A DTF gang sheet is a single transfer film loaded with multiple designs, printed together in one run and trimmed apart before pressing. If you order DTF transfers and want the lowest possible cost per print, gang sheets are how you get there. We've printed well over 3,000 gang sheets in our East London workshop, and in that time we've seen every layout mistake, every file format issue, and every "I didn't realise I needed transparent backgrounds" email you can imagine. This guide covers all five UK sheet sizes we sell (A6 through to 1 metre gang sheets), how to calculate what fits on each one, layout mistakes that waste money, and real cost-per-print breakdowns using our actual workshop pricing. Not confident building your own layout? We can arrange your designs onto a gang sheet for you — just send us the files.
Key Takeaways
- A 1 metre gang sheet (57 x 100 cm) gives you 4.6 times more printable area than an A3 sheet at less than a third of the cost per cm²
- The cost per individual design drops from £3.60+ on A-size sheets to under £1 per print on a well-packed 1m sheet
- Spacing between designs matters: leave 3–5 mm gaps for clean trimming, but don't leave centimetres of empty space
- A-size sheets (A6 through A3) still make sense for single large prints, quick one-off jobs, or testing before a big order
- The best value comes from mixing design sizes on one sheet — filling gaps with small logos, neck labels, or sleeve hits
- Don't want to build the layout yourself? Send us your files and we'll arrange them onto a gang sheet for you
Contents
- What Is a DTF Gang Sheet?
- Every DTF Transfer Size Compared: A6 to 1 Metre
- How Many Designs Fit on Each Sheet Size?
- Cost Per Print: The Real Numbers
- How to Layout a DTF Gang Sheet Properly
- When A-Size Sheets Are Actually the Better Choice
- Common Gang Sheet Mistakes (and How We Fix Them)
- Workshop Notes: What We've Learned From Printing Gang Sheets Daily
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Is a DTF Gang Sheet?
A DTF gang sheet is a single piece of transfer film with multiple designs printed on it at once, trimmed apart with scissors, and pressed onto garments individually. It is the most cost-effective way to order DTF transfers when you need more than a few prints.
The word "gang" in printing has been used for decades — it simply means grouping multiple jobs together on one sheet to save material and press time. In DTF printing, the practical difference between a gang sheet and buying individual A-size prints is cost. When you order ten separate A4 sheets at £6.60 each, you're paying £66 for ten prints. If those ten designs fit on a single 1 metre gang sheet at £15, you've just saved £51 on the same number of transfers.
We process gang sheets the same way we process everything else in our East London workshop: printed on our DTF printers, powdered, cured, quality checked, and shipped. The only extra step on your end is trimming the individual designs apart before you press them. We use scissors for all our trimming, not rotary cutters. You can cut much closer to the design edge with a good pair of scissors, and there's no real time saving with a rotary cutter once you factor in lining up the blade. A sharp pair of fabric scissors and a steady hand is all you need.
Every DTF Transfer Size Compared: A6 to 1 Metre
Brandum sells five DTF transfer sizes: A6 (10.5 x 14.8 cm), A5 (14.8 x 21 cm), A4 (21 x 29.7 cm), A3 (29.7 x 42 cm), and the 1 metre gang sheet (57 x 100 cm). The 1 metre sheet offers 4.6 times the printable area of an A3 at less than a third of the cost per cm², making it the best value for multi-design orders.
All prices below are the 1-off rate and the final price you pay. Volume discounts apply on every size (more on that in the cost section).
| Sheet Size | Dimensions (cm) | Printable Area (cm²) | Brandum Price (1-off) | Price per cm² |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A6 | 10.5 x 14.8 | 155.4 cm² | £3.60 | £0.0232 |
| A5 | 14.8 x 21 | 310.8 cm² | £5.40 | £0.0174 |
| A4 | 21 x 29.7 | 623.7 cm² | £6.60 | £0.0106 |
| A3 | 29.7 x 42 | 1,247.4 cm² | £9.00 | £0.0072 |
| 1 Metre Gang Sheet | 57 x 100 | 5,700 cm² | £15.00 | £0.0026 |
The jump from A3 to the 1 metre sheet is where the real value kicks in. You get 4.6 times the area for just 1.7 times the price, making the cost per cm² less than a third of an A3. According to FESPA's guidance on print production efficiency, ganging multiple jobs onto shared media is one of the most reliable ways to reduce per-unit costs in digital printing, regardless of the specific technology.
One thing worth knowing about our 1m gang sheet: it's 57 cm wide, not 60 cm. That's the actual printable width, edge to edge, all usable. Some DTF printers lose a strip down one side to a purge line or nozzle check, but ours doesn't eat into your layout space, so when we say 57 x 100 cm, that's exactly what you get to work with. Some other suppliers quote 54 cm or 56 cm wide — the differences come down to print head width and margin settings on each machine. Always check the actual printable dimensions before building your layout.
The A6 and A5 sheets are worth knowing about even though they're not gang sheets. An A6 is the right size for a single left chest logo, and an A5 handles a centre chest or large pocket print. If you only need a handful of single-design prints, these smaller sizes keep costs down without wasting film. Want to test the quality before committing to a bulk order? Our free DTF sample pack is a good starting point.
How Many Designs Fit on Each Sheet Size?
A 1 metre DTF gang sheet (57 x 100 cm) fits approximately 60–70 left chest logos, 10–12 centre chest prints, 3–4 full back prints, or 120+ neck labels. The exact number depends on your design sizes, and design sizes depend on garment placement. The standard placement sizes below are what we work with daily, based on industry guidelines from Stahls' (one of the largest heat transfer equipment manufacturers):
| Garment Placement | Typical Design Size | Approx. Area |
|---|---|---|
| Left chest logo | 10 x 7 cm (4" x 2.75") | 70 cm² |
| Centre chest | 20 x 15 cm (8" x 6") | 300 cm² |
| Full front | 28 x 30 cm (11" x 12") | 840 cm² |
| Full back | 30 x 35 cm (12" x 14") | 1,050 cm² |
| Sleeve hit | 7.5 x 7.5 cm (3" x 3") | 56 cm² |
| Neck label / tag | 7.5 x 5 cm (3" x 2") | 37.5 cm² |
Using those sizes and allowing 4 mm spacing between each design for trimming, this is roughly how many of each placement type you can fit:
| Design Type | Fits on A4 | Fits on A3 | Fits on 1m Gang Sheet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Left chest logos (10 x 7 cm) | 4–5 | 10–12 | 60–70 |
| Centre chest prints (20 x 15 cm) | 1 | 2–3 | 10–12 |
| Full front prints (28 x 30 cm) | 0 (too large) | 1 | 4–5 |
| Full back prints (30 x 35 cm) | 0 | 1 (tight) | 3–4 |
| Sleeve hits (7.5 x 7.5 cm) | 8–10 | 18–22 | 80+ |
| Neck labels (7.5 x 5 cm) | 12–14 | 28–32 | 120+ |
These are practical numbers, not theoretical maximums. In reality, you'll rarely fill a sheet with identical designs. The real power of gang sheets is mixing different sizes together.
Cost Per Print: The Real Numbers
A well-packed 1 metre gang sheet brings the cost per individual design below £1, compared to £3.60+ per design on individual A-size sheets. The saving ranges from 50% to over 80% depending on design sizes and how efficiently you pack the sheet. Three real scenarios using our current Brandum pricing:
Scenario 1: You need 20 left chest logos (10 x 7 cm each)
| Option | Sheets Needed | Total Cost | Cost Per Logo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual A4 sheets (4–5 logos each) | 4–5 sheets | £26.40–£33.00 | £1.32–£1.65 |
| Individual A3 sheets (10–12 logos each) | 2 sheets | £18.00 | £0.90 |
| 1m gang sheet (60+ logos capacity) | 1 sheet (with room to spare) | £15.00 | £0.75 or less |
Scenario 2: Mixed order — 2 full backs, 6 centre chests, 10 left chest logos, 20 neck labels
On individual A-size sheets, you'd need roughly 2 A3 sheets for the backs, 2–3 A3 sheets for the centre chests, 2 A4 sheets for the logos, and 2 A4 sheets for the neck labels. That's around 8 sheets totalling approximately £57–£68.
On a single 1m gang sheet, this entire order fits comfortably with space left over. Total cost: £15. That's a saving of over £40 for the same transfers.
Scenario 3: 50 identical left chest logos — when bulk A-size pricing competes
This is the one case where the maths isn't as clear-cut. At quantity 50, our A6 sheets drop to £1.90 each. Since a left chest logo (10 x 7 cm) fits on a single A6, that's £95 for 50 logos on individual sheets. On gang sheets, you'd need 1 sheet to hold about 60 logos at £15 — still much cheaper. But if the designs are larger (say A4-sized centre chest prints at 50+ quantity), the A4 bulk price drops to £3.42 each versus needing 5 gang sheets at £15. At that point, the saving narrows.
| Quantity Needed | A-Size Bulk Price | Gang Sheet Equivalent | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 small logos | A6 × 10 = £30.50 | 1 gang sheet = £15.00 | Gang sheet |
| 50 small logos | A6 × 50 = £95.00 | 1 gang sheet = £15.00 | Gang sheet (by far) |
| 10 full-front prints | A3 × 10 = £80.50 | 3 gang sheets = £45.00 | Gang sheet |
| 50 full-front prints | A3 × 50 = £267.50 | 13 gang sheets = £175.50 | Gang sheet |
In practice, gang sheets win almost every scenario. The only time A-size sheets are actually cheaper per print is when you're ordering a single design at very high volumes (200+) where A-size bulk pricing drops below £2–3, and the designs are too large to fit many on a gang sheet.
The tipping point for most orders is around 4–5 separate designs. Below that, A-size sheets are simpler to order and not much more expensive. Above that, gang sheets start saving you real money.
We had a streetwear brand ordering from us last year who was buying 8 separate A3 sheets every fortnight — different colourway of the same logo for their drops. When we showed them the same artwork ganged up on a single 1m sheet, their fortnightly transfer cost went from around £72 down to £15. Same prints, same quality, just arranged on one sheet instead of eight. They've ordered gang sheets ever since, and they usually fill the spare space with neck labels and sleeve tags they weren't even bothering with before because of the extra cost.
How to Layout a DTF Gang Sheet Properly
The key to an efficient gang sheet layout is: place largest designs first, work down to smallest, leave 3–5 mm gaps between each design, and export as a 300 DPI PNG with a transparent background. This is the full process we recommend based on reviewing gang sheet layouts every day in our workshop.
Start by setting up your canvas at the right size. Open Photoshop, Illustrator, or Canva and create a canvas at the exact sheet dimensions. For our 1m gang sheet, that's 57 cm wide by 100 cm tall at 300 DPI, which works out to 6,732 x 11,811 pixels. For A3, it's 29.7 x 42 cm (3,508 x 4,961 px). Getting the canvas wrong at the start means everything is off.
Your largest designs go in first. Start with full backs or full fronts, then work down to centre chests, then left chests, then fill gaps with sleeves and neck labels. This is the same bin-packing approach that commercial print shops use, and it consistently gives the best coverage. For example, if you're doing a school leavers order with 30 different names on the back, you'd place the name prints first across the sheet, then squeeze class logos into the remaining strips.
Rotation helps more than people expect. A left chest logo that's 10 cm wide and 7 cm tall might fit better rotated 90 degrees in a tight gap. Rotation doesn't affect print quality or pressing. Just remember to rotate it back when you position it on the garment.
Between each design, leave 3–5 mm for trimming. This gives you enough room to cut cleanly without accidentally trimming into a neighbouring print. Less than 3 mm and you'll struggle with scissors. More than 8–10 mm and you're wasting film. We find 4 mm is the sweet spot in our workshop. When you trim, aim to cut about 1–2 mm away from the design edge. Getting within a millimetre of the ink is ideal, but leaving a thin border of clear film around the design won't affect the final look on the garment.
Some customers leave 1–2 cm margins on all sides out of habit from normal printing. On a gang sheet, that border adds up to wasted space. You can print right to the edge of the usable area. If your design is placed at the edge, just trim along the outside.
Your files need to be PNG at 300 DPI with transparent backgrounds. This matters because it means only your actual design gets printed, not a white or coloured box around it. If you're working in Canva, make sure you tick the transparent background option when exporting (it's in the download settings, and you'll need Canva Pro for transparent PNG export). Our artwork guide covers file setup in more detail. One thing you don't need to worry about: mirroring. If you're sending files to us, send them the right way round. We handle mirroring on our end before printing. If you've already mirrored them, let us know so we don't flip them again.
Watch the minimum detail size when you're shrinking logos to fill gaps. Fine lines need to be at least 0.3–0.4 mm thick, and small text needs a stroke thickness of at least 2.5–3 mm, otherwise the detail won't transfer cleanly. We've had customers scale a detailed logo down to 3 cm wide to squeeze it into a corner, only to find the thin lines disappeared in the press. If the original design has fine detail, there's a floor to how small you can print it.
One more thing on shapes: circular and irregular designs leave more dead space than rectangles. Rectangles tile efficiently on a rectangular sheet, but circles and odd shapes leave triangular gaps that are harder to fill. If you've got a round logo, look for small square or rectangular designs (neck labels, size tags) that can slot into those corner spaces.
When A-Size Sheets Are Actually the Better Choice
A-size DTF sheets (A6 through A3) are the better choice when you need only one or two prints, when you're testing a new design before committing to a full order, or when you don't have layout software and prefer not to have us build the layout. In most other scenarios, gang sheets save money. A few specific cases where we'd point customers toward A3 or A4 sheets instead:
If you only need one or two prints, ordering a 1m sheet for one design is like renting a van to carry a sandwich. An A3 sheet gives you the right amount of film for the job. Similarly, if every print is a full-back design at 30 x 35 cm, you can only fit 3–4 on a 1m sheet anyway. Individual A3 sheets might be simpler to order, and the per-print saving on a gang sheet is smaller when designs are large.
Testing a new design is another good reason to start small. Before committing to a full gang sheet run, it makes sense to order a single A4 or A3 print to check colours, sizing, and placement on the actual garment. We always recommend this, especially on fabrics you haven't pressed before. We had a workwear customer last month who wanted 40 hi-vis vest logos on a gang sheet. We suggested they test one A6 print first, and it was a good thing we did, because the reflective tape on the vests interfered with the adhesive bond and we needed to adjust the press settings. That £3.60 test print saved them from ruining a £15 gang sheet.
Then there's the software question. Building a gang sheet layout requires arranging designs in Photoshop, Illustrator, or Canva. If that sounds like more hassle than it's worth, A-size sheets are simpler: you just upload one design per sheet and we print it at that size. But the thing is, the majority of our gang sheet customers don't build their own layouts. They email us the separate design files, tell us what sizes they need each one at, and we arrange everything onto the sheet. We send a proof back, you approve it, we print. No extra charge, and you still get the gang sheet saving. We do this all day — it takes us a few minutes. So if building layouts in Photoshop isn't your thing, that doesn't mean gang sheets are off the table. It just means we do that bit for you.
If you haven't ordered from us before at all, try our free DTF sample pack before committing to a full gang sheet. It ships with stock designs so you can test the feel, durability, and colour on your own garments and press.
Common Gang Sheet Mistakes (and How We Fix Them)
The three most common DTF gang sheet mistakes are: designs placed too close together, low resolution files stretched to fill space, and white backgrounds instead of transparent PNGs. After building and printing over 3,000 gang sheet orders, these are the problems we deal with most often, in order of how frequently they land in our inbox.
The number one issue is designs placed too close together. When there's less than 2 mm between prints, it's nearly impossible to trim without cutting into one of them. We use scissors for all our trimming — you can follow curves, get within a millimetre of the design edge, and adjust as you go. Even with sharp scissors and a steady hand, 2 mm between designs doesn't leave enough room. We'll flag this before printing and ask you to adjust. The sweet spot is 3–5 mm: close enough to save space, far enough apart to trim cleanly.
Second most common is low resolution files scaled up to fill space. A logo that was designed at 500 x 500 pixels might look fine at 5 cm, but if you stretch it to 20 cm to fill a gap, it'll print blurry. We print at 300 DPI, so your file needs to be 300 DPI at the actual print size. A quick check: if you zoom to 100% in Photoshop and it looks pixelated on screen, it'll look pixelated in print. If your file isn't high enough resolution, we'll let you know before we print — our artwork guide explains how to check this.
Third is white backgrounds instead of transparency. This one catches a lot of first-time customers, and we see it at least a few times a week. If your PNG has a white background, that white box prints as part of the transfer — it's actual white ink on the film. On a white garment you might not notice, but press that same transfer onto a black hoodie and you'll see a white rectangle around your design. We catch this in our pre-print check every time, but it means we need to email you, wait for a corrected file, and it pushes your order back. Always export with a transparent background. In Photoshop, delete the background layer before saving. In Canva, tick the transparent background box in the download settings (you need Canva Pro for this). If you're not sure whether your file has transparency, send it over and we'll check — takes us two seconds to open it in Photoshop and tell you.
We also see gang sheets where 30–40% of the area is empty. Not as common as the three above, but it does happen. If you've got spare space after placing your main designs, think about what else could go there: spare logos at different sizes, neck labels, test prints for a new colourway, size tags. Filling that space costs you nothing extra and gives you transfers you'll use later.
And finally, not accounting for garment placement sizes. Someone will pack 50 identical 10 cm logos onto a sheet, then realise half of them need to be 15 cm for adult XL shirts. Check your garment placement sizes before building the layout. A left chest logo on a small women's tee and a men's 3XL hoodie shouldn't be the same size.
Workshop Notes: What We've Learned From Printing Gang Sheets Daily
Based on printing over 3,000 gang sheets in our East London workshop, the practical details below are the ones that matter most. Most of this we've learned by getting it wrong first.
The majority of our customers send individual files, not pre-built layouts. If I had to put a number on it, probably seven or eight out of every ten gang sheet orders come in as a folder of separate design files with a message along the lines of "can you fit these onto a 1m sheet." That's completely fine — we actually prefer it. When we build the layout we know the spacing is right, the bleed is right, nothing's overlapping, and we're not going to hit problems at the trimming stage. If you've already got a well-packed layout and you're confident with Photoshop, send it over. But if layout software isn't your thing, just send the files with a note on what size each design needs to be and we'll handle the rest. No extra charge — we'd rather spend five minutes arranging it properly than have a back-and-forth fixing a layout that's not quite right.
On the subject of trimming: scissors beat a rotary cutter every time. I know rotary cutters look the part, but they're worse for DTF transfers. With scissors you can follow the contour of an irregular design and trim within a millimetre of the edge — you can't do that with a rotary blade. A rotary cutter forces you into straight lines, and by the time you've lined it up against a ruler you haven't actually saved any time compared to just cutting freehand. We've trimmed thousands of transfers in this workshop and we reach for scissors every single time. The only thing that matters is that they're sharp — blunt scissors will snag the film and pull the ink. We keep two or three pairs on the bench and swap them out when they start dragging.
Colour can shift slightly across a very wide sheet. On a 57 cm wide print, the edges can sometimes show fractionally different density compared to the centre. We calibrate our printers with a spectrophotometer to minimise this (we work in sRGB, as recommended by Epson's DTF printing guidelines), but if exact Pantone matching is critical on a brand colour, mention it when you order and we'll position that design towards the centre of the sheet.
One of the advantages of ordering a full gang sheet is that you can trim and press designs as you need them. Our transfers keep well for 6–12 months with no issues, and some customers have kept sheets longer than that without problems. Keep them flat, away from direct sunlight, and in a cool dry space. If a sheet arrives rolled for shipping, flatten it before trimming. More detail in our DTF storage guide.
When it comes to actually pressing, pre-press the garment for 5 seconds before positioning your transfer. This removes moisture and wrinkles. On a gang sheet where you might be pressing 20+ transfers in a session, this step is easy to skip after the first few. Don't. Moisture trapped under the film is the number one cause of poor adhesion, and it's completely avoidable. We've seen customers blame the transfer when actually the garment just hadn't been pre-pressed.
We press at 160°C for 15 seconds on cotton, medium pressure. For polyester blends, we drop to 150–155°C because polyester scorches above 160°C and the sublimation dyes can migrate into the adhesive layer. If you're pressing onto hi-vis workwear or polyester sportswear, test on a spare garment first. Once pressed, wait for the film to cool completely (our transfers are cold peel), then peel the carrier film off. After peeling, we recommend a finishing press: lay a sheet of parchment paper or a Teflon sheet over the design and press again for 5–8 seconds. This second press pushes the ink further into the fabric fibres, gives the print a smoother hand feel, and improves wash durability. A lot of people skip this step, but it makes a noticeable difference in how the transfer looks and feels.
On the topic of wash care: once you've pressed a transfer, the garment should be turned inside out for washing, done on a cold or 30°C cycle with mild detergent, and ideally air dried. Tumble drying on low heat is fine, but high heat will shorten the life of any heat transfer. With proper washing, our DTF prints hold up for 50+ washes.
