Direct To Garment - DTG
Summary
Direct To Garment, also known as DTG is the process of printing liquid garment ink directly onto the fabric or garment. These inks are typically designed for printing onto cotton and some machines don’t have white ink so are only suitable for printing directly onto white/light garments with a high cotton content. Once the ink is printed, it is cured using heat either directly applied using a heat press or the printed garment is placed in a drying unit.
For darker garments, a pretreatment solution needs to be applied/sprayed onto the area to be printed which is a water based salty glue mix. This helps the white underbase ink adhere to the garment for great durability. Larger more expensive DTG machines are loaded with a thick, gloopy white ink made from titanium dioxide which is laid down first as a white underbase on dark garments so when the colour inks are printed on top they appear bright and vibrant. Without a white underbase, DTG garment inks printed onto dark substrates simply wouldn’t be visible.
This is a great method for decorating garments and the printed graphic has a durable stretchy rubbery feel which lasts as long as the garment, typically one to two years. While good t-shirt design ought to have negative space (areas which aren’t printed and the garment colour shows through to form part of the design) it is possible to print larger areas using DTG without any major deterioration of the print over time.
Get in touch with us if you need some DTG printing done.
Issues
Most of the issues with DTG printing fall to the printer owner/operator rather than the end user. The white ink machines are notorious for clogging and needing very regular agitation to stop them settling and blocking the ink lines. Maintenance cycles are required regularly and rigorously and due to the amount of maintenance required, these machines need to be printing shirts all day long to justify the time required for maintenance and ink wasted from maintenance cycles.
If a pretreat solution hasn’t been applied properly, meaning the correct amount in a consistent coverage for the area to be printed, then there could be some issues with the print flaking/cracking after some washing. Always ensure you are ordering from a reputable provider.
DTG Requirements
- Machine - Specially designed DTG printer
- Transfer Media - None required as printed straight onto the garment
- Print Size - Machine specific, some can print A5/A$ size and other upto 400x600mm or more Process (for dark garments) - Pretreat applied, cured, white underbase printed, colour ink on top then cured
- Process (for light garments) - Sometimes pretreat is used but other times the colour ink is printed straight onto the garment and cured afterwards - No white ink is used.
- Substrate Type - Fabric with high cotton count, 100% is best for the waterbed inks but cotton/poly blends down to60/40 split can also be DTG printed
- Equipment - Pretreat sprayer/machine, DTG printer, Heat press to suit the size & shape of the design on the substrate and optional dryer unit.
- Substrate Colours - White/light garments for machine with no white ink, any colour for machines with white ink capability.
- Ink Colours - Full-Colour CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Key/Black) plus White ink for machines that have it.
- Cost of Media - Medium. Ink can be expensive depending on the machine and how much the machine is used.
- Suitable Artwork - Perfect for full colour, blacks & whites for machines that have it. Reasonable detail levels are possible and this process is suitable for large print areas too.
Get in touch with us if you need some DTG printing done.
Let customers speak for us
This company provided me with the service, consideration and the best products available of any company I know that deal with the decals I needed for my model. Sincere thanks to you for the most impeccable experience in a transaction and for your dedication to supply quality goods.
This is my second purchase from Phoxy design and print. Customer service was very good for my first order when I asked some specific questions about file formats etc. The reply was very fast and I was sent mock ups of my logo sized up to my requirements. The waterslide decals came and I was thrilled with the quality, very sharp and the matt gold ink looked top notch. Very good value for money and highly recommended!
Phill was very helpful, delivery was quick, and quality looks great. Will definitely be ordering more
Custom Waterslide Decals with WHITE UNDERPRINT for ANY colour Surface - Full Colour Digital Laser Printed Transfers - Ready-To-Apply
Phoxy were absolutely awesome to order from, I sent a custom design and they printed a couple of options to check which style worked best for me, which turned out to be really helpful and solved a problem I didn’t even know I had! 5 stars, will definitely be ordering from them again and recommending to anyone looking for great transfers
Custom Waterslide Decals with WHITE UNDERPRINT for ANY colour Surface - Full Colour Digital Laser Printed Transfers - Ready-To-Apply
Custom Waterslide Decals with WHITE UNDERPRINT for ANY colour Surface - Full Colour Digital Laser Printed Transfers - Ready-To-Apply
Second time and the same quality, perfect product and fast sending
Decals turned out well and was easy to transfer.
Great communication and help with my first decal print. The colours were a little less vibrant that I was hoping for but that could be my set up and not the print so will add some more intensity on my next print. Would recommend
Delighted with your work Phoxy! Working on a 1:35 scale kit-bash thing and the racing numbers were very specific, based as they were on a 1930's Bugatti racing car number font. Also needed some very small detail transfers to scatter around the body of the car. The detail and print quality at such a small scale was absolutely spot on and has created a really successful finish. For context, at 8mm across, one of my decals had text on that can easily be read (with a magnifying glass... but it is legible - we are talking about 2pt text here!) Also, the transfer substrate was really thin so you can barely see the edges of the transfers, if at all. It all looks like it's been painted directly on. Great work. Will definitely be returning for more when I next need decals!
Phil was so very helpful right from the start, he kept in contact and advised me what we could do to produce the right decals. This was only a small job but he gave me a fantastic service and great value, hooray for customer service.
I searched the internet to find 1/8 scale carbon fibre transfers. No luck so I enlarged a 1/12 scale sheet and printed these at home with a ink jet printer. OK but not great, transfers did not have the flexibility I was looking for. Phills Lazer printed transfers are however FANTASTIC. Very fine film, flexible and adhere well.Printed and delivered within 3 days. Superb, will definately be using again.
One has to be aware, that the quality of the result depends heavily on how the job is prepared. Because of the printer resolution, mixing colors may show visible raster dots. One should avoid light, non saturated tints.
Perfect product and fast shipping, the quality of the water-slide decals is very good, very detailed.