Teescape Fulfillment App – Options For Printing Methods

While it provides excellent coverage and quality, it is a relatively low-resolution way of printing.  And while it can have a soft feel, the screen creates a texture that can sometimes even be considered “rough”.

Screen printing does have the advantages of using custom, “spot” colors, including color matching like Pantone colors.

The cost for printing increases based on the number of colors in the design.  The high cost of producing the screens and initial setup for printing make this only efficient for printing large quantity orders,  where those costs are averaged over a large number of shirts, and not effective for on-demand printing.

The greatest limitation of DTG is that it generally requires 100% cotton (or natural fibers) or a high percentage of cotton in the shirt. This is why fleece like hoodies and sweatshirts, which are generally 50/50 cotton/polyester, never look quite as good as the same design printed on a higher-quality 100% cotton t-shirt.

DTG also has limitations when it comes to printing really fine details. While the actual printing machines are capable of very high-resolution, the effective resolution of any print is really limited to the coarseness of the shirt fabric. And so artists looking for very sharp details can be a little disappointed depending on the style of shirt selected.

Even with all of these issues, DTG printing is still a great option for printing one-off and on-demand orders. It provides a very light feel because the volume of ink applied to the shirt is relatively small. While some shirts can feel a little “stiff” because of the pretreat that’s been applied, they generally soften after a wash or two.

But Not All DTF is Created Equal.  Much like DTG, the term “DTF” only describes the type of process.  There are many different ways DTF can be done.  Some are good, and some are not so good.

If you do some research on your own, you’ll find one of the biggest complaints about some DTF is that it feels plastic-like, or it feels like a decal or patch on the shirt.  In some cases it can feel very heavy on the shirt.

Our Super Soft DTF process offers many advantages over DTF you might find somewhere else.  It has a much softer feel than a lot of others and doesn’t feel so dense.

We use only high-quality materials and inks in our process, that provide bright colors that won’t fade through washing.  Our inks provide better coverage than some of the cheap inks that many others use, so we need to use less of it, contributing to the soft feel.

Because the ink is printed at high-resolution onto a smooth flat surface, the reproduction of the design is much more accurate than DTG, allowing for more fine detail to be visible on the final printed shirt.

And the greatest advantage of our Super Soft DTF, is that it does not depend on the fabric being cotton.  This will allow us to offer new styles of shirts that can’t be printed with DTG.  This includes 100% polyester and moisture-wicking shirts, shirts with UV protection, and tri-blend shirts – these can all be available now.  Because of this, we’ll be adding new products to our App soon.

You should also know that while we have tried to calibrate our DTF printing to match our DTG printing, there can be variations because they do use different ink systems, different RIP software, and different color profiles. In other words, if, for example, you offer both cotton t-shirts printed with DTG and polyester t-shirts printed with DTF, the colors will be reasonably similar, but there may be slight, but noticeable differences, and we can’t guarantee that the color will match.

Therefore, if you plan to offer other styles beyond cotton shirts, and expect the greatest consistency, it is recommended that you request we print all of your orders using DTF.  (You can do this on the Settings page in the App).

Next, keep in mind when we talk about lines in a design – there are both “stand-alone” lines (lines which have no other ink around them), and then there are lines that are part of a larger element of the design. This next thing refers ONLY to “stand-alone” lines:

We recommend that you avoid super-tiny “stand-alone” lines in your design. (We would say the same thing for DTG.) It is preferred that individual “stand-alone” lines be at least about 0.1 inches in width. Can it be smaller? Yes it can. But keep in mind that our App sizes artwork to fit the garment. So if your art includes a stand-alone line that is only 0.05 inches wide, you might get away with it on an adult XL shirt. But if you offer the same print on a Youth Small, it may be scaled down to so small it can’t be seen. Also remember that such a narrow line will usually be hardly noticeable by someone who sees you wearing the shirt anyway.

Much like DTG, DTF printing does not do well with partial transparency, ink color fades to shirt color, or feathered drop shadows.  It looks best with cleanly defined edges.

When printing on the front of zip hoodies, while we can print across the zipper with DTG, it usually doesn’t look good.  With DTF, we can’t print across the zipper at all.  So please plan your designs with a space down the middle where the artwork can miss the zipper.

In DTF, the materials are slightly lower in cost, but there are extra steps that make it more labor-intensive.  And of course, labor isn’t cheap at all.

Initially, our pricing for DTF printing will be the same as with DTG.  So you’ll pay the same price for any given garment, regardless of the printing method you choose.  As we continue to develop and improve our production processes, the price of garments with DTF printing may be reduced.

When printing larger, “bulk” orders, the amount of labor is reduced.  When printing larger quantities of shirts all with the same design, DTF can offer discounts similar to that previously available with screen printing.

Then, in the Settings page in our App, there is a new option where you can select your overall preferred printing method.  This can be set to our standard, “default” option, which is really “no preference”; or you can select that you prefer all orders be printed with either DTG or DTF.

When uploading a new design to our App, you’ll also be given a choice now when a design is saved. You can set certain designs to print with a specific method if you wish. The setting for an individual design will always override your overall preference set in the Settings page.