The Direct to Garment printers, popularly known as DTG printers prints digital images sourced from a computer to a textile substrate. DTG printing is also known as inkjet to garment printing. A specially made inkjet printer is used for this purpose.
A DTG printer offers a number of advantages as compared to traditional textile printing. Setup costs are much less, zero even, when compared to the screen printing method. DTG printers are essentially push button operations. You just have to start it and the machine is ready to do its work.
A big advantage of DTG printers are that it is perfect for small orders and the occasional print. Production costs are reasonable. Besides, any textile printing done through this technique are found to be detailed and accurate. Unlike their screen print brethren, the DTG printers does not charge as per colors printed. It follows that the printing is affordable too. The DTG printer inks attach to the fibers directly. The colors seem to be a part of the fabric. Simply put, this print technology is ideal for small quantity printing. It can also be used to print highly detailed images with gradients and shading. Various colors can be applied as well.
Process of DTG printers
The principal feature of the DTG process is that they are much simpler than anticipated. Many people are pleasantly surprised with the accurately rendered complex images on a fleece hoodie or a soft t-shirt. The DTG printer analogue is the home inkjet printers- with the exception of textile substrates substituting the paper. DTGs can be used to print a large variety of jobs, with millions of colors rendered.
The latest models of DTG printers are made specially for printing on textiles. They are formulated to print in a direct manner to the textile substrate. Other materials can also be used as substrates. Most substrates lend themselves to have photo-realistic designs on them.
DTG printing inks can be costlier compared to other inks. When it comes to darker garments, a white ink under base is required below the design colors. This base layer makes sure that the colors appear the way they were intended.
Do note that DTG printers use minimum amount of ink. This puts costs incurred on ink supplies at par with technologies which use lower priced ink but in greater quantities. The RIP software used to print in DTG permits to put the perfect ink amount where needed.
