Come on, who doesn’t look at someone’s t-shirt when you see them walking down the street? Bold, graphic, artsy, funny unique t-shirt design is so eye-catching and it is a split-second to see.
T-shirts have been around forever, but did you ever wonder what are the different ways in printing them?
What is Direct to Garment (DTG)?
Direct-to-garment printing is a relatively new technology for printing t-shirts and other merchandise. It uses ink to print directly onto the fabric or product. It goes directly into the fibers of the fabric which means you don’t feel the ink or design of the garment and gives you the best print quality. Some of the other advantages of this process are high-quality results even with detailed and broad designs, water-based, looks natural, durable designs, and long-lasting which are all perfect for graphic t-shirts.
Screen printing
Screen printing is one of the most common techniques with t-shirt printing and has been around a long time before DTG. However, the quality isn’t as realistic or as precise as digital printing.
Transfer printing
This involves permanently transferring an image from one surface to another. It is used with heat to transfer the image. However, there are some limitations on what type of fabric you can use.
Cad cut vinyl
A machine cuts vinyl into the shape of your image. It is then applied to your t-shirt with heat. However, there is a possibility that the transfers and vinyl separate from the shirt after time.
Dye sublimation
This method uses heat transfer to apply an image to permeate the fabric. You print the image onto special transfer paper using sublimation inks and then use a heat press to transfer it to the t-shirt.
Here we are in 2021, and with so much technology, this of course, would naturally spill over into t-shirt design printing. I love the quality of the digital printing (it is outstanding) and because I am a computer-digital person, this just happened to be a perfect fit for me.
Hasta pronto!