Preparing AI Generated Graphics for DTF/UV DTF Printing

AI Graphic Generators have proven to be a valuable tool in the printing industry. And like any tool, when you need it, there’s nothing that does it better. Though AI graphics can not replace a human Graphic Designer, it can give your designer layout ideas and a rough draft to then base original art on.

Most of the time you'll be creating custom artwork or working with a logo but sometimes a customer just wants a dragon on a water bottle. Rather than spending hours designing one, you can quickly have an AI Graphic Generator,  like Image Presto, generate a plethora of dragons till you get exactly the one you want.

With any AI generated graphic, you’re not likely going to end up with a graphic you can use without some basic editing and a dose of Photoshop.

Here’s a quick rundown of one of the ways you can prepare your AI generated graphic for UV DTF printing.

Here’s our Image Presto AI generated dragon. It has a black background and white outline, both of which I want removed. If you’re placing the final print on a black surface, you may wish to keep the outline, but my dragon is going on a white bottle. Note: To get this kind of results, add the word "sticker" to your generation prompt.

Disclaimer: There’s always more than one way to approach a project like this, but here’s my method for this graphic. Feel free to experiment with different techniques—ultimately, the goal is to get your graphic ready for print. Once it’s finished, the customer won’t care how it was done.

The Goal:

To remove the black background and white outline replacing it with transparency to prepare the graphic for UV DTF printing.

Step One:
Use the Magic Wand Tool to select the black background. You will need to adjust the Tolerance of the tool because AI black is not solid black. Tolerance determines how flexible the select tool is when it selects colors. The higher the tolerance, the more variations of black will be selected. I set my tolerance to 35. Make sure your background is set to white and then hit the delete key.

Step Two:
Why not make the background a layer first so the black becomes transparent? We need to remove that outline and using white is how we’re going to make that happen.

In the Layers panel (if you don’t see it, click Window/Layers) double click on the Background layer. This will make it into its own layer. From now on anything you delete will become transparent which is our goal.

Step Three:
Using the Magic Wand Tool select the white. To include the “not quite white” from the image I set my Tolerance to 80. This selects the off-white and any fuzzy anti-aliasing around the image. Press the delete key.
If your mask doesn’t quite remove that outermost white, try Expanding your mask. Undo the delete. Go to Select/Modify/Expand and expand the mask by 1-3 pixels and press delete to get the look you’re going for.

Step Four:
You’ll notice in our graphic, there are a few artifacts left. It’s computer generated, it’s not going to be perfect. Use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to draw shapes around each one and press the delete key. Zoom in and move around the outside border of your graphic looking for any artifacts. Lasso and delete them.

If you’re having troubles finding all of your artifacts add a new layer below your dragon layer (press the Plus icon in the Layers panel, then select and drag the new layer below the Dragon layer) and using the Paint Bucket tool, fill it with white. When you’re done, fill the background layer with black to see if there are any white artifacts. Once you’re happy, delete the background layer (select the layer and click the trash can icon).

Step Five:
If your image is a little larger than you need, you can scale it down with your UV DTF software so skip to the next step.

If you need the art larger, Raster graphics upscaling is best done with the AI Image Upscaler in Image Presto. To do this, export your graphic as a transparent PNG (File/Export/Export As then select PNG and click the Export button). Load Image Preso and follow the directions, save the outcome, and open it in Photoshop. You will now use the new graphic to continue.

Step Six:
Let’s crop the image to remove the extra space around the graphic. Select Image/Trim make sure Transparent Pixels is selected and click OK.

Step Seven:
Let’s save this puppy (dragon). File/Export/Export as then select PNG and hit the Export button.

Your AI Generated Graphic is Ready for UV DTF Printing!

That's it! Your graphic is now ready to be printed. Depending on your application, Your print will have an adhesive back and a laminated surface. UV DTF prints are durable, versitile, and vibrant. They don't fade, peel or crack and can be placed on any survaces like plastic, wood, glass, metal, heat-sealed onto fabric, and more! 

My Image Presto AI generated UV DTF printed graphic is going on a water bottle.