Is direct to garment printing good quality?

When it comes to the garment printing industry, there are a variety of different approaches to getting a design onto an item of clothing.

Screen printing is one of the oldest techniques available, and is still the cheapest option for mass-producing clothing in short timescales. With this approach, the trick is in dividing the design up into individual colours, and then using screens to print each segment of the design onto the garments in sequence.

Then, there’s heat transfer printing, which is the cheapest approach overall per item of clothing, and involves pressing a specially constructed decal into the fabric and heating it up until it transfers.

More and more, though, there’s a revolutionary new approach taking the world of garment printing by storm – namely the technique known as Direct to Garment Printing (or DTG Printing).

Here’s a look at Direct to Garment Printing, and whether or not this technique might be just the thing you are after for a high quality end product.

How Does DTG Printing Work?

First and foremost, Direct to Garment printing works by running a garment – ideally made of 100% pure cotton for optimal quality – through a specialised printer.

Unlike with other approaches to garment printing, the key thing with DTG printing is – as the name implies – that the designs are printed directly onto the fabric. This has direct implications for the quality of the image printed on your T Shirt or other garment, in addition to influencing the costs involved.

DTG Printing is more expensive than other approaches, per garment, but there are some real benefits associated with it.

Benefits of DTG Printing

Here’s a look at a few of the benefits of Direct to Garment Printing, particularly with regards to things like T Shirt printing.

Unparalleled Detail and Quality

DTG Printing offers unparalleled image quality, and allows you to capture highly precise, beautiful, and crisp images to an extent that would be impossible using other methods.

With Direct to Garment Printing, it really is a viable possibility to take a photo that you find particularly inspirational, and to have it replicated on a T Shirt in a highly accurate manner, or else to at least create a stylised version of the image with far more visual fidelity than would otherwise be possible.

Customised Print Runs and No More Wasted Stock

Increasingly, DTG Printing is being viewed as the T Shirt printing approach of choice by more ethically minded brands, including those who are concerned with their overall environmental impact.

This is because one of the great benefits of Direct to Garment Printing is that it does not require bulk purchases or “minimum order numbers,” but can instead produce very precise batches and operate according to Print on Demand strategies, too.

This is also an innate cost saving benefit of DTG Printing.

Even though the cost per unit is higher, the fact that items don’t have to be produced and purchased in bulk means that costs can be managed much more efficiently. This makes it a viable printing approach for even small brands and individuals.