When it comes to designing and making your own t-shirts, choosing the right t-shirt printing method is one of the most significant choices you want to make in the t-shirt process. It is also the first call that you must make so you create the design in the right format to make the most use out of the t-shirt printing method you choose. Selecting the inaccurate printing method for your design could result in unsatisfactory results for your t-shirt. Choosing the proper t-shirt printing method nonetheless could mean your design is interpreted to the t-shirts as you had desired.
The 1st and most typical method still today is water based or plastisol silkscreening. This strategy was also known many years back as silk-screening. Screenprinting employed the creation of 'screens' or 'silk screens' made from filtered mesh. An individual screen is 'burnt' for every one of the colours in the design. Ink is pushed through the screens onto the t-shirt so multiple layers are needed for multi-colour designs. Having to create and ink several screens for a multi-coloured designs means the set up cost for this process is high as it requires much manual work. But 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 disadvantage of this automation is that in order to recover the capital and setup cost, orders must be quite huge so as to keep cost down per t-shirt. Inks employed in screen printing is also the most sturdy and colourful of all the t-shirt printing strategies.
An especially fresh technology, but one that is gaining immense popularity amount the t-shirt printing firms, is Digital Direct to Garment printing. Known more ordinarily as DTG, this digital system of printing doesn't need the use of screens or manual setups. DTG printers are largely concerted inkjet printers and therefore use an electronic printhead to deliver the ink immediately onto the substrate, in this case t-shirts. The benefits of DTG are plenty of. First, the design can be full color as DTG printers use the CYMK colour spectrum. Designs can be created on popular design computer programmes such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw or any digital format available. Therefore , designers can send their designs direct to a printer to have it revealed. No screen setups or scanning / changing in order to have the design ready to print. Most DTG printers so 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 excitement of colours that doesn't yet match that of screenprinting. These downsides are principally 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 option to silkscreen printing.
Author Resource:
Peter Kim has been in the t-shirt printing business since the 70s. First with screen printing for 20 years and now working with Digital Direct to Garment Printers for the world's largest consumer printing companies. If you want to learn more about t-shirts and t-shirt printing, visit www.mrtees.com.au
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