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azazza · August 13th, 2008

HI,

I had a few questions about I-guess-its-called-vectorized-text.

1. What method is best to just print text that is like loopy and pretty cursive fonts (vector art??? lol sorry, im such a newbie!) all the way up and down a shirt?

2. Will this type of method take to silk and cashmere material too?

3. What method for just vectorized text will be cheapest and best quality for like 50 silk/cashmere shirts the best?

4. Im not an owner of any machines so I will have to send out to get this job done.

Any advice would be much appreciated! thank you all so much!

Printzilla · August 13th, 2008

For now the garments for DTG need to be at least 95% cotton, however, that is changing. The answer also depends in the quantity of prints. The answer for 1 is different than the answer for 1000.

azazza · August 14th, 2008

I would like to start out with 50-100 shirts to see if the design sells or is worth it but def not more than 100.

azazza · August 14th, 2008

So I guess it seems that screenprint would ultimately be better if DTG only owrks with cotton.....hmm, because i want more like cashmere and silk....hmmm. uh-oh. i know its a weird material but hey...

Naga · August 14th, 2008

The Brother GT541 Printer can print with acid dyes. That is the dyestuffs for wool and silk (can also be used for some kind of nylon).

azazza · August 14th, 2008

What is a Brother? Sorry, shows Im new. I am guessing brother gt541 is DTG??? So this is more cost effective and has great quality for no more than one articles that are silk or cashmere? Thank you SO MUCH! This helps me out a lot. Now all I have to do is get the material and send it out with my designs. YEAY! I will go to the other sites for recommended DTG people who have GT541. Thank you so much again! I might be asking for more information.

Oh! I haev one more question.
1. If my silk materials already have a design on it from the manufacturer but I want to add Text and quotes, is this still possible to do for the Brother GT541? I would think it has nothing to do with DTG process, except that it will loverlay the original designs already on the silk shirts?

Thank you again so much!!! This place is awesome!

sunnydayz · August 14th, 2008

I am not sure about acid inks being ok in the brother, but I can bet almost no one uses them in their brother and that most are using the water based inks that are standard for the brother machine. I think what you need to find out as far as the fabric you are printing on, is it a natural fiber? This is the thing, with all dtg machines the inks are made to bind to natural fabrics, which is why they dont work so great on poly, none of the machines works well with poly, including brothers. The next thing to figure out, once you find if your fabrics are natural or not, if they are contact a local dtg printer and have them print a sample and see how the ink takes to these fibers. As far as being able to add text, any dtg operator can add text to your design with very little effort.

azazza · August 14th, 2008

Great answer! Thank you so much BobbieLee! That makes a lot of sense actually. So with DTG it has to be natural fibers? Hmm I will definitely be researching this tonight!

Naga · August 15th, 2008

I'm afraid I have remembered wrong. It is the Mimaki GP 1810, that can print with acid dye (and with reactive dye). It looks a little expensive for printing neck ties.

Another that can do it is here. A belt drive printer, that can print 13 sqm/h (production speed) in up to 16 colors. It looks like being very expensive. Maybe I'll have a chance to see it soon. The sales and support in Thailand is almost my neighbour.
It is however this printer, I am going there to look at, It has build in ink curing, but I'm not sure, if this curing is sufficient for pigment inks. Maybe the curing unit has been included to enable acid dye and reactive dye printing.

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DTG/Screen...Few Q's about printing vectorized text on diff material shirts!