Designing for Amazon Merch T-Shirts

[nullpointer]

I'm confused about color formats and profiles for the best Amazon Merch T-Shirt quality.

Amazon says, "create artwork in the RGB space." (I understand when a CMYK doc is exported as a transparent PNG in AD it's converted to RGB)  

I use AD and my document color choices are

color format: RGB/8  CMYK/8
color profile: sRGBIEC61966.2.1 or U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2  or  Photoshop Default CMYK

Ideas on which combination you would use for best Amazon Merch T-Shirt results?

[stokerg]

Hi nullpointer,

If Amazon recommend a RGB colour space then it would be best to start your document as RGB/8 and you shouldn't have any trouble.  From the sounds of it, you want to avoid anything that's CMYK.  I'd always recommend getting a proof/sample made up before you settle on a finale design to sell as this will highlight any potential  issues when it comes to things like colour space.

I'm sure if anyone else who has done this and can offer further advice they will post when they see this topic  

[nullpointer]

Your reply makes perfect sense! There's nothing better than a visual inspection of a finished print job to reveal potential issues.

Thank You!

[thomaso]

If you work purely in RGB, i.e. in a RGB document, with RGB images and RGB colours, then also color calculations will happen in RGB. Since RGB vs. CMYK behave some way like additive vs. subtractive some color calculations create differing results e.g. with certain layer blend modes and effects. A physical print will never happen in RGB. So, your idea to work in CMYK but export as RBG (as required) can prevent you from unexpected color shift (screen view vs. printed result).

Sample: RGB .afpub with RGB + CMYK colors (cyan, magenta, yellow) and blend mode 'subtract':

The same .afpub in document color space CMYK: