Knowing how to make a textile tech pack is what separates a nice-looking print from something a factory can reliably reproduce. A tech pack is the production brief — the document that tells a mill or manufacturer exactly what to make, in what colors, at what scale, on what cloth. For a print specifically, it is the difference between the factory guessing at your intent and matching it exactly.
People often blur "tech pack" and "spec sheet," so it is worth pinning down: a tech pack is the full document covering materials, construction, color, print, and measurements; a spec sheet is a condensed single page that pulls the key specs — usually the points of measure — out of it. This guide focuses on the print-specific pages every textile tech pack needs: the palette with Pantone codes, the dimensions and print size, the repeat type, and the fabric and ink notes.
Tech Pack vs Spec Sheet
Before building anything, know which document you are producing. They overlap but serve different moments.
- Tech pack — the comprehensive brief: fabric, construction, colorways, print details, full measurements, trims, packaging. The factory builds from this.
- Spec sheet — a condensed page of the most important specs, often the points of measure. Shared early as a quick reference or draft.
The spec sheet lives inside the tech pack as one of its pages. For a print program, the spec sheet is where a reviewer can see palette, size, and repeat at a glance without reading the whole brief. Build the tech pack; extract the spec sheet from it.
The Color List and Pantone Codes
Color is where tech packs most often fail, because a screen color is not a specification. "Navy" means one thing to you and another to a factory in a different country. Every color in the print needs a physical reference.
- List every color in the print, not just the dominant ones.
- Assign the nearest Pantone TCX (or TPX) code to each — these are the textile standard.
- Give each color a role (Ground, Motif, Accent) so substitutions are informed.
- Never rely on screen colors or verbal names alone.
The reason is simple: a Pantone chip is a physical target the dye house can match, and a hex value is not. Matching your screen color to the right chip is a skill in itself — our Pantone TCX color matching guide walks through it. If your print will run in multiple colorways, document each colorway's list separately, as covered in making fabric colorways from one pattern.
Dimensions and Print Size at 300 DPI
The factory needs to know how big the print is meant to be, not just how many pixels the file contains. Pixels without a size are ambiguous.
- State the artwork dimensions in centimeters or inches, at the intended print scale.
- Confirm the file resolves to 300 DPI at that size — the standard target for print.
- For a placement print, give the print size and its position, not just the artwork.
- Note the fabric width if the repeat has to fit within it.
This is where scale intent lives. A motif that looks right on screen can print tiny or enormous depending on the size the factory assumes. Verify that the file genuinely resolves to 300 DPI at the stated size — a figure of 300 DPI is meaningless unless it is measured at the real output dimensions, not at a thumbnail. State the size and the resolution together so the factory reads them as a pair.
Repeat Type and Size
For an all-over print, the repeat type is a core spec — the same artwork tiles completely differently depending on which repeat you specify, so it can never be left implied.
| Repeat type | How it tiles |
|---|---|
| Straight | Tiles stack in a simple grid, edge to edge |
| Half-drop | Each column is offset vertically by half a tile |
| Half-brick | Each row is offset horizontally, like brickwork |
State the type explicitly and give the repeat size in centimeters. If the print runs on rotary screens, the repeat must fit the machine's fixed circumference, so the size is not negotiable — a repeat that does not divide cleanly into the machine's circumference cannot run as drawn. Include a small tiled preview alongside the numbers so the factory can see the intended repeat, not just read its name, and catch any mismatch before it reaches the screen room.
Fabric and Ink Notes
The same print behaves differently on different cloth and with different inks, so the tech pack has to fix those variables too.
- Base fabric — the cloth the print runs on (for example a specific weight of cotton poplin), since fiber affects color and detail.
- Print method — digital, rotary screen, or flatbed, which drives color-count and detail limits.
- Ink or coverage notes — any hand-feel, opacity, or coverage requirements.
- Finish notes — washes or treatments that shift final color.
Fiber matters more than designers expect: the same file prints differently on cotton, silk, and polyester because each fiber absorbs ink and reflects light differently. A color that reads deep and saturated on tightly woven cotton can look washed out on a looser or shinier cloth, and fine detail that holds on a smooth surface can bleed on a textured one. Name the exact base fabric in the pack so the factory can compensate, and flag any finish — a wash, a coating — that will shift the final color after printing.
File Format and Delivery Specs
Finally, the tech pack should state exactly what file the factory will receive, so their workflow is not guessing.
- Name the delivered format — commonly a CMYK TIFF at 300 DPI for mills.
- State the color space and ICC profile the file is prepared in.
- Note the native file format for print and repeat editing, kept separately from the flattened deliverable.
- Confirm any placement measurements and safe margins for placement prints.
These delivery specs are the same ones you would verify in a preflight pass — our print preflight checklist covers checking them before the file ships. Stating them in the tech pack means the factory and your file agree from the start.
Assembling the Pack
Pull the pieces into a single, unambiguous document. Whether you build it in dedicated software or in Illustrator plus a spreadsheet, the factory cares about clarity, not the tool.
- Cover page: print name, season, intended fabric and method.
- Artwork page: the print at scale with dimensions and 300 DPI confirmation.
- Color page: full list with nearest Pantone TCX codes and roles.
- Colorway pages: one per colorway if the print runs in multiple.
- Repeat page: type, size in cm, and a tiled preview.
- Fabric and ink page: base cloth, method, coverage and finish notes.
- Delivery page: file format, color space, profile, placement specs.
Keep it concise and specific. A tech pack that states each spec once, clearly, beats a long one full of ambiguity every time.
Why a Tech Pack Prevents Errors
A tech pack is not paperwork for its own sake — it is the thing that stops a factory from filling in the blanks with guesses. Every ambiguity you leave is a decision someone else makes on your behalf, usually the wrong way, and usually after the fabric is printed.
- Color guesses — without Pantone codes, "navy" gets interpreted, and the interpretation differs by factory and country.
- Scale guesses — without stated dimensions, the factory picks a print size, and a bold motif can come back tiny.
- Repeat guesses — without a named repeat type, an all-over print can tile as a straight grid when you designed a half-drop.
- Format guesses — without a delivery spec, you may send an RGB PNG to a CMYK workflow and lose color fidelity.
The tech pack closes every one of those gaps in advance. It is cheaper to write a clear spec than to reprint a run, and the discipline of writing it often surfaces problems — a color you never assigned, a repeat you never named — while they are still fixable.
Keep the Pack Current
A tech pack is a living document, not a one-time deliverable. Prints change during development — a color gets adjusted, a repeat gets resized, a fabric gets swapped — and the pack has to move with them or it stops being trustworthy.
- Version it — date and number each revision so the factory always knows which is current.
- Update the color page whenever a Pantone reference changes, and re-check the affected colorways.
- Re-verify the repeat if the scale or fabric width changes; the repeat size may no longer fit the machine.
- Re-export the deliverable so the file the factory holds matches the specs on the page.
The moment the document and the file disagree, the document loses authority and the factory falls back to guessing again. Keeping them in sync is what makes the tech pack worth building in the first place.
What to Read Next
A tech pack is only as good as the specs inside it. To sharpen the two that matter most for a print, read our Pantone TCX color matching guide for the color page and the print preflight checklist for the delivery page. When you are ready to generate a print spec sheet with palette, dimensions, and repeat filled in, build it in the Texloom Studio spec-sheet workspace. For background on the print methods your spec sheet has to account for, Wikipedia's overview of textile printing gives useful context on process.
