andyo

Hello - I am new to this forum. I have been running a t-shirt design brand since 2005. We are a small brand but looking to grow and expand our product line. We are entertaining the idea of buying a DTG printer to produce our own designs, experiment, to have full control of inventory levels, and to print on demand.

We are looking to print on white and black tees and all the colors in between. We would like to do allover and off the edge printing. We want the print to be like a dye-sub or discharge print (i.e. no hand to the print). And we want the print to be of high quality, sharp detail and do not want the print to fade after 10 washings.

Is there a DTG printer that does all this on the market? Can anyone offer any recommendations? We are only going to do textile printing: t-shirts, hoodies, sheets of fabric etc. We are open to all suggestions, our priority is high-quality, superior durability, saturated, vivid color on black and white blank colors.

Thanks to anyone for any advice - Andyo.

 

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DAGuide

In my opinion, what you want does not exist. You want to do everything... including discharge printing. The only dtg printer that does discharge printing is the Mimaki... but you are not going to be able to do edge-to-edge / all-over printing with it and it does not have a white ink. Since all the other white ink printers use a white ink that has a hand to it by the time you spray the pretreatment, print the white ink layer and then the color layer. So the "Do-it-all" DTG printer does not exist in my opinion. There are some really great qualities to a dtg printer, but it is not the greatest Swiss Army knife for apparel decorators. There are limitations just like any other type of decorating application. You are probably better to stick with screen printing or plastisol transfers and just print larger runs.

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andyo

Thank you Mark for your reply. I had a suspision that the do-it-all perfectly DTG printer did not exist yet. Perhaps we are another 5 years out before the technology catches up with my needs. Thanks again - Andyo.

 

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equipmentzone1

You can easily find a printer that can do all over and off-the-shirt prints. The prints will be high quality, sharp detail, and will be washfast. Light colored shirts will be bright and look great, but not plastisol bright. They'll have no hand. Dark shirts will be very bright, but will have a noticeable hand, though it's less of a hand than on a screen printed shirt.

Seeing sample prints will let you know whether the printers can give you the results you're looking for.

-Alex

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dmfelder

agreed. You can do anyting on lights. It's the dark garments that are a pain. Maybe find a web fulfillment company to test the waters? They typically have the equipment and would most likely get you over the hump while you wait for your perfect product to arrive in the next few years.

Good luck

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