Direct to garment printers, or “DTG” printers, are Tshirts which are made specifically for printing directly onto Tshirts, as the name would suggest.
I first looked at DTG printers many years ago at an international printing equipment exhibition, and at the time they were BIG machines, VERY expensive, and, to be honest, not all that impressive in terms of results.
But I did realise that it would only be a matter of time before the technology improved.
Over the years, the results from DTG have become far better, the prices have become lower (although there are still some very expensive direct to garment printers), and there are many Tshirt printers using DTG.
The Pros of Direct to Garment Printers
- Potentially great print results, including photographic prints.
- Little or no setup time.
- Fast turn around for smaller volumes.
Great print results.
You can get some decent results from DTG printers, including very impressive looking photographic prints. Actually, when it comes to full colour prints and photographic prints, the better DTG printers are hard to beat on the print quality with any other method for cotton garments.
Little setup time
In terms of the actual design, as with other digital Tshirt printing methods, it’s just a case of pressing print, really. There’s no need for any kind of colour separation, or other time consuming setup steps. Once you have your pre-treated garment, you just lay it on the print bed, and press print.
Fast lead times
For small volumes, due to the lack of setup steps, you can turn around orders very quickly with DTG. A few minutes per Tshirt is probably about right.
The Cons of Direct to Garment Printers
- Much more expensive than other digital options
- Garments may need to be pre-treated prior to printing
- For cotton only (or blends with at least 80% cotton)
- High maintenance
Pricing
Realistically speaking, for a brand new DTG printer, you’re probably going to be looking at $10,000 – $20,000, and up.
You can get them cheaper than this, but I’ve seen some cheaper options which appear to have real drawbacks, so just be very careful if you’re considering buying a cheap DTG machine.
If it were me, personally, I’d be looking at a used DTG machine from a reputable brand (preferably with warranty) to save money, rather than going for an unknown brand.
Pre-Treatment
You’ll have to pre-treat dark garments, and you’ll probably want to pre-treat light garments, for the best results.
Although, there’s often debate on forums regarding whether or not pre-treating is actually needed for DTG, the general consensus is that with most DTG machines, you won’t get anywhere near as good a result as you could, on white, without pre-treatment, and that it’s not possible to get a good result on dark with any machine without pre-treating.
This involves spraying on a treatment and then heat pressing.
Don’t forget, though, that with DTG you don’t need to contour cut, or weed out, so yes it may involve a step that other digital methods don’t require, but it also doesn’t require some of the tedious steps that other methods do.
For cotton only
DTG is generally used for cottons only, or for blends at least 80% cotton. Actually, there are ways that you can print via DTG onto polyester, but it’s quite technical, it may take you some effort to perfect. See printing dark polyesters with DTG. If you are wanting to print on polyester, I’d recommend looking at dye sublimation.
High Maintenance
This will depend on the DTG machine you go for, but my general opinion of DTG printing, from discussions with many clients who have printed this way, is that it’s a higher maintenance process than other digital Tshirt printing methods.
These machines print via pigment inks, so the heads need looking after, including very careful cleaning at the end of each day, and usually at the start of the working day, too.
While many people involved in other production processes would probably rate the maintenance required for DTG printing as fairly insignificant, anyone who is accustomed to printing via other processes such as injket transfer, laser transfer or Dye sublimation, are likely to find that they’re spending a lot more time maintaining their direct to garment printer than with their other Tshirt printers.