What happened to Teespring? Is it the same as Spring?

Yes — Spring and Teespring are the same platform. Teespring rebranded to Spring in 2021 to signal the expansion beyond t-shirts into a full creator merch platform (wall art, phone cases, mugs, home goods). The underlying platform, fulfillment network, and creator tools are unchanged. If you see older tutorials referencing Teespring, the file specs and upload process are the same.

What's the maximum file size for Spring uploads?

Spring's per-file upload limit is 10MB for apparel (t-shirts, hoodies, tote bags). Wall art posters can accept larger files. If your transparent PNG for apparel exceeds 10MB, compress it with lossless PNG optimization (pngquant or similar) or reduce to 8-bit color depth if your design uses a limited palette — fan art and logo-style designs often compress very well to 8-bit.

Can I sell wall art on Spring, or is it only for apparel?

Spring sells wall art posters (8x10 through 24x36") and canvas prints in addition to apparel. It's not as deep a wall art catalog as Redbubble or Printful, but it works well for creators whose audience wants to display a piece of their content on a wall. The pixel specs are identical to standard US POD sizing: 300 DPI, 2400x3000px (8x10) up to 7200x10800px (24x36).

Platform Guide

Print-Ready Images for Spring (Teespring)

Spring — formerly Teespring — is the go-to merch platform for creators, YouTubers, and social media personalities. This guide covers exact upload specs for every product type, plus the common file mistakes that get your designs rejected.

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Built for sellers on

Etsy Amazon Redbubble Printify Society6

Spring (formerly Teespring, rebranded in 2021) is built for creators — it's the platform YouTubers, Twitch streamers, and Instagram personalities use to sell merch directly to their audience without needing an Etsy shop or storefront. If you have an audience, Spring handles the fulfillment; you handle the designs.

Unlike Etsy or Redbubble's discovery-driven model, Spring is audience-first: buyers come from your channel or social profile, not from platform search. That means design quality matters more than keyword optimization — and file specs matter a lot, because a rejected upload kills your launch momentum. This guide covers every product type with exact pixel dimensions, DPI requirements, and format rules. See also Print-Ready Images for Redbubble for the discovery-driven alternative.

§File requirements

Product Type	Print Area (px)	DPI	Format	Notes
T-Shirt (front print)	4,500 x 5,400	300	PNG (transparent)	Most popular Spring product; transparent bg required so fabric color shows through
Hoodie (front print)	4,500 x 5,400	300	PNG (transparent)	Same print area as t-shirt; same transparency rules apply
Wall Art Poster 8x10"	2,400 x 3,000	300	JPG / PNG	Entry-level size; fine for bedroom / desk decor
Wall Art Poster 11x14"	3,300 x 4,200	300	JPG / PNG	Popular gallery size
Wall Art Poster 16x20"	4,800 x 6,000	300	JPG / PNG	Statement wall piece; needs a high-res source
Wall Art Poster 24x36"	7,200 x 10,800	300	JPG / PNG	Largest standard poster; AI upscaling almost always needed from digital art sources
Canvas Print	Same as poster + wrap area	300	JPG / PNG	Extends artwork or solid color 1–2" beyond trim for gallery-wrap edges
Phone Case	~1,200 x 2,000 (varies by model)	300	PNG (transparent)	Dimensions vary by device model; check per-model spec in Spring's product builder
Tote Bag	4,500 x 4,500	300	PNG (transparent)	Square print area; design centered and transparent so bag color shows around it
Mug 11oz	2,700 x 1,050	300	JPG / PNG	Full-wrap mug; leave handle-area margin (~1.25") free of critical detail
Sticker	Varies by shape	300	PNG (transparent)	Transparent PNG required for die-cut shape; Spring traces the alpha edge

Spring defaults to 300 DPI across all products. Apparel requires transparent PNG (no white background) so the garment color shows through the design. Wall art posters use standard US imperial sizing (8x10 through 24x36).

Spring for creators vs. Etsy sellers — two different models

Spring and Etsy both sell print-on-demand products, but they operate on fundamentally different models:

	Spring (formerly Teespring)	Etsy (Printful / Printify)
Traffic source	Your audience (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok)	Etsy search + discovery
Product focus	Apparel-first (t-shirts, hoodies, mugs)	Wall art, home goods, apparel
Store setup	Integrated merch shelf (YouTube Studio linkable)	Standalone shop, SEO optimization needed
Fulfillment	US + EU, Spring-managed	US + EU + global via partner network
Best for	Creators with 10k+ engaged followers	Designers building from cold start

If you have an audience, Spring can turn a single YouTube video about your merch launch into immediate sales — no keyword research needed. If you're starting from zero audience, Etsy's discovery model is more likely to generate organic traffic while you grow.

Many creators do both: Spring for the merch-shelf link in their YouTube description, Etsy for evergreen discoverability. Same design files, two sales channels.

Common Spring upload failures

Spring's upload validator catches these issues consistently:

White background on apparel. The most common reason a t-shirt or hoodie design looks wrong after printing. Spring needs a transparent PNG for apparel — the white bg you see in your design tool becomes a white rectangle on the garment. Export as PNG with transparency enabled, not as JPG.
Low DPI (72 or 96 from web exports). Saving from a browser, Canva's free export, or a web screenshot produces 72–96 DPI. Spring's quality check flags anything below 150 DPI and the print will look blurry on large products. Always export at 300 DPI — or use a tool like RatioReady's free DPI checker to verify before uploading.
File too large (over 10MB for apparel). Spring's apparel limit is 10MB per file. A large PNG with transparency can easily exceed this. Compress the PNG with tools like pngquant (lossless) or reduce color depth to 8-bit if your design uses a limited palette.
Wrong pixel dimensions for poster size. Uploading a 1000x1500px file for a 24x36" poster produces a blocky, pixelated print. Use the pixel dimensions in the table above, or let RatioReady's wall art converter upscale and output at the correct size.
CMYK color profile on uploads. Spring's pipeline expects sRGB. If your design software exported as CMYK (common in print-oriented Adobe workflows), convert to sRGB before upload — CMYK to RGB double-conversion causes washed-out, unexpected colors.
Missing transparency on stickers. Sticker die-cuts trace the alpha channel edge of the PNG. A white background means a square sticker, not a shaped one. Every sticker upload must be a transparent PNG with the artwork on a clear background.

Spring vs. Redbubble vs. Merch by Amazon

Three creator-friendly POD platforms, three different growth models:

	Spring	Redbubble	Merch by Amazon
Best traffic source	Your social audience	Redbubble organic search	Amazon search
Platform marketplace?	Limited (Spring Discover)	Yes — strong	Yes — very strong
Apparel quality	Good (Gildan / Bella+Canvas)	Good	Good (Hanes / Anvil)
Wall art / posters	Yes — US standard sizes	Yes — wide range	Limited
Profit margin control	Yes — set your own	Yes — set your own	Fixed tiers
Setup barrier	Low — open signup	Low — open signup	High — invite/waitlist

Spring wins when you have an audience to point at a merch link. Redbubble wins when you want passive income from design discovery. Merch by Amazon wins when your niche has strong Amazon search intent — but the waitlist makes it harder to start. Most active POD sellers run Spring + Redbubble in parallel: Spring for fans, Redbubble for strangers.

Wall art on Spring — getting the pixel dimensions right

Wall art posters are one of Spring's strongest non-apparel products, especially for creators whose content is visual (photography, illustration, gaming, fan art). The file requirements are straightforward but the pixel math catches people off guard.

Spring uses US standard wall art sizes: 8x10", 11x14", 16x20", and 24x36". At 300 DPI, the required pixel dimensions are:

8x10" → 2,400 x 3,000 px
11x14" → 3,300 x 4,200 px
16x20" → 4,800 x 6,000 px
24x36" → 7,200 x 10,800 px

Most digital art and AI-generated images are created at screen resolution (1024x1024px, 1024x1536px, etc.) — nowhere near the 7,200x10,800px needed for a 24x36" print. You need to upscale before uploading, or the print will look visibly pixelated.

Upscale + resize for Spring wall art in one step

Drop your source image into RatioReady's wall art converter. Select the US standard ratios (4:5 portrait for 8x10 and 16x20, 11:14 for 11x14, 2:3 for 24x36). The AI upscale chain runs first, then each ratio is center-cropped and exported at exactly the pixel dimensions Spring needs — with 300 DPI metadata embedded. Download the ZIP and upload each file to the corresponding Spring product.

Related: mockup generator for Spring listing preview images, free DPI checker to verify your files before uploading.

Dimension calculator

Common print sizes

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Frequently asked questions

Spring's apparel printing is DTG (direct-to-garment) — the printer sprays ink directly onto the fabric. Without transparency, any white or light area in your PNG gets printed as a white rectangle on the shirt. Transparency tells the printer 'show the fabric color here' — so a black t-shirt shows black fabric through the transparent areas, and a white shirt shows white fabric. Always export apparel designs as PNG with transparency enabled, never as JPG.

Spring requires 300 DPI for all products — apparel, wall art, mugs, phone cases, and tote bags. Files below 150 DPI get flagged as low-quality and may be rejected or print visibly blurry. The DPI must be embedded in the file's metadata — a large pixel file with 72 DPI metadata will still get flagged. Use RatioReady's free DPI checker to verify before uploading, and the wall art converter to generate print-ready files with correct DPI metadata.

The main difference is traffic model. Redbubble has a large internal marketplace where buyers search by keyword — you can get organic sales from strangers who find your design through search. Spring's marketplace (Spring Discover) is smaller; most Spring sales come from the creator's own audience clicking a merch link. For wall art specifically, Redbubble also offers a wider range of product types (framed prints, art prints, spiral notebooks, etc.) vs. Spring's more limited catalog. If you have an existing audience, Spring is faster to set up. If you're starting cold, Redbubble gives you better organic reach.

Yes — each size needs its own file at the correct pixel dimensions. You can't upload one 2400x3000px file and have Spring scale it up to 24x36" — the print will be blurry. For 24x36" you need a 7200x10800px file. The easiest workflow is to start from your highest-resolution source, upscale it with AI (RatioReady handles this), then batch-export all four poster sizes from one master. You get four separate files, upload each to the corresponding Spring product size.

Yes, with minor adjustments. Spring apparel needs transparent PNG; Redbubble apparel also accepts transparent PNG. Wall art sizing is compatible (both use US standard sizes at 300 DPI). The main difference is Redbubble's catalog is wider (framed prints, spiral notebooks, travel mugs vs. Spring's simpler catalog), so you may need to generate a few extra sizes for Redbubble products that Spring doesn't carry. RatioReady's batch export can generate all variants in one job.