By Graham K. Rogers

A couple of weeks ago, I tried out an iOS app with which I could design and order a t-shirt using one of my own photographs. I designed a couple and ordered one of these from the company: Snaptee. They were not only quick with confirming the order almost as soon as I made it, but also with an email enquiry I sent.

Within a few minutes of me ordering the t-shirt on 2 August, there were a couple of emails confirming that the job was in hand; and again on 10 August, a further email telling me that the finished t-shirt was on the way.

When I arrived at my office this morning (19 August), the tell-tale envelope was in my mailbox. The t-shirt inside was the US XL size and, unlike the local XL which can be a bit snug, this gave me plenty enough room.

The finished image (on the front of the shirt), was just as I had hoped it would be, although I would have preferred lettering beneath. This was how I had ordered it, and I covered this in my review: it would be nice in a later version of the app if there were options to change the lettering positions.

One thing I had been concerned about was the way the image was applied to the white shirt material. Silk screen printing is the method commonly used here and I do not like this. It feels sticky and heavy when I wear such a product; and in this climate makes me feel uncomfortable.

The email query I sent concerned this and I was told that the company uses digital to garment technology: a newer printing process that uses a computer to print directly onto the T-shirt, allowing the ink to adhere directly to the fabric.

It works for me. The image feels much thinner than a comparable silk screen print product. Wearing the t-shirt - albeit for a brief period - I experienced none of the clamminess I normally associate with silk screen printed output.

The image I chose was of an egret sitting on a pile of weeds in a river. The process I went through to prepare this for the app is available in my earlier review.

The postal charge was $5 above the $19.99 for the t-shirt (814.65 baht for the t-shirt and the mailing). The package was delivered via Hong Kong, arriving (as above) some 9 days after the item was despatched. Obviously, crossing the Pacific Ocean adds some time to the delivery.

I now have a unique t-shirt created from one of my own photographs, the sort of unusual item that could make an excellent gift.

The Snaptee app, which is free, works on the iPhone 3GS and the 3rd generation iPod touch as well as the iPad. On the iPad, however, it only displays in the non-optimised x1 and x2 screens.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.