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how close are the DTG inks to regular fabric paints?

1534 Views 4 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  paokrab, 
vlcnmstr
I am wondering how close regular fabric paints are to the inks used in DTG printers? I realize the inks are probably finer, more liquid and such, but makeup wise? I do hand marbling of fabrics with fabric paints and we use alum to prep the fabrics so the paint stays.

My question is would that work for some things on DTG? i.e. one off scarves or handkerchiefs or other non cotton items? Like silk and wool? Not thinking production at all, just the artsy side of "other things to do when you're not printing t's"
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FatKat Printz
You would not be able to do non-cotton items.. they just recently came out with some poly pretreat for poly items.. but I would not suggest you try silk or scarves.

DTG inks are water based and very thin. You can do 80/20 hankies and they print nice.

the best print quality you are going to get out of DTG is on a 100% cotton item.. 80/20 prints nice but the lower cotton ratio the less quality print that you will get.

the poly pretreat they just came out with I am not sure about it.. you will have to research the forums..
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TheMerk
We do some specialist printing with a GT-541 onto pure silk, and it does a great job. DTG inks actually work on most natural fibers, not just cotton. Synthetics like polyester are chemically very different to plant and animal fibers, so the inks can't bond. Haven't tried wool, it might be worth a shot.

Prints look amazing on high thread count silk, since you get a much higher effective resolution than you do with t-shirt fabric.
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V
There are textile fabric paint for cotton and threre is opaque white ink and it is interested for us who have DTG.

Jacquard Textile Colors Color Chart
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P
FatKat Printz,

I want to print on 35/65 (cotton/poly) on 100% poly please recommend preteat for its.

thanks
Pao.




FatKat Printz said:
You would not be able to do non-cotton items.. they just recently came out with some poly pretreat for poly items.. but I would not suggest you try silk or scarves.

DTG inks are water based and very thin. You can do 80/20 hankies and they print nice.

the best print quality you are going to get out of DTG is on a 100% cotton item.. 80/20 prints nice but the lower cotton ratio the less quality print that you will get.

the poly pretreat they just came out with I am not sure about it.. you will have to research the forums..
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