What is Digital T-shirt Printing

Since the advent of the digital age t-shirt printing has come a long way since the days of dripping water soluble screen printing inks and cut out stencils. There is no doubt that computers have changed t-shirt screen printing forever, however, the digital age has ushered forth many new forms of digital t-shirt printing not possible before there was mass usable computing. The main benefit is the ability to do small runs.

The first methods of digital t shirt printing came from printing onto transfer paper and with a hot press, you stick this on a t-shirt. Originally call Iron-on transfers because you could put them on with a hot iron. They where originally only possible to put them on light colours t-shirts. While the transfer products have improved for digital transfers, and transfer overlays they are not well known for there durability. There are now more efficient methods of digital t-shirt printing that are making digital transfers more and more obsolete.

There are digitally plotted cut-outs that are transferred to the t shirt or other garments with the the aid of heat presses, these cut-outs can be made from many different substances. Like Flock, Foil or Vinyl. The numbers on the backs of sports jerseys are usually done using this form of digital transfer overlay. This method is suitable for designs that have gentle curves and basic shapes, as fine details or sharp curves are not possible as the plotter has difficulty with such fine detail. These transfers are fully opaque and can be placed on any coloured t-shirts.

Another form of digital transfer overlay is digital printed dye-cut vinyl transfers. These can be printed in full colour and are transferred to garments with a heat press. This is a very durable application method but can sometimes feel very soft to wear.

Guide to T-shirt Screen Printing

T-shirt Screen printing is the most common form of t-shirt printing and dates back hundreds of years. Today it is still a very popular form of printing onto many different substances not just t-shirts. Here you can read more about the process of Screen Printing in more detail. If you dont want to read all that and want condensed version, than read on.

Well, as a guide only, to determine weather your design is suitable for screen printing you need to quickly count how many different colours there are in your design. If it's just 1 colour you will need to get more that 10 printed to make it worth while. Most screen printers will not reccomend printing less than 25 pieces, as the cost of the screen, film and set-up charges make small runs very expensive.

For example: Just to set up for a single colour screen print, the printer will charge you a film charge ($20-$40 per colour) depending on your printer. This is the cost of putting your design onto a clear tranparency, known as film (this is not overhead projector tranparency, the image is much more opaque, or black or not see through when held up to the light). This is what is used to turn your design into a stencil onto the silk-screen ready for printing.

There is the Screen charge usually ($50-$75 per colour) again depending on your printer. This the cost of perparing and exposing the silk-screen ready for printing.

Also if you have a small run there is usually a set-up-charge ($10-$30) depending on how small your run (the number of prints in a continuious order) of shirts is.

After all of this, there is the actual printing price. ($1.00-$5.00 per print)

Usually this is the price quoted by most t-shirt printers when you ring for a quote. They''ll say for example "Its $3.00 a shirt plus a once off set-up charge" Probably $100.00. Well if you want 10 shirts done thats $13.00 a print not $3.00 a print. The once off charge is only good if you go back and get more done. If you want more done you should get them done together, right now, it will reduce the total cost per shirt. Printing 25 instead of 10. The cost could will be $2.00 per print with a $80 set-up-charge. This will make them $5.20 each compared to $8.00 each for 2 runs.

This is certainly something to think about. If you really don't really need 25 and its a waste to get extra, than you might want to think about getting digital printing done.

TShirt Printing made easy.

The process of getting a few t-shirts printed can be a very challenging time for a newcomer to the t-shirt printing industry. How many colours in the print? How many thousand to you want? What kinds of shirts do you need? All these questions!! But they all need answers, answers that need to be thought about, or at least some kind of explanation to find out "what the hell" they mean.

Well in the next few paragraphs well will run you through what you need to consider, and what you need to know, so the outcome will be positive.

First you have to consider what type of decoration you want on your shirt. There are quite a few different methods of decorating a shirt. The most common are some of the old tried and true ways, such as with a screen (Screen Printing), or with some stitching (Embroidery), and now, with the advent of computer technology there is (Digital Printing). Each one has there advantages and there disadvantages. So you really need to work out what is best for you.