darz1984

Hi Guys.

I've decided i am going to invest in one of these printing methods, but i am still unsure of which one. There are a few factors i'm unsure of...

1. Cost - On initial purchase of both DTG or screenprinting.

2. Space - Obviously a DTG printer will take up less space, but how much room will the screen equipment take up? And does it need to be in a climate controlled etc environment?

3. Running Costs - ?

4. Which will benefit me more for our single jobs and qty jobs?

5. How easy is it to screen a job with say 4-6 colours? And which will last longer?


It's a lot of money... so i want to make sure i make the right choice, which hopefully you guys can help me with.

 

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sonambulo

well, dtg willcost u more initially (maybe 10K or more depending on which u want)

but when you wanna print lots of colors 4,5,6 or 7, dtg wins there cause with the screenprint set up will be a pain. also for single/small runs dtg wins

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alost

Quote: Originally Posted by darz1984 Hi Guys. I've decided i am going to invest in one of these printing methods, but i am still unsure of which one. There are a few factors i'm unsure of... 1. Cost - On initial purchase of both DTG or screenprinting. 2. Space - Obviously a DTG printer will take up less space, but how much room will the screen equipment take up? And does it need to be in a climate controlled etc environment? 3. Running Costs - ? 4. Which will benefit me more for our single jobs and qty jobs? 5. How easy is it to screen a job with say 4-6 colours? And which will last longer? It's a lot of money... so i want to make sure i make the right choice, which hopefully you guys can help me with.

There's a DTG white paper floating around the forums that will answer all of your questions on the specifics of DTG.

1. I think you'll find that, especially if you buy a reconditioned DTG, the price will be about the same.
2. Think a medium to large size garage. Screen printing equipment doesn't need to be in a climate controlled environment, but I wouldn't let it freeze.

IMHO, your final decision should probably be based on three things: learning curve, quantity, and colors.

Screen printing has a much harder learning curve than DTG. Once you've got computer graphics programs like Photoshop down, all you have to do for DTG is learn how to pretreat shirts, work your RIP, and do light maintenance on your printer.
If you're doing screen printing, though, you have to learn how to do separations, how to expose, register, print, reclaim--it's very involved.

That's not to say it isn't worth it. Screen printing is currently a better option if you see yourself doing a lot of quantity of particular designs, especially if those designs are only a few colors. There are many people successfully screen printing, and plenty of companies offer training classes.

However, if you're going to be printing small quantities of particular designs, want to print photographs, or will be printing stuff with lots of colors and/or gradients, you're going to want to lean towards DTG.

Good luck weighing your options.

 

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sunnydayz

Here is a link to the paper Alost was referring to, in the first post in this thread if you click on the link there is a document around 40 or so pages long that explains dtg printing very well Dtg 101 – Guide for People Thinking about DTG Printing

There really is no comparison between dtg and screen printing as both really fulfill 2 different types of business plan. Dtg is great for small run unlimited color high detail images where as screen printing is best for large order printing. You should really look at your business plan and see what fits it best. you will read alot about that in the dtg 101 article that mark wrote. It will definately give you a really good idea of what dtg works best for.

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