Hey guys
Bigwilly here again with another behind the scenes from the world of T shirt printing!
Ah the super secretive arts we practice!
So some people have been asking us about other methods of printing their tees. There are a heap of different methods, but some (Perhaps those who don’t like to get their hands too dirty :P) have been asking us about DTG prints, otherwise known as DTG.
What is DTG Printing?
Dtg printing is a method employed to print digital image quality prints onto garments.
Like all different techniques there are pros and cons. DTG is awesome for white t shirts, pretty meh for black tees. (Disclaimer: a good professional dtg printings machine from a company will be much more successful than a print from your own $50 machine like the one below!)
As you can see, there is less mess, and you can print directly onto the garment.
With a white tee, its as simple as choosing your design and setting it up and hitting print. You do have to dry the print s afterwards like all designs-we recommend just leaving them to air dry if you haven’t done this before as you may make a mess and smudge the design.
With a black tee, you need to basecoat the print 1st, and also pre treat the shirt with chemicals to get the print to stick…
Not only that, a cheap print will peel off. (This is why we recommend professional print companies if your going to be printing to sell you gear!
So lets break it down into the science!
Unless your dropping serious cash on a printer, the resoloution will tend to be much lower than a professional setup. The printers are driven by raster image software, which converts the file into a colourscheme that the printer will understand.
You can get crazy quality prints with this technology.
example of a dtg print-see the multitude of colours-this would be a nightmare to screen print!
Here you can see the same dtg graphic on a white tee and a black tee
Just by looking at the example above, you can see the immediate differences between printing on black or white with direct to garment techniques!
The main, number 1 awesome benefit of dtg is this- you can print awesome 1 off designs. You can literally set up for 1 tee and get it made there and then in 15 minutes!
So instead of printing all your stock up front, you can print it to order as customers order it! For startup businesses or for small brands growing from home, this is an incredibly good method.
BUT
Its not as cheap as say screen printing. The 1 design will cost you much more, even if dont at volume than if you were to screen print.
But to make the most of dtg, you should be printing designs that screens simply cant print with!
There is of course sublimation printing on white polyester tees, but thats a subject for another article!….
According to wikipedia, all dtg printers are next generation descendants of the original inkjet printers-crazy eh! its the matrix/skynet happening before our eyes!
For your own cheap digital print tees you can make these at home pretty easy, but like we say if you want amazing quality custom tees, we recommend hitting up a company like these guys here
screenprintershq 