What is digital t-shirt printing? Introducing 2 Basic Types of Fabric Printing

Digital printing is currently very popular in many fields such as paper printing, packaging… Within the framework of this article, Dallas t-shirt printing only refers to shirt and uniform products.

Introducing Digital T-shirt Printing (DTG)

To have graphics on t-shirts, there are many different printing and embroidery methods, the most popular are computer embroidery, silk printing and digital printing (digital t-shirt printing). Digital printing has become more popular over the past few years due to much lower printer costs.

The basic principle of digital printing is to use a digital color inkjet printer (eg Epson, Canon…), a machine similar to a paper printer, and the printing method is to use a color inkjet printer Equipped with specialized ink cartridges. Due to the automatic color mixing printing system, the colors are very beautiful and high definition, and many special effects can be printed that cannot be achieved with silk screen printing technology.

Classification of t-shirt printing

1. Direct digital printing on elastic fabric

Color inkjet printing technology prints directly on the uniform fabric without going through any intermediaries. This option prints on a variety of print surfaces and materials.

Some professional digital printers, such as brother pro, can also print on dark fabrics.

This printing solution is suitable for instant t-shirt printing and small quantity t-shirt printing needs. In addition, the price of direct digital printing is often very high compared to other types of printing.

2. Indirect digital printing (also known as heat transfer t-shirt printing)

Slightly different from digital printing mentioned above, instead of printing directly on fabric, printing on special paper (thermal transfer paper or film). ) Then, place this paper on the fabric surface and use a heat press to transfer the ink and image to the fabric. Therefore, it is often called heat transfer printing or heat embossing.

Thanks to automation, this innovative technology has greatly improved printing efficiency – the printer can print hundreds of sheets in a row, instead of printing one shirt at a time like before.

Heat transfer printing technology is widely used in garment industry products

Regarding heat transfer printing technology, this type of ink is often given priority for white fabric backgrounds or light colors such as yellow, cream, light gray, sky blue, pale green, etc. This is also the unified printing method that is more commonly used today.

The cost of heat transfer printing depends on three main factors: printing area, number of printing stations and background color of the printed fabric.

Compare digital printing and traditional screen printing

To better understand the characteristics of digital t-shirt printing, let’s compare its advantages and disadvantages with traditional screen printing:

Advantage:

Plastisol: This is a printing process that uses rubber ink (as well as ink ink) that has higher adhesion than regular screen printing ink. Plastisol printed products are highly durable and create aesthetic gloss. Better and higher quality than other prints.

Thermal transfer printing: sharp, durable ink, unlimited ink colors, large area printing.