A Review of the Different T-Shirt Printing Methods

T-shirt printing has evolved from the days of tie and dye into the digital printing witnessed today. You can easily spice up a plain ordinary t-shirt by putting a couple of designs on it. T-shirts or tees as they are commonly known, have become adorable, cute, and unique clothing which go with almost any casual wear.

Whether you want to do t-shirt printing yourself or you want to ensure you buy t-shirts printed using a particular method, there are different types of printing methods you must be aware of.

Screen Printing

Today, virtually every t shirt printing service London employs this technique in printing t-shirts. It is one of the popular methods and results in vibrant, soft, and smooth tees after the printing process. This technique begins with the creation of a stencil also known as the template. The stencil is held in place by a nylon-mesh screen onto which ink is flooded and a squeegee used to press it down and spread it all over the screen. Any excess ink is wiped away and finally the screen is lifted off leaving the design to dry.

If you are working on a large project, this printing mode is recommended. It gives supreme quality t-shirts and can print multiple colors.

Direct to Garment Technique

Compared to the other methods, this is a much newer technique in the industry. As the name suggests, it involves printing directly onto the t-shirt. The setup requires a DTG printer which is somewhat expensive. Unless you are doing the t-shirt production on a commercial basis, this machine may not be viable for home production. DTG printing offers you a soft and professional finish as well as full color printing. Although it works on darker t-shirts, it is preferable on white garments. You can use it for one off designs unlike screen printing and the cost per item is low.

Sublimation Printing

If you have ever come across a tee that has print all over it, there are good chances it was done through sublimation printing. The beauty with this type of printing is that it can transform the entire t-shirt into a wonderful piece of art. You can do repeat pattern and galaxy print with this method, but you will require 100% polyester t-shirts. Sublimation printing allows you to utilize unlimited graphics, colors, and styles. However, on a commercial basis, the viability of this printing technique requires that you do a minimum of 50 garments.

CAD Cut Vinyl Technique

This method employs special software and a CAD cutter. The cut material is then printed onto the t-shirt using the heat press method. Through CAD cut vinyl printing, you can do one-off designs as well as longer runs which makes it such an excellent alternative for printing multiple types of garments. The use of a vinyl layer makes it possible to print in a variety of colors.

To add to the above techniques, there is the transfer paper method which basically transfers an image from one surface directly to another. The design is first printed on a transfer paper and then heat press machine is used to transfer it to clothes.

Julia is a renowned author and social media enthusiast.

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