory.
· I need manufacturers/suppliers who can give me a low MOQ – ideally 50-100 units per SKU to start, or even dropshipping/private label with small batches.
· I’m especially interested in baby skincare, organic products, feeding essentials, and travel-friendly baby items.
· I also need help with packaging design and branding – I want a cute, minimal look but don’t have a big design budget.

What I’d love to know from the community:

1. Do’s and Don’ts for a new baby product business – What mistakes did you make early on? What worked surprisingly well?
2. Hot-selling baby care items – What products do parents actually keep re-buying? What’s just hype?
3. Low-MOQ manufacturers/suppliers – Any recommendations for baby skincare, bibs, muslin cloths, silicone feeding items, baby bottles, etc.?
4. Private label vs wholesale – For a complete beginner, is it smarter to start with wholesale branded items first, or jump into private labeling with my own brand?
5. Design & packaging resources – Where can I find affordable packaging designers? Are Canva/Fiverr good enough for a starter brand? Any affordable packaging suppliers (boxes, labels, pouches) with low minimums?
6. Certifications & safety – What certifications or testing do I absolutely need for baby products? Any tips for not getting into legal trouble?

If anyone has gone through setting up a baby care line or boutique, your insights would mean the world. Even if you’ve just sold at local markets or on Instagram, I’d love to hear your story.

Thanks a ton! 👶🍼

Hey everyone,
I’m finally taking the leap and starting my first Etsy shop.
Right now the plan is to sell:
3D printed products (home organization, kitchen/bathroom accessories, gifts, etc.)
T-shirts
Eventually expand into other handmade/custom products as the business grows.
I already have access to a couple of Bambu printers and a commercial shirt printer, so I’m trying to build this into a real long-term business instead of just throwing up a few listings and hoping for the best.
I’ve been watching YouTube videos and reading guides, but I’d rather hear from people who have actually done it.
A few questions I have:
What mistakes did you make when you first started?
What actually brings in sales that beginners usually overlook?
How many listings did you have before things really started taking off?
How important are mockups versus real product photos?
Should I focus on one niche first or keep adding different products as I make them?
Any advice on pricing, SEO, or shipping that you wish someone had told you sooner?
I’m prepared to put in the work—I know Etsy isn’t a get-rich-quick thing. My goal is to consistently build a catalog of products and improve over time.
I’d appreciate any advice, warnings, or lessons you’ve learned along the way. Thanks!

I have the concepts for designs I want on 4 different t shirts but don't have the skillset to bring them to life. These are complex graphics that need a designer's touch. Are you guys using Fiverr/Upwork to hrie freelancers? I guess that's really the only option. How has your experience been?

Most organizations have invested heavily in endpoint, network, and cloud security, but I rarely see the same level of discussion around printed documents. 

We're curious how others approach this. 

For example: 

• Secure release printing? 
• Badge authentication? 
• PINs? 
• Mobile authentication? 
• Audit logs? 
• Watermarks? 
• Something else?

 

Or is this one of those areas that’s only addressed after an incident happens? 

Interested to hear what works (and what doesn’t) in your environment. 

Considering starting a little side business making some shirts and exploring some options of the DTG printers. The one I’m looking at is a Epson F2100. Most posts and feedback that I’ve come across people are always saying they don’t print well on anything thats not 100% cotton.?? The printer I’m looking at is a used Epson F2100 and the person says that if you just use a different pre-treatment geared towards poly then you can print on polyester or poly/cotton blends and it turns out just fine. Anyone help me out here on personal experiences, bonus points if you’ve used the Epson F2100.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently working on launching my first clothing brand. I have a strong vision for the brand, and I've already spent quite a bit of time designing the identity, building my own custom website from scratch (hosted on Vercel), creating the branding, and planning everything out.

The problem I'm facing now is manufacturing.

Because my starting capital is quite low, my original plan was to use Printify. I like the fact that there's no inventory risk, but after researching more, I'm starting to worry that it might not match the image I'm trying to build.

For example, someone visits my website, sees a premium-looking brand, then clicks "Buy" and gets redirected to a Printify Pop-Up Store or another external checkout. I'm worried that this could reduce customer confidence or make the brand feel less premium.

Another concern is the product itself. With Printify, I'm limited to blank garments and small print areas. My long-term goal is to create clothing that has its own identity, not just graphics printed on blank T-shirts.

So I'd really appreciate advice from people who have already been through this.

Here are a few questions I have:

• If you were starting today with a very limited budget, would you still choose Printify?
• Are there any better alternatives to Printify that are more suitable for building a premium clothing brand?
• Are there manufacturers that offer very low MOQs (around 10–30 pieces) while still producing good quality garments?
• Where do you usually look for manufacturers? (Alibaba, Made-in-China, Turkish manufacturers, Portugal, agents, etc.)
• Have you worked with any manufacturers you'd genuinely recommend?
• Does anyone know manufacturers that are willing to work with new brands or students?
• If you have any trusted contacts or factories you've worked with, I'd really appreciate any recommendations.
• At what point did you move away from Print-on-Demand and start manufacturing your own products?

Just have a question for those of you who use Shopify with print on demand. I found out that instead of doing automatic fulfillment, you can set up to submit the customers order manually. I'm choosing this option due to getting the customers payment and then submitting the order to the fulfillment center.

However, what bothers me is what to do when you get so many orders that trying to design and work on all the aspects of the business is going to be a problem.

Is there an AI tool or something that you can use in Shopify to submit the orders for you as soon as payment gets posted to your account? Or is there another tool to help submitting the orders if you don't have time to work on anything else?

Any recommendations would greatly be appreciated and thank you in advance!!!!!

Hiya, Ive seen printify or printful and several others. Who do you guys know who to work with?

I don't want to buy in bulk incase it's not what I want.

I don't know if I want to receive the items myself then send them out, or let people buy them and the company handles the orders and sends out?

I'm extremely new to pod. If someone could be kind enough to explain I'd greatly appreciate it, thank you :)

(Say stickers, mugs, shirts, anything ect)

Wall art tends to follow a slightly different pattern compared to things like apparel. The buying decision is usually slower; people think more before purchasing something for their wall. Returns are less about size issues and more about expectations not matching the final product, which often comes down to how the product was presented online. And pricing behaves differently too, cheaper isn’t always better if it affects perceived quality. It ends up being less about volume and more about getting the details right.