Screen printing vs dtg???

[ironchef]

Whats better in terms of quality and longevity of the product?

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Screen print. but I think the inks being used for DTG are getting better and better. Problem is there are ink sets for screen printing that are very specific to the type of material it's being printed on. Cotton, polyester, etc. Using these inks appropriately will give you much longer longevity then a DTG with a single ink set for all materials.

 

[AnthonyRalano]

If they are pre-treated properly and you tell your customers to dry them with no or low heat then they will last many many washes. I would take screen printing any day over dtg, unless the artwork required 16.5 million colors.

 

[ironchef]

If they are pre-treated properly and you tell your customers to dry them with no or low heat then they will last many many washes. I would take screen printing any day over dtg, unless the artwork required 16.5 million colors.

anthony, pre treated how?

 

[ironchef]

So dtg last aslong as heat transfer shirts?

 

[2B]

pretty much, we have heat transfers last longer

also been burnt by DTG several times, no more for me until they have DRASTIC improvements.
for the price it is faster, cheaper to do a heat transfer

or if they want a full color to last get Dye-Sublimation

 

[AnthonyRalano]

Pretreat each side. For dark garments with white ink you will spray them down, roll the fibers flat and press them for 45 seconds. Then after printing you have a 3 minute heat press time. If you have many heat presses the process can go quickly. But never as fast as screen printing. For white garments they make a pretreat. It is great and makes the print much more vibrant. It is just a very slow process compared to screen printing. It is great for people who want low runs. But who just wants to do 12 shirts? I have had times where I took on an order for 500 shirts and was printing for days and nights until the sun came up to fulfill the order. In my opinion, dtg is great for a shop that already has screen printing, but would like to add the option of just getting 1 - 12 shirts at a higher rate.