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About this tool
Safe print area and exact placement offsets for tote bags, allowing for side seams, handle stitching and the gusset that folds under the base.
The safe print area on a tote is the flat panel minus three things: a clearance from each side seam, the handle stitching at the top, and roughly half the gusset depth at the bottom, because on a box-bottom bag that portion folds under to form the base. This guide works out the usable width and height for common tote blanks, fits your artwork inside without distorting it, and gives the offsets from the top and left edges so you can mark the bag with a ruler. Aimed at print-on-demand sellers, screen printers and anyone sending tote artwork to a decorator for the first time.
Open Tote Bag Artwork Placement Guide on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Add your input to the workspace.
Adjust the options until the result looks right.
Copy or download the output and put it to work.
Half the gusset depth is reserved at the base, the mistake that puts logos on the bottom of the bag.
Artwork starts below the webbing stitch line so the platen can lie flat.
Distances from the top and left edge, not vague guidance to centre it.
On a classic 15 x 16 inch shopper, keeping an inch clear of each side seam, 4 inches clear at the top for handles and 3.5 inches at the base for the gusset fold leaves about 13 x 8.5 inches. Most designs sit comfortably at 8 to 10 inches wide.
On a box-bottom bag, roughly the lowest half of the gusset depth on the flat front panel wraps under to form the base. With a 3 inch gusset that is about 1.5 inches, so anything printed there ends up on the bottom of the bag where nobody sees it.
Below the handle stitching, which usually ends around 3 inches from the top edge, plus about an inch of breathing room — so roughly 4 inches down. Printing across the webbing stitch is not possible on a flat platen and will distort.
Export at 300 DPI at the final print size, so an 8.5 inch wide print needs about 2,550 pixels of width. Canvas and heavy cotton hide a little softness, but below roughly 150 DPI the edges of type visibly break up.