What is Digital Garment Printing?

The Decorated Apparel Industry was taken by storm in late 2004 when some of the first commercial based direct-to-garment printers were released. Before you can truly understand why DTG digital garment printing has become so popular, you will need to understand some background history.

For years, if you wanted to print a couple of cotton shirts you would use either digital transfer paper or try to screen print the order. Both of these decorating methods have their positives, but they also come with negatives. Digital transfers allow you to create as little as a one-off shirt via a standard desktop inkjet or laser printer. However, the transfer paper is covered with a polymer (AKA adhesive) that glues the ink to the top of the shirt. The polymer typically will leave a hand where it is applied and can discolor the shirt or create a window around your graphic. New transfer papers have been released that either minimize the window or uses a 2-step process to eliminate the window completely.

Screen printing has traditionally been the decorating method of choice for most of the apparel that you see in retail stores. With screen printing, ink is only dropped down on garment where the design is, thus eliminating the undesirable window that can occur with some digital transfer paper. However, a graphic must be separated (the process that breaks down the graphic into the different colors needed to print it), a screen must be burned for each color and it requires a screen printing press to be setup. This can become a very time consuming and expensive process when you only need a few shirts. Commonly referred to as a short run, which can be as low as 1 shirt to as many as 48 depending on the size of the shop, the cost per a screen printed shirt could easily be more than what you are willing to pay for.

With the changes in fashion leaning more toward short-run, limited edition personalized garments, the need for a high quality solution grew. Of course, apparel decorators are never satisfied with the concept that things are never going to get any better.

Manufacturers and distributors continued to push the boundaries by finding cheaper and faster ways to screen print or to creating better inkjet transfers papers with less hand or feel to them. But the introduction of DTG digital garment printing allowed us to take the positive aspects of both inkjet transfers and screen printing in a solution that could be done quickly and efficiently.

The concept of DTG digital garment printing is basically using a digital printer to lay down a textile water-based ink that has chemical binders that allow the ink to remain on the garment without a polymer being applied to the top of the shirt like a transfer. The ink is then cured to the garment using either a heat press or a textile conveyor dryer.

On average, Premier Graph-x can take the artwork from a customer, put it on to a garment in less than 2 days (depending on our current work flow). With some modification to the artwork, we can personalize the next garment with a name, number(s) or different colors and produce another custom garment in minutes. That is the beauty of DTG digital garment printing – short run, personalized garments in the matter of minutes.

Why Use DTG?

Digital garment printing is ideal for small or highly customized orders.

We recommend DTG for the following:

• Rush Orders
• Small orders - 20 or less
• Team shirts
• Custom Garments

DTG Ideas

There are countless garments we have created for clients and our clients are coming up with new ideas every day. Here are some to get your mind working:

• Girls Weekend Tank Tops
• Softball Team Shirts
• Bachelor/Bachelorette Party
• Family Reunion
• Fundraising T-Shirts
• Customized Client Giveaways
• Company or Organization Website
• and many many more