I'll add option 3) Laser transfers.
Options 1 & 3 are less expensive to buy into and are more amenable to random/infrequent use than DTG. Laser has the advantage of no-weed papers, but the process of melding and separating A/B sheets looks fussy to me. So I would lean toward 1 ... but the options for black/dark garments are not as good as for light/white garments.
However, all of that is the easy part. The hard part is selling one's own designs, which is what I do. I screen print them, which is sort of inefficient and a bother at small quantities, but I like the look and quality of it. I first dabbled with screen printing 25 years ago, still there was a steep learning curve when I got serious about it. I'm not recommending this path to anyone, just saying what I did.
I have done a small number of inkjet transfers. I used an old, old, OLD Epson and JPSS paper for light garments. Looks great, and not hard to do. Is reasonably durable, but not close to screen print durability. I was doing rectangular designs, so no need to cut out a complicated shape to avoid having a "plastic window" around the design.
Options 1 & 3 are less expensive to buy into and are more amenable to random/infrequent use than DTG. Laser has the advantage of no-weed papers, but the process of melding and separating A/B sheets looks fussy to me. So I would lean toward 1 ... but the options for black/dark garments are not as good as for light/white garments.
However, all of that is the easy part. The hard part is selling one's own designs, which is what I do. I screen print them, which is sort of inefficient and a bother at small quantities, but I like the look and quality of it. I first dabbled with screen printing 25 years ago, still there was a steep learning curve when I got serious about it. I'm not recommending this path to anyone, just saying what I did.
I have done a small number of inkjet transfers. I used an old, old, OLD Epson and JPSS paper for light garments. Looks great, and not hard to do. Is reasonably durable, but not close to screen print durability. I was doing rectangular designs, so no need to cut out a complicated shape to avoid having a "plastic window" around the design.
