What exactly is a Digital Apparel Printer (DTG Printer)?
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Discuss the various aspects of direct to garment printing. DTG printers include Brother, T-Jet, Flexi-Jet, DTG Kiosk, Kornit, Mimaki, Tex-Jet and others! Discuss and learn about this up and coming printing technology.
What exactly is a Digital Apparel Printer (DTG Printer)?
What exactly is a Digital Apparel Printer (DTG Printer)?
I do embroidery, and I was looking at a magazine and I saw a Digital Apparel Printer. I thought it looked really cool. But I have never hear of this before! There were several different companies that have them in this magazine, and I think I would enjoy something like this ( I love to draw and see my work on shirts), if in fact it is a good machine!
Can anyone tell me if they have one and if it is worth looking into more? Like I said I haven't llooked into it, but just saw one in a magazine. Thanks in advance!
I do embroidery, and I was looking at a magazine and I saw a Digital Apparel Printer. I thought it looked really cool. But I have never hear of this before! There were several different companies that have them in this magazine, and I think I would enjoy something like this ( I love to draw and see my work on shirts), if in fact it is a good machine!
Can anyone tell me if they have one and if it is worth looking into more? Like I said I haven't llooked into it, but just saw one in a magazine. Thanks in advance!
It prints your image directly onto the apparel. It is good for small runs, but not practical for large orders.
No this is not a joke...I have done my homework. It is real and looks good on light colored shirts. The white add on for most machines is not worth having for a run over 3 dozen. The ink cost and the time involved is great. If you want to make 7 shirts this machine is great. Customize shirts at fairs another great idea. Price is still really high for what you get. Printing on black shirts is still horrible with the T-jet atleast. I watched one at the dax show in MO
No this is not a joke...I have done my homework. It is real and looks good on light colored shirts. The white add on for most machines is not worth having for a run over 3 dozen. The ink cost and the time involved is great. If you want to make 7 shirts this machine is great. Customize shirts at fairs another great idea. Price is still really high for what you get. Printing on black shirts is still horrible with the T-jet atleast. I watched one at the dax show in MO
I agree that most machines are not -great- for large orders (over 100 or so).
For Darks and Colors the machine will put down a white-base which causes the machine to do 2 passes, one for white and one for color.
They do have multihead machines that are much faster, and also oversized machines that can do oversized prints or multiple shirts at one time.
Now, the problem with printing white is that depending on the machine and the printer you can get varrying results due to the inconsistency of the pre-treatement and practice needed for printing with white ink.
There are several DTG printers here who have T-Jets, DTG Kiosks and Kornits who produce great prints on dark and black colored T's.
So is this just like it sounds, like a printer? And is the ink expensive?
Yes, it is more commonly known as a "Direct to Garment" printer or shortened as DTG. You can read all kinds of reviews and opinions on different types of the machines in our Direct to Garment printing section of the forum here.
There are several different makers of the machine out there on the market.
From what I've read, the ink can be pretty expensive, but those are costs that you can pass on to your customer.
I used a tjet2 for over a year and I agree, under 10 shirts is fine, but over that, you run into quality problems.
The DTG for me was a great call because it allowed me to print single designs with no setup, allowing me to build my volume. The support from US Screen was great too.
I am currently liquidating my printer because we have simply grown too busy for it. I would say they are good to start with, but have several production methods at your disposal.
thanks for that input. I have been tring to preach this to my partner. What exactly is the problem with it after 10 if you don't mind me asking and how much for your machine?
The DTG Kiosk runs about 13k with the white ink upgrade, the newer HM1 is about 15-17k. We have a standard Kiosk that we do batch orders of dark / black shirts anywhere from 12-120 on a weekly basis.
The only real problem is the time that it takes to print, the bigger the batch the less suited a single head DTG printer is.
10 Shirts seems to be a very small batch IMO. You could finish that in less than 2 hours even doing multiple passes (white + color).
I think the important thing to understand that there is not one single type of decorating technique that will be perfect for all jobs. Thus, it becomes important to understand all the techniques and when it is best to use them. The substrate (i.e. fabric type, metal, tile, ...) is also an important factor.
I have found from speaking with several dtg owners that they feel it necessary to do overs between 50-100 dark shirts on a dtg to help justify the cost of the equipment. Depending on the design (logo vs. picture, number of colors,...), some orders have to be done on a dtg. But ones that can either be outsourced to a screen printer or done as a plastisol transfer, I think these alternatives should be strongly consider. The profit per an hour could be the same if not better and it frees the dtg owner up to do other things (i.e. go after new customers, do other orders,...) and also extend the life of the printhead.
To best educate yourself before investing between $10-$20 grand on a Digital Printer is to understand that it will NEVER replace your "manual" screenprinting press. If you have the surplus to buy and notice I did not say "invest" a Digital Printer I say go for it because ypu will find customers who are willing to fork up $30.00 for a special multicolor design on a T Shirt or somehow how if you have a weekend kiosk somewhere that attracts nothing but tourist then you have hit the jackpot. I purchased a T-Jet last year thinking that I finally can do those multicolor designs in bulk but after 8-10 prints they started to look horrible and weren't consistent like the first print and the fact it was a little time consuming. Back to the word "INVEST", assuming you have spent aprox.$18 grand on the printer and are looking to pay it off based on your customer orders on average well I can tell you on average from previous post in this forum including myself NOT!!! The bottom line it's a risky investment but if you have capital up front and are looking for a novelty then go it.
Shirtmaster55 has good advice. The best thing you can do is go visit a distributor and watch the machine in action. Bring some of your own artwork to see how difficult it really is to print with the machines. Make sure you attend the training for the white Ink part, that seems like where people spend 90% of their troubleshooting.
Many of us DTG owners have overcome many hurdles since working with our machines. Some of the problems mentioned above may be operator or machine specific. When Shirtmaster55 described the colors being different after 8-10 shirts usually points to Ink starvation, you should be doing more Ink charges / Head cleanings to keep a consistent print. Also, the problem may be the T-Jet brand OR his specific machine. The KIOSK has it's own set of gotcha's that need to be monitored durring printing so make sure you spend the time getting to know the machine before investing.
It's not all bad though for example we did a batch of 120 shirts starting on Friday morning. 79 were black shirts and the rest were white. We completed the run Saturday afternoon in time to make the shipping cut-off with only 3 rejects the entire run (one of them was a shirt that had a hole in it we didn't catch until after printing).
This is a discussion about What exactly is a Digital Apparel Printer (DTG Printer)? that was posted in the Direct to Garment (DTG) Inkjet Printing section of the forums.
What exactly is a Digital Apparel Printer (DTG Printer)? 
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