Your crest has a white background: fix it yourself
Why a JPG with a white box ruins the sublimation and how to remove the background right in the customiser.
It's a very common problem with crests, and one of the easiest to solve. Someone sends the club crest as a JPG, the file has a white box around it and that box ends up printed on the shirt. You no longer need to find someone to cut it out: it's fixed right in the customiser.
Why a JPG with a white background looks bad
The JPG format doesn't support transparency. Everything around the design has to be some colour, and it's usually white.
On screen, on a white document, you don't notice: the crest's background blends into the page background. On a blue, green or red shirt, that background becomes a perfectly visible white rectangle around the crest. And when sublimating, the ink becomes part of the fibre, so it's not something you can scratch off afterwards: it's inside the fabric.
The same problem appears with “inherited” crests that carry a white halo or border from an old version. If the background isn't transparent, it gets printed.
In Design it's removed automatically; in the catalogue, with one tap
In “Design your shirt” you don't have to do anything: when you tap “Upload my crest”, the background is removed automatically. If you wanted it with the background, “With background” brings it back exactly as you uploaded it. In the catalogue customiser, next to the image you have “Background” and “+holes”: one tap and the box disappears.
You don't need Photoshop, or to know how to cut things out, or to email us the file so we can send it back clean. It's done in the same place where you're putting the shirt together, and you see the result instantly.
The two buttons, and when to use each one
There are two buttons, because not all crests behave the same way (in Design they're there to finish off any leftovers):
- “Background”: only the outer background. It removes the white around the crest and keeps any white inside the design. It's the one you want when the crest has white areas of its own: a white band, a ball, a letter filled with white. If you used the other button, those areas would become transparent and you'd see the shirt through them.
- “+holes”: the inner white too. It also removes the white trapped inside closed shapes: the hole of an O, the inside of an A, the space between the crest's outline and its border. It's the one you want when those holes should show the shirt colour and not a white patch.
The quick way to decide: look at the crest and ask yourself whether the white is part of the design or just filler. If it's design, “Background”. If it's filler that shouldn't be there, “+holes”. If in doubt, try both and keep the one that looks best on the real colour of your shirt.
You can always go back to the original
None of this is irreversible. If you're not happy with the result, or if removing the inside has eaten something it shouldn't have, you go back to the original crest. In the catalogue, with “Orig”; in Design, with “With background”. Try it without fear: you won't ruin the file you uploaded.
Ideally you won't need it
The tool gets you out of a fix, but a well-prepared file always gives a better result. If you can choose what to send:
- PNG with a transparent background, in good resolution. It's the format that avoids this whole problem at the root.
- Vector (SVG or AI). The best option if the club has it: it scales up to whatever size is needed without losing sharpness.
And what's best avoided:
- Small screenshots. A crest taken from the club's website or from a phone screenshot arrives with few pixels. When you remove the background, the jagged edges show, because the file doesn't have enough information.
- Images forwarded via WhatsApp, which arrive recompressed and with smudges around the outline.
Rule of thumb: if the crest already looks blurry on your screen, it'll come out blurry on the garment. There, the problem isn't the background.
And if all you have is a small or blurry image, write to us: we can help you redraw it. If the club doesn't have a crest, in step 2 you have “No crest? Create one here”: you choose the shape, initials or name, year, colours and icon, and “Use this crest”.
Check it on the real colour
When you upload the crest, you see it placed on whichever piece you're viewing. Switch to Front and look at it there: that's where you can really tell whether the background has come out clean, because you're seeing it on the real colour of the shirt and not on the white of your computer.
Zoom in with the “View in detail” magnifier, with the buttons or with your fingers. And if you're not sure whether the background has really gone, tap the crest thumbnail: in the enlarged view, the chequerboard is the transparent part. In “Design your shirt” you can change that background (chequerboard, white, black or green). And it warns you if the image doesn't really have transparency, which is exactly the fault you're looking for. If there's a light halo around the design, try the other button or go back to the original and upload a better version of the file.
Quick summary
- A JPG has a background, and that background gets printed.
- In “Design your shirt” the background is removed automatically; in the catalogue, with “Background” or “+holes”.
- “Background” if the crest has whites of its own; “+holes” if the holes shouldn't be there.
- If you're not happy, go back to the original and try again.
- Send a transparent PNG in good resolution or a vector; avoid small screenshots.
- Check the outline in the Front view, on the real colour.
If you're also mulling over the crest itself —shapes, colours, legibility at small sizes— bear it in mind before production: we go through it in how to design your club's crest. And to try it on the real model, go to the customiser.
