Choosing the Right T-Shirt Printing for Your Design - Technology

When it comes to designing and creating your own t-shirts, choosing the right t-shirt printing method is one of the most important decisions you need to make in the t-shirt process. It is also the first decision that you should make so that you create the design in the correct format to make the most use out of the t-shirt printing method you choose. Choosing the incorrect printing method for your design could result in unsatisfactory results for your t-shirt. Choosing the right t-shirt printing method however, could mean your design is translated to the t-shirt as you had desired.The first and most common method still today is water based or plastisol Screen Printing. This method was also known many years ago as silk-screening. Screenprinting utilized the creation of screens or silk screens made of filtered mesh. An individual screen is burnt for each of the colours in the design. Ink is pushed through the screens onto the t-shirt so multiple layers are required for multi colour designs. Having to create and ink several screens for a multi-coloured designs means the setup cost for this process is high as it requires much manual work. However, since the process has been around for so long, the technology has advanced to such a point that much of it can be automated. The downside of this automation is that in order to recover the capital and setup cost, orders must be quite large in order to keep cost down per t-shirt. Inks used in screenprinting is also the most durable and vibrant of all the t-shirt printing methods.A very recent technology, but one that is gaining immense popularity amount the t-shirt printing companies, is Digital Direct to Garment printing. Known more commonly as DTG, this digital method of printing does not require the use of screens or manual setups. DTG printers are essentially concerted inkjet printers and therefore use an electronic printhead to deliver the ink directly onto the substrate, in this case t-shirts. The a dvantages of DTG are many. First, the design can be full colour as DTG printers use the CYMK colour spectrum. Designs can be created on popular design software applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw or any digital format available. Therefore, designers can send their artworks direct to a printer to have it printed. No screen setups or scanning/converting in order to have the design ready to print. Most DTG printers therefore do not charge a setup fee in order to get the order started. The disadvantages of DTG include a high ink cost, and washability and vibrancy of colours that does not yet match that of screenprinting. These disadvantages are mainly due to the young age of the technology. As DTG becomes more popular and mainstream, the ink cost should decrease and ink quality increase, making it a viable alternative to screenprinting.

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