You have the art. You have wanted it on a dakimakura for months. Then you check the printers and they all want a minimum order of five.

You do not want five. You want one.

That is the gap this page exists to fill. We print on demand, so a single custom dakimakura costs the same per piece as a batch. No minimum, no setup fee, no waiting for other people's orders to fill a run.

Upload your artwork, see a free preview of both sides at full size, and order only if the colors and crop look right. Printing starts at $25 and production takes about three days.

The rest of this page is the practical detail: what file to send, which fabric suits which art style, how the two sided printing works, and what we can and cannot legally print.

If you are an artist selling to your own audience, skip ahead to the sizing and file section. That is the part you actually need.

Dakimakura is the Japanese word for a hugging pillow. In practice it means a long pillow, standardized at 150 x 50 cm, with a printed cover. A custom dakimakura is simply one printed with artwork you supply rather than a licensed design.

The format grew out of comfort pillows for side sleepers, then the printed cover became the point rather than the pillow. Today it is the standard way artists turn a character illustration into something physical.

Cover or full set

Custom dakimakura printing usually refers to the cover alone, which is what most buyers want because they already own an insert. We sell both. The cover on its own is cheaper and ships lighter. The full set includes the inner pillow.

Two sides, one price

Front and back print as standard at no extra cost. The convention is two poses of the same character, but nothing stops you using one design on both faces or putting a plain color on the reverse.

How it is printed

Dye based inks are pushed into the fibers rather than laid on top, so there is no coating to crack or peel and the cover survives washing. Edge to edge printing means no white border unless your file has one.

What we can print

• Your own original characters and illustrations
• Art you commissioned and paid for
• Photography you took or own the rights to
• Brand mascots and event artwork

What we cannot print

Characters owned by a studio, publisher or game company. This includes fan art of licensed characters, however good it is. If you did not create it and did not commission it, we have to decline. This protects you as much as us.

This is the section artists actually came for, so here are the real numbers.

Target resolution

For a 150 x 50 cm print at 300 DPI you want roughly 17700 x 5900 pixels per side. That is a large file, and a lot of art is not drawn that big.

The practical floor is around 150 DPI, or 8800 x 2950 pixels. Below that, line work starts to soften noticeably once it is stretched across a meter and a half of fabric. Our preview tells you which band your file falls into before you order.

Aspect ratio

150 x 50 cm is a 3 to 1 ratio. Art drawn at a different ratio has to be cropped or padded. If you are drawing specifically for this, work at 3 to 1 from the start and everything else becomes easy.

Bleed and safe area

Keep about 2 cm of extra background beyond the edge of your intended image, and keep faces and important details at least 3 cm inside the edge. Sewing consumes a little fabric at the seam, and this margin is what stops a character losing the top of their head.

File formats

• PNG: best for flat color and line art, no compression loss
• JPG: fine at maximum quality, avoid anything already saved several times
• PSD or TIFF: accepted, flattened before printing

Color

Work in sRGB. Very saturated neons and pure blacks shift slightly on fabric compared to a backlit screen, which is normal for any textile printing. If exact color matters, say so when you order and we will flag anything likely to move.

Two fabrics cover almost every custom dakimakura order, and the right answer depends entirely on your art style.

Peach skin

Soft, matte, breathable and cheaper. Colors print accurately without added shine. It is the more comfortable fabric to actually sleep against, and it hides small marks well.

Best for painterly art, photography, muted palettes, and anyone who cares more about how it feels than how loud the colors are.

2 way tricot

Smoother, slightly glossy, with stretch in both directions. The tighter surface holds fine line work and pushes saturated colors further. This is the fabric most anime style dakimakura are printed on, and the difference on flat cel shaded art is obvious side by side.

The costs are real. It is more expensive, it marks more easily, and the stretch means the print shifts a little when pulled tight over a firm insert.

Short version

• Anime, cel shaded or bold flat color: 2 way tricot
• Painterly, soft or photographic: peach skin
• Selling to other people and unsure what they want: peach skin, it disappoints nobody

Shared across both

Both are fully opaque, both come with an invisible zipper along one long edge, both are double stitched, and both are machine washable on a cold gentle cycle. Neither will show the insert through the print.

Artists printing their own characters

The largest group. Illustrators with an original character who want one physical copy, or a small run to sell at a convention. No minimum order is the reason most of them find us.

People who commissioned art

You paid an artist for a piece, you own it, and a folder on your laptop is a sad place for it to live. Bring the file and the receipt of your commission and we will print it.

Convention sellers

Small batches of five to twenty for a table, often with two or three designs. Print on demand means you are not gambling on stock you might not sell.

Couples and gift buyers

Not everything printed on a dakimakura is a character. Photographs of partners, pets and friends are a steady share of orders, and the 3 to 1 format suits a full body photo well.

Brands and studios

Mascots, promotional pieces and giveaway prizes. Usually a small run with a fast deadline, which is where the three day production time matters more than the price.

Whichever group you are in, the process is the same. Upload, check both sides in the preview, order.

A dakimakura cover gets more contact than any other pillow in the house, so it needs washing more often than people expect. Roughly every two to three weeks in regular use.

How to wash it

• Remove the insert and turn the cover inside out
• Cold water, gentle cycle, mild detergent, no bleach
• Air dry, or tumble on the lowest heat setting
• Never iron the printed surface

Tricot needs a little more care

The stretch that makes tricot look good also makes it easier to distort. Wash it in a laundry bag and do not wring it out. Peach skin is more forgiving and can go in the machine as it is.

Buy two covers if you use it daily

One on the pillow, one in the wash. It is the single most common piece of advice long term owners give, and it costs less than replacing a worn cover early.

If the print is wrong

If what arrives does not match the preview you approved, tell us and we reprint it. Approving both sides before printing is precisely why this is rare.