Boost Your Efficiency - Choose the Right T-Shirt Printing Machine

Custom T-shirt printing undoubtedly has become one of the most trending niches in custom industry. As online store and printing technology keep developing, t-shirt printing has gradually turned into an attainable business idea for most people. But how too apply the right T-shirt printing machine to achieve the maximum profit? Scroll down to get more inside information!

Written by Procolored - Published on Jan 6, 2024

7 minutes read

Written by Procolored - Published on Jan 6, 2024

PASSAGE SUMMARY

1. Understanding Trends of T-Shirt Printing
1.1 From mass production to POD
1.2 From traditional to digital printing
2. Why DTF and DTG Printer is the Right T-Shirt Printing Machine
2.1 Wider applications
2.2 Higher accuracy

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1. Understanding Trends of T-Shirt Printing

With development of textile, printing and digital designing technology, as well as the progressive compatibility among these three, textile printing industry has achieved remarkable progress in recent decades, and apparel printing undoubtedly has taken the most important part. Take the digital textile printing market of 2024 for ehttps://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/digital-textile-printing-market-reportxample. Among all the digital printing applications on textile, clothing/apparel printing accounts for around 54%, dominating over the half quota of the year’s market size.

image: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/digital-textile-printing-market-report

Now let’s dive deeper into clothing/apparel printing. It has been a long history since people first applied printing on apparels to distinguish individuals by the collective uniforms or the personal preferences. And in recent years, as digital design tools and printing machines have become more and more attainable to most people, custom apparel printing, especially T-shirt printing, has been trending among not only industrial companies, but also individual entrepreneurs.
To be more specific, the entire custom apparel printing, as well as its sector T-shirt printing, both exhibits evident trends as below.

1.1 From mass production to POD

It’s easy to understand what’s the mass production of apparel printing —— just recall the time you are in Walmart store specifically at the clothing area. All those clothes with the same printing at the same position you see are imported from manufacturing companies that handle mass production orders. Generally, mass production orders demand for large quantity at a time and are often placed by retail brands like Walmart, Nike, UNIQLO, etc.
But consumers nowadays, particularly younger generations, are chasing for being the minor instead the mass. Compared to mass production clothes, t-shirts with unique, custom or symbolic graphics are becoming more and more popular, spurring the emergence and development of Print on Demand (POD) business.
Unlike mass production, POD business handles printing smaller printing orders, eliminating the risk of excess product stock and guaranteeing the uniqueness of custom t-shirts by limiting quantities.

1.2 From traditional to digital printing

Printing business model and printing method always propel each other. With the transition from mass production to POD business, new printing methods also emerged, evolve and significantly facilitate the prosperity of POD business.
For most garment manufacturing industries, screen printing has been the most frequently applied method since it supports quick printings for larger orders and larger format. As POD business becomes trending, HTV printing has once been applied by the majority of small printing business owners.
However, with the development of digital printings like sublimation, Direct-to-Film (DTF), and Direct-to-Garment (DTG) printing, both screen printing and HTV printing are gradually being phased out since they fall short in meeting the fast turnaround time demanded by POD.

During our online follow-up visit to our users, we have received feedback as above from time to time. Since the foundation, Procolored has helped numerous printing experts successfully transformed to digital printing and accordingly achieved bigger businesses. So why digital printing outperforms that much when it comes to T-shirt printing business?
First let’s understand what is digital printing. Digital printing applies printer to transfer digital graphic files onto diverse mediums. Unlike traditional printings such as screen printing or HTV printing, a digital printer directly prints out graphics by depositing corresponding colors on specific medium position, effectively reducing human effort during the whole process.
Digital printing nowadays is widely applied in various custom industry, like custom tumblers delivered by Ultra-Violet (UV) or laser printing, or custom garments delivered by sublimation, DTF, or DTG printing. When it comes to t-shirt printing particularly, DTF and DTG printing have enjoyed an increasing popularity compared to sublimation printing. So in what ways do they excel?

2. Why DTF and DTG Printer is the Right T-Shirt Printing Machine

2.1 Wider applications

It’s highly recommended to apply sublimation on polyester. DTF and DTG printer on the contrary, show much more flexibility in meeting the requirements of custom t-shirt printing.

DTG printer: Many t-shirts are made from cotton because it is a popular choice for its comfort, breathability, and softness. And DTG printing perfectly aligns with this industry trend since it requires cotton or over 80% cotton fabrics for optimal printing results.

DTF printer: DTF printer exhibits a wider range of suitable substrates than DTG, including cotton, polyester, wool, nylon and forth, successfully meeting printing needs of t-shirt made from other materials except for cotton.

2.2 Higher accuracy

Sublimation is widely acknowledged with its color limit —— it applies dyes to present prints on fabrics, which will turn into gas and mix with the fabric colors. Dark fabrics have a significant amount of dye or pigment already present in the fibers, hence greatly affecting the accurate performance of sublimation colors and details.
DTF and DTG printer on the contrary, presents higher accuracy in graphic reproduction of both colors and details.

DTG printer: Yes, DTG printer also involves direct color mixing of prints and fabrics, same as sublimation. However, three things help it deliver more vibrant and accurate prints - a wider color gamut, more opaque water-based inks, and the application of white ink. With the three elements mentioned, DTG printer diminishes color blend between inks and fabric, and enables brighter colors on non-light fabric background.

DTF printer: Among sublimation, DTG and DTF printing, DTF in fact presents the highest standard of color and detail reproduction. Same as DTG, DTF also applies white ink as a base layer of every graphic. However, instead of printing directly on fabrics, DTF first prints on film, then transfers the print to adhere firmly to the fabric surface. Without deep adsorption and over-close bonding, it reserves the glossiness and details of the original graphics, and outperforms in presenting things even as little and intricate as a back neck label, as shown in the user feedback above.

Vibrant DTF printings on fabrics in diverse colors.

image: Matty B Crafts - Procolored User

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