Three specifications decide almost everything about how a towel feels and how long it lasts. Get them right and the decoration is the easy part.

Fabric: cotton or microfibre

Cotton absorbs into the fibre and feels plush; microfibre traps water between very fine filaments and dries in minutes. Cotton is what people mean when they say towel. Microfibre is what they want when it has to fit in a bag.

Choose cotton for hotels, spas, gifts and anything premium in the hand. Choose microfibre for race packs, travel kits, festival merchandise and any order where shipping weight is a real cost.

Weight: what gsm actually means

Grams per square metre is the honest measure of a towel. Below 300 gsm a cotton towel feels thin immediately. Around 400 is a good retail towel. From 450 to 550 is hotel and spa territory, and it is where the towel starts to feel expensive in the hand rather than in the description.

Heavier is not automatically better. A 550 gsm towel takes far longer to dry and costs more to ship, which matters for anything posted as a gift.

Size: standard or oversized

Standard is 30 by 60 inches. Oversized cabana is 35 by 70. If the towel will be lain on rather than dried with, take the oversized — it is the difference between covering a lounger and almost covering it.

Almost nobody who upgrades goes back. The trade is weight, both to dry and to post.

The combinations that work

Hotel pool: 500 gsm cotton, oversized, woven border. Retail and gifting: 400 gsm velour, standard or oversized, printed. Race and travel: 250 gsm microfibre, standard, printed. Spa: 450 gsm terry, standard, embroidered.

If your use is not on that list, tell us what it is and we will specify it rather than sell you the middle option.