Logo Placement on Shirts: Where to Put a Logo (With Measurements)

Logo placement on shirts comes down to two measurements and a landmark. The first runs down from a fixed point on the garment, such as the collar seam on a tee or the hood opening on a hoodie, to the top edge of the print. The second runs across, from the garment’s centre-line to the centre of the print. “3″ below the collar, centred” is a complete placement; “about here” is not.

The landmark and the top edge are not arbitrary. On a screen-printing press the shirt is pulled over a flat platen and lined up by its collar, so every shirt in a run, from a small to a 3XL, takes the print at the same distance below the collar. Measuring to the top edge keeps a tall design and a short one starting at the same height.

Left and right are the wearer’s. A left-chest logo sits over the wearer’s left side, which is on your right when you face the shirt or lay it face up; on the back, the two frames agree again. It is an easy mistake to make on an order form, so our studio and our production sheets name every side in the wearer’s frame.

Check the landmark on any spec sheet you are handed. Some measure from the high point of the shoulder (HPS), where the shoulder seam meets the collar, and their numbers run larger for the same spot because the front of the neckline sits below that point. In our free design studio, every print is labelled in our terms, such as “3″ below collar · centred”, and the label updates as you move the print.

This is the logo placement guide we work from for logo placement on a t-shirt, long sleeve, crewneck, hoodie, polo or cap: every spot our studio offers, plus the back-neck print we quote separately, with the size we print it at on adult garments and the landmark it is measured from. They are our shop standards rather than universal law (another shop may print a left chest at 3″ or 4″), but they are the sizes our print files are made to, so the table doubles as a shirt placement guide for checking any mockup.

Read the size column as a width. The height follows your artwork’s proportions until it reaches the garment’s limit: a full front can run to 13.6″ tall on a tee, 14.8″ on a long sleeve, 11.4″ on a crewneck and 9″ on a hoodie, and a full back to 16″, 16.5″, 12.9″ and 15.6″. A tall crest reaches that limit before it reaches 11″ wide, so it prints narrower, and a square logo that prints 11″ × 11″ on a tee front comes out 9″ × 9″ on a hoodie. Youth shirts take an 8″ front and back with the heights scaled to match, while the chest logo stays 3.5″. To size the design itself, see our t-shirt design size guide.

The left chest is the default for anything worn to work, and it is what most people mean when they ask where to put a logo on a shirt. The correct left chest logo placement, by our standard, is a 3.5″-wide logo in a 3.5″ spot whose top sits 3″ below the collar seam on a tee, long sleeve or crewneck. A square logo fills that spot, and a wide wordmark sits across its middle. Across the chest, the common industry placement centres the logo roughly 4″ to the wearer’s left of the centre-line; the left-chest box in our studio sits in the top outer corner of the full-front area, which lands close to that mark.

Why 3.5″? It is big enough for a logo with a short word in it to read across a counter, and small enough to stay a mark rather than a graphic. Past 4.5″ tall it stops being a chest logo and reads as a small front print. Shape matters as much as width: a square badge at 3.5″ is 3.5″ tall, a 5:1 wordmark at the same width is 0.7″ tall, and a tagline that reads on an 11″ front turns into a smudge at 3.5″. Our chest logo size guide works through the awkward shapes.

Pocket logo placement is the same spot under another name. Dress shirts and pocket tees carry their pocket over the left chest, so a “pocket logo” goes where the pocket is, or would be. Pocket tees are a quote item with us; on a shirt with a real pocket, the logo goes on the pocket or just above it, and the pocket’s seams set the size.

The right chest is the mirror image: same size, same height, over the wearer’s right. It is the usual home for a person’s name, a department or a second logo, and the studio will take a left-chest logo and a right-chest name on the same front.

The full front is the big centred print: event tees, merch, fundraisers, a team crest. Our standard is 11″ wide on adult sizes and 8″ on youth, centred, with the top edge 3″ below the collar seam on tees, long sleeves and crewnecks. Some shops call it “centre chest”; in our studio it is the “Full front” option, and our t-shirt printing page covers the methods that put it on.

The usual mistake is dropping it. A full front that starts well below the collar becomes a belly print: it sits over the stomach and creases every time the wearer sits down. Started 3″ below the collar, the same design looks deliberate on a small and on a 3XL.

One print size runs across the whole adult range, and it shows. On our tee, a small measures 18″ across the chest laid flat and a 3XL measures 28″, so the same 11″ print covers more than half of a small and under 40 per cent of a 3XL. Because it starts 3″ below the collar on both, it also sits a little higher on the longer 3XL body. That is normal; it only becomes a problem at the extremes, which is why youth sizes get the 8″ version.

A small logo centred on the chest, the sportswear look, is a different placement: a chest-size print on the centre-line, high on the chest, rather than a shrunken full front. Try both on a real tee in the studio before you decide.

The back is the biggest flat panel on a shirt, with no collar, placket or pocket in the way. Our full back is 11″ wide on adult sizes and 8″ on youth, centred, with the top edge 3″ below the back collar seam. It can run to 16″ tall on a tee, 16.5″ on a long sleeve, 15.6″ on a hoodie, 12.9″ on a crewneck and 16.4″ on a polo.

This is where a crew shirt earns its keep: a company name and a phone number across the back read from the far side of a parking lot, which no chest logo can do. It is also where sponsor shirts put the sponsor block, and the arithmetic is worth doing early: four logos side by side across an 11″ back get 2.75″ each with no gaps at all.

The upper back is the same spot at a smaller size: a name, “STAFF”, a web address, one line across the shoulders, starting at the same 3″ below the collar. It is where the studio’s team names and numbers chart puts each name, with the number below it. You paste the roster, each personalised shirt costs a little more, and you approve the full chart before you pay.

A back-neck or yoke print, a small mark just below the back collar such as a brand name or a web address, is a quote item rather than a studio option; ask for it through the free quote form.

Our sleeve standard is 3″ wide, centred on the sleeve, with the top edge about 1″ below the shoulder seam, where the sleeve is sewn to the body. In the studio, left and right sleeve prints are offered on the tee, long sleeve, hoodie and polo. The crewneck has no sleeve option there, so ask for a quote if you want one.

A sleeve logo works as a second mark. It is seen from the side, across a counter, along a line of volunteers or in a team photo, so it suits something the chest doesn’t need to say: a flag, a sponsor, a web address, an anniversary year, a second brand. As the only logo on a shirt, it is easy to miss.

Keep sleeve art simple and horizontal. The sleeve curves around the arm, and anything much wider than 3″ wraps out of sight from the side. On a polo, keep it clear of the knit cuff, and for a long print running down the arm of a long sleeve, ask for a quote.

A polo is a left-chest garment. The placket, the buttoned strip below the collar, runs down the middle of the front, so a centred print runs into the buttons. And because the placket splits the front of the neckline, there is no collar seam at the centre front to measure from. Our polo standard measures from the shoulder seam instead: the top of the left-chest spot sits 3″ below it, the logo is 3.5″ wide, and there is clear fabric between the logo and the placket stitching.

The rest of a polo follows the tee. The right chest takes a name or a second logo, the back takes a company name across the upper back for crews, 3″ below the collar, and the sleeve takes a flag or a second mark above the knit cuff. Our polo is the Gildan 8800, a 52/48 cotton/poly jersey with a three-button placket and welt-knit collar and cuffs; place your logo on it in the studio or read more about polo shirt printing.

Then decide how the logo goes on. Embroidery is the traditional polo finish: it reads as a uniform and stands up well to frequent washing, but very fine lettering fills in with thread, so a tagline usually comes off the stitched version. A printed logo handles the gradients, photos and many-colour logos that thread can’t. Our comparison of embroidery vs a printed logo on polos weighs the two, and the embroidery page covers stitching.

Hoodies. The neckline of a hoodie is the hood opening, so the front is measured 3.5″ below the hood opening, for the left chest and the full front alike. The pouch pocket is the floor: the full front is 11″ wide but only 9″ tall before it reaches the pocket seam, which is why a square logo comes out 9″ × 9″ and tall designs belong on the back, where there is room for 15.6″. Printing across the pocket opening is the mistake to avoid, because the ink bridges a gap that opens and closes. Our hoodie print placement guide goes further, or try it on the studio hoodie.

Crewnecks. The crewneck is the same fleece without the hood or the pocket, so it is measured like a tee, 3″ below the collar front and back, and its full front can run to 11.4″ tall.

Caps. Our studio cap is a five-panel retro trucker with a seamless, structured front panel, so there is no centre seam to split the logo, as there is on most six-panel caps. The front-centre logo is about 4″ wide and a little over 2″ tall, and it is measured up from the brim: the print area starts 0.5″ above it. The cap’s other placement is a small mark on the side panel.

“Decal” is what many people call a heat transfer: a DTF print, a vinyl cut-out or a printed transfer pressed onto the shirt. The placement rules don’t change with the method, because they are about the body, not the ink. A left-chest decal is 3.5″ wide in a spot starting about 3″ below the collar, and a full-front decal on an adult tee is 11″ wide with its top edge 3″ below the collar.

What changes is the press. A screen-printing press lines every shirt up by its collar, while a heat press usually has no collar stop, so each shirt has to be measured. If you are pressing one yourself:

1. Fold the shirt in half lengthwise, sleeve to sleeve, and press it lightly to crease the centre-line.
2. Measure down from the collar seam at the front of the neck: about 3″ to the top edge of a full-front design on an adult tee.
3. For a left-chest decal, measure roughly 4″ across from the crease to the decal’s centre, on the wearer’s left, which is your right with the shirt face up.
4. Hold it with heat-resistant tape, and measure every shirt rather than copying the last one by eye.

We are not a wholesale transfer or gang-sheet supplier, so we don’t sell decals to press yourself. We decorate finished garments in-house in Ottawa, and our DTF printing goes on at these same placements.

Most good shirts use one or two of the spots above, picked for where the shirt will be seen from.

• Left chest + full back. The classic staff shirt: a small logo for close up, and the company name with a phone number or web address across the back for distance. It is the layout behind most custom staff shirts and custom uniforms.
• Full front only. Event tees, merch and fundraisers: one big print in one location, the simplest run there is.
• Full front + full back. The event on the front, the sponsors or the list of dates on the back.
• Front crest + name and number on the back. Team shirts, with every name filled in from the studio’s roster chart.
• Left chest + sleeve. The corporate polo or tee: the logo on the chest, a flag, a web address or a second brand on the sleeve.
• Left chest + right chest. A logo on one side and a name or department on the other, for uniforms where customers need to know who they are talking to.

Every spot you add is another print. In the studio each placement adds its own price and the total updates as you add it, so you can see what a second location costs before you order; on a screen-printed run, every print location is its own setup. Large orders get volume pricing: in the studio the per-piece price drops at 12, 24, 50 and 100 pieces, and orders in the hundreds are usually screen printed and quoted directly, through the free quote form, by email or by phone.

Most placement problems come from three habits: measuring from the viewer’s side instead of the wearer’s, dropping a front print toward the stomach, and stretching a small file over a big spot. The first two show up on the mockup. The third is about resolution: we make print files at 300 dpi, which is 3,300 pixels wide for an 11″ front and 1,050 for a 3.5″ chest logo, and the studio warns you when your file is too small for the size you have dragged it to.

Every order gets a free digital mockup on the actual product before any payment. Nothing prints until the customer approves it. Every order is reviewed by a human designer before it goes to press. A person checks artwork resolution, colour, sizing and placement, and either fixes the file or tells the customer what is wrong — it is not an automated preflight.

The quickest way to settle a placement is to look at it. Upload your logo in the design studio, put it on the left chest, the full front, the back or a sleeve of a real garment, and read the inches off the label. For a run in the hundreds, send the artwork and the placements you want through the free quote form, or call 613-666-9292.