PRINTING
PRINTING
Direct Garment printing is excellent for accurately reproducing photos, illustrations, and intricate full-color designs. DTG printing produces the best print results on t-shirts and garments with 100% cotton content. It is more cost-effective when printing low-volume runs (up to 100), especially when a design with many different colors is required.
Screen printing is an effective technique for creating bold canvases, posters, and artwork. This method is used to print fabrics and textiles. The screen printing technique is widely used because it produces vivid colors, even on darker fabrics. The ink or paint lies on the material’s surface or paper. Screen printing produces excellent quality, long-lasting results and is great value for large orders from 20 to 20,000. The fewer colors, the less it costs to print.
Embroidery is best for creating logos on thicker clothes, such as hoodies. Embroidery is long-lasting and will not fade in the wash. It may cost more than traditional printing; however, the longevity makes it cost-effective. The denser the design, the more expensive it will be. Embroidered merch looks more professional and gives a solid feel.
Heat transfer printing is a method where you use a heat press to adhere designs onto products. Heat transfer printing can be done on many garments and surfaces like cotton, polyester, ceramic, wood, metal, etc. This means you can offer your customers a wider variety of customized products than other printing methods. Additionally, it’s simple, and the designs come out sharp and vibrant. Heat transfer printing is also cost-efficient for small to medium-sized orders.
Dye-Sublimation Printing is one of the most popular variations of heat transfer printing. It works by digitally printing graphics and then heating them to transfer the dye onto t-shirts. Dye-sublimation printing works with dye-based ink that turns into a gas when heated. Sublimation is a popular technique for all-over printing. The ink becomes part of the t-shirt fabric, making the print last for a long time. Prints will not fade, crack, peel, or deteriorate. It only works with polyblend-based t-shirts. The more polyester your t-shirts, the more vibrant your colors will get. This option is on the expensive end.
Plastisol Transfer Printing is similar to screenprinting. Only that the artwork is first ink-jet printed on plastisol transfer paper, and then using heat design is pressed onto the garment. You can fit several designs on a single transfer paper, cut them, and print them separately. This technique is suitable for testing t-shirt designs. Once a design starts selling, it would make sense to move to screenprinting. This method allows for a variety of placements on the t-shirt. Large quantity runs are expensive and time-consuming.
CAD (Computer-Aided Design) – Cut Printing is a method of heat transferring designs onto t-shirts. The technique is most commonly used for printing the numbers, names, and logos onto CAD-Cut vinyl material and then heat pressing them on sports t-shirts or jerseys. CAD-Cut vinyl is ideal for garment printing of 1-3 colors in smaller quantities. Vinyl can be easily applied anywhere on the t-shirt, and the vinyl can be applied to all kinds of fabrics. It’s only suited for simple graphics like text-based designs with basic shapes.
