ABOUT OUR PRINTING
What is Direct to Garment?
Whether you’re just starting your clothing line or scaling your apparel business, you need to decide on a printing method that’ll satisfy customer expectations and meet your business goals in the most cost-effective way.
There are quite a few options out there, but the two most popular are direct-to-garment (also known as DTG) and screen printing. Today we’ll be looking into the differences of each, so you can choose the method that suits your business.
Direct-to-garment, or DTG, is a printing method that sprays the ink onto the garment using inject technology. The inks then soak into the fibers of the garment. It’s sort of like printing on paper, except on clothing.
What type of designs work best with DTG?
DTG printers offer extensive color options which means you can print detailed designs and photorealistic images with virtually no color limitations. This can be important for those businesses that want to experiment with color and design.
Is DTG printing right for your business?
Direct-to-garment printing is a hassle-free way to get the products ready for your customers.
Most third-party printers have no order minimums for DTG products, so you don’t have to worry about keeping stock. This printing method also enables businesses to use printing services on-demand.
SCREEN PRINTING
What is Screen Printing?
This printing technique pushes the ink through a woven mesh stencil onto fabric. The ink doesn’t soak into the fabric, it lays on top. Back in the day, screen printing was the only way companies could print custom products, like t-shirts with a brand logo, in bulk.
With screen printing, a special screen has to be made for each element of your design. Once that is done, each color of the design is applied layer by layer onto the garment. So, the more layers your design has, the longer it will take to print it.
What type of designs work best with screen printing?
Screen printing is mostly used for simple designs in fewer colors. But that doesn’t mean you can’t create outstanding prints using typography, line drawings, shapes, and symbols.
Is screen printing right for your business?
Screen printing can be cost-effective for orders with simple graphics (ideally with one solid color), but it’s unsustainable in the long run, especially if you want to offer a variety of colorful designs.
Why? Because it requires upfront investment and quite a bit of your time to get the designs print-ready.
Most third-party print services have order minimums that can be anything from 5 to 100 items. The bigger the quota is, the more likely you’ll have to worry about where to store the printed garments if you don’t want to have piles of clothing laying around your home or office. And this can be financially challenging if you’re just starting out or want to experiment with new designs.
The final price of your order is also influenced by the number of colors in your designs and the screens that are needed to print it. All of which you’ll have to discuss directly with the printer.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
Screen Printing VS DTG
What’s better: DTG or screen printing?
DTG and screen printing yield fine quality prints, but they differ in method and cost. DTG uses a printer to spray the ink into a garment, while screen printing layers the ink on top of the fabric. Most importantly, DTG enables order fulfillment on-demand with no upfront cost, when screen printed shirts can only be ordered in bulk.
What type of designs work best with screen printing?
Screen printing is mostly used for simple designs in fewer colors. But that doesn’t mean you can’t create outstanding prints using typography, line drawings, shapes, and symbols.
Is screen printing right for your business?
Screen printing can be cost-effective for orders with simple graphics (ideally with one solid color), but it’s unsustainable in the long run, especially if you want to offer a variety of colorful designs.
Why? Because it requires upfront investment and quite a bit of your time to get the designs print-ready.
Most third-party print services have order minimums that can be anything from 5 to 100 items. The bigger the quota is, the more likely you’ll have to worry about where to store the printed garments if you don’t want to have piles of clothing laying around your home or office. And this can be financially challenging if you’re just starting out or want to experiment with new designs.
The final price of your order is also influenced by the number of colors in your designs and the screens that are needed to print it. All of which you’ll have to discuss directly with the printer.
HEAT PRESS/HEAT TRANSFER
What is Heat Press/Transfer
Heat transfer printing is a newer decoration method, but it has come a long way from the iron-on decals of old. With heat transfer, also known as digital transfer, your custom logo or design is printed onto transfer paper and then ink is thermally transferred from the paper to your fabric using heat and pressure.
What is Heat Press?
Heat Press Printing, is the process of applying heat-applied materials to various items (i.e., substrates) with a heat press. Heat-applied materials contain a heat-sensitive adhesive on one side; when heat is applied by a heat press to the material, the material adheres to the substrate to which it is being applied. The end result is a decorated garment.
What is Heat Transfer?
Heat transfer can be performed in a few different ways. There’s inkjet transfers, dye sublimation transfers, digital appliqué transfers, and vinyl transfers.
Unlike the screen printing method, the vinly heat transfer allows you to print different colors. It is best suited if you are printing jerseys of sportswear, slogans or small multi-color graphics.
Garments printed through heat transfer methods are of high quality and they tend to have high resolution images. If you are going to deal with complex color stature, then heat press will is ideal for you than screen printing method.
