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Folker Stachetzki, Brother’s head of marketing, explores why choosing the right textiles is critical if you would like to produce top quality DTG prints.
DTG printing is still recognised for the highest quality and standards in the garment refining market, but even the best printers and the most exclusive textiles won’t help if there are variations in the production process, which impact the print quality.
In this article, I don’t want to look at the different printers, their advantages and disadvantages or the individual production steps, but instead focus on the textile to be printed.
The textile
The textile is besides the printer the most important element in the whole production process. It is not only the end product and should therefore satisfy the customer, it also has to go through the entire production process.
When it comes to the choice of textiles to be printed on, you should pay attention to the quality of the material.
Ring-spun cotton has proven to be particularly easy to print on, as the fibres are smoother and therefore generate a more even surface.
The weight of a shirt is also important – medium to heavy shirts offer a more stable surface by themselves. Very thin fabrics can lead to problems as the ink can penetrate through.
Not all colours are the same
Of course, it should be ensured that dark shirts are pretreated so that the water-based inks can show their colour brilliance and the washing resistance can be guaranteed.
But there is also a lot more that you should consider.
For example, with intense colours such as red or a strong green, you may need a stronger white underlayer so that the shirt colour does not show through and thus affect the design.
Most printers offer the option of increasing the white print to prevent this issue.
And where colour is not equal to colour, colouring is also not equal to colouring. There are various methods of pre-dyeing a shirt and all of them have one or the other theoretical advantages.
The method of colouring the textile
Direct to garment printing on coloured fabrics often encounters challenges due to dye interference.
The primary issues include colour shifts, where garment dyes alter the hues of DTG inks, resulting in inaccurate prints. Bleeding occurs when garment colours seep into the printed area, causing blurred edges and mixed colours. Fading is another problem, with prints losing vibrancy quickly after washing due to interactions between garment dyes, inks and surfactants. Additionally, inconsistent reactions between dyes and inks lead to uneven print quality, with some areas appearing more vibrant than others, detracting from the overall appearance of the printed garment.
Regular testing, careful selection of fabrics and inks, and optimising pretreatment processes are essential steps to mitigate the effects of dye interference. In the case of the above-mentioned problems, counter-tests should also be carried out with textiles from other manufacturers.
Paying attention to all factors mentioned in this article can significantly improve the quality of your DTG prints. If you choose the correct T shirts and for sure follow all other steps from machine setting to pretreatment and curing correctly, you will achieve bright, durable, and detailed print results.
Your customers will be grateful!
