We contract out our screen printing because we don't want to deal with screens, ink, reclamation, chemicals, and on and on and on. On the flip side you have to deal with printer heads, expensive ink, pre-treatments, and on and on and on. Pick your poison.
However, there is a market for short runs and the DTG printers fill that gap nicely. We have decided to buy one of these beasts for that reason because our customers don't want to pay $50 per screen for the setup.
As far as quality, I think the DTG printers are getting better all the time. We just got some nice samples that have held up nicely and I think this market will give traditional screen printing methods some amount of competition.
There are a lot of entrants on the market and I would say for the bottom end machines at <$20K you really can't go wrong unless you never print any shirts.
The basic DTG is 2X the cost of screen printing equipment and requires a different skill set. You don't have to hire or be a skilled screen printer but you do have to hire or be a skilled DTG printer.
Don't skimp on training. Pay for it if you have to and with a little focus you will do well no matter which way you go.
If you asked me to compare a screenprinted shirt with a shirt that was done by a DTG machine and both shirts were done by top quality people in the trade... I would probably still pick Screenprinted over Digital. Its just my preference. Now with that said, I have done screenprinting in the past and switched over to digital printing 2 years ago along with Dye Sublimation and vinyl applications. The main reason for the switch was because my customer base wasn't the big 1000 shirt jobs, but more the smaller 24 shirt jobs for clubs and small organizations. Doing the different things allows me to provide them with custom solutions for thier events. Not only do I provide shirts, but award plaques using Dye Sub Plaques, mugs, dog tags ect... Also, I was sick of cleaning and reclaiming screens.
DTG is great for small runs but does have limitations and in time you learn how to influence your customer's artwork to look better on a DTG. I really don't think that one is "better" than the other. You should look more into which one fits into your business better.
My thing is that we have a heat press machine and my biz partner want to get a screen press also but when i saw what the dtg printed out the quality looked almost the same as screen printing and it took up a lot less space, also i was figuring yes i have to pay for ink but we use the jet prem paper and thats like over a dollar a piece depending on the size so by the time i pay for paper and ink then its almost the same, not counting people dont like wearing a lot of heat press stuff during the summer because it can be sticky....... and i dont want to buy a bunch of equipment tht im not gonna use ...... i want to buy the dtg and just sell the heat press..... any other suggestions??????
As long as you are not in Southern California, go for the printer, otherwise, do screen printing.
Seriously, We did the same comparison and decided not to do screen printing. If our volume was regularly 300+ shirts per order we might change our minds but as for new we selected the DTG option.
This 'debate' of screen printing vs. digital will continue for some time. Both are good for different reasons.
We do DTG only (no embroidery or screenprinting or other methods) and we get many jobs simply based on the texture or lack thereof--we got the Kiosk before there was white ink so the print is texture free. We also play up the environmental aspects which make people feel good.
We have found that customers expectations of custom printing is based on screenprinting and can be a hard sell since the result is different. We mostly wholesale our own designs which are created for the DTG no-white-ink process and when they our samples they are getting exactly what they see and feel. We have found that printing on a variety of products other than shirts tickles our customers and uses the DTG very well.
As long as you are not in Southern California, go for the printer, otherwise, do screen printing.
why is this??? also i need a printer thats gonna print good to dark and light shirts for under $5000.... can anyone help me out
also whats the big deal with using screen printing for doing like 20 shirts or so???? and how much is the customer usually charged for screen print setup????
Binki was just joking around, because him and I are only a few miles apart and we each have our own DTG.
I don't think you can get a standard DTG printer for under $10,000, let alone one that can print really well on dark shirts. Of course, I can be wrong.
For 20 shirts, it's quite a lot of work, to some people, to prepare the screens and then clean them especially if the profit margin isn't that great. Setup fee will depends on the number colors and complexity of the design. I've been charged somewhere from $25 to $50. That was several years back, not sure if they're still about that range.
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Last edited by Vtec44; April 16th, 2007 at 04:16 PM.
why is this??? also i need a printer thats gonna print good to dark and light shirts for under $5000.... can anyone help me out
I don't think such an animal exists. It will cost about $20,000 for a Direct to Garment printer that can do light and dark garments.
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also whats the big deal with using screen printing for doing like 20 shirts or so???? and how much is the customer usually charged for screen print setup????
No big deal at all. Screen printers across the country do it every day
Screen setup charges to a customer can range from $0 to $50 per screen used.
we just got a quote on screen printing. $50 per screen, minimum order is 48 pc.
If you go to a show you can get a DTG printer with the white option for $11,000 plus sales tax (over $800 in the Peoples Republic of California).
You can buy screen printing setups on ebay and Craigs list all day long around $5K but I would expect you will spend $10K by the time you were done setting the entire thing up.
And yes, Vtec is close to me and is one of a number of DTG printers in our area! Stop it you guys!
Really, which printer would that be? The kiosk? I didn't know they went that low.
Yeah, it was a 'show special'. Comes with all the platens, white ink option, laser guide, extra ink, pretreatment, sprayer (i think) for pretreat and a few other goodies.
Direct to Garment or Screen Printing ???? 
Re: Direct to Garment or Screen Printing ???? 
