Looking to customise your own clothing with the best custom apparel printing techniques? If so, you should first become acquainted with the top three most popular apparel printing techniques available today.
SCREEN PRINTING
Screen printing, also known as silk screen printing, is one of the most widely used apparel printing techniques.
The famed technique involves pressing a screen against a t-shirt to apply paint onto it directly, one colour at a time. This means that if you want to use five different colours in your design, for example, a total of five separate screens will need to be used.
Screen printing is a popular apparel printing technique because it produces high-quality, long-lasting designs. The printed designs are known to stay vibrant and smooth for a long time. Moreover, screen printing can produce quick results when a single design or colour is used because the screens used in this technique can be reused multiple times. As a result, it is the best and most cost-effective technique for bulk orders. Most business or organisation apparel is made using this technique due to this very reason.
However, these very screens have their drawbacks as well. For starters, the screens are messy and difficult to work with. More importantly, however, as these screens only allow for one colour at a time, this technique isn’t ideal for complex or multicolour designs. It may also be more expensive for non-bulk orders.
DIRECT TO GARMENT (DTG) PRINTING
Direct to garment (DTG) printing is a relatively new apparel printing technique.
The technique involves the use of a DTG printer to “inject” or spray ink directly onto a specific fabric, similar to how a regular printer works. As DTG printers are hard to come by, only a few apparel printers (including us) offer DTG printing.
However, as difficult as it may be to source for DTG printers, they are extremely worthwhile. As the ink is directly “injected” into the fabric, DTG prints have an extremely soft feel, so much so that some people even claim that they can’t feel the prints. Aside from that, DTG printing also allows for photo-realistic and complex designs with unlimited colours and shades – all of which are not possible with screen printing. This, along with its ability to accommodate non-bulk orders, makes DTG printing an excellent choice for those looking to customise t-shirts for personal or daily use.
Unfortunately, one of the main disadvantages of DTG printing, aside from its high upfront cost, is that it takes a longer time to print designs due to its high degree of precision. The prints are also less durable. Thus, they may fade after many washes.
HEAT PRESS PRINTING
When it comes to custom made apparel printing, heat press printing is typically regarded as the most economical technique.
The heat press transfer apparel printing technique involves printing a transparent dye on a special piece of paper known as transfer paper. The printed design is then placed on top of a fabric or garment and pressed in a heat press machine. It is pressed until the heat softens the dye on the paper to the point where it seeps through the fabric. When finished, the transfer paper is simply removed, and the excess dye is stripped off – leaving the printed design on the fabric.
Similar to DTG printing, the heat press printing technique can be used to print complex, intricate designs in a variety of colours and shades. The heat press printing technique also eliminates the need to apply different colours separately, resulting in faster prints. This, combined with its ability to reproduce prints without compromising quality, makes heat press printing both an ideal and economical option for customising small orders of t-shirts.
Heat press printing, like the previous two apparel printing techniques, has a few disadvantages. For starters, the technique does not work well on dark-coloured fabrics or materials due to its use of translucent dye. Aside from that, it also cannot be used on fabrics or materials that are heat-sensitive, such as nylon.
WHICH IS THE BEST APPAREL PRINTING TECHNIQUE?
Now that we’ve briefly covered the top three apparel printing techniques, we can move on to what is perhaps the most important question: which of these three apparel printing techniques is the best?
Truth be told, each of the three apparel printing techniques has its own set of advantages and disadvantages, making it impossible to say which is best. There’s also the fact that the best printing technique for a buyer depends on several factors, such as one’s design, quantity, purpose, and so on.
It’s complicated, we know! But don’t worry, we’re here to help with our professional apparel printing Singapore service!If you need more information about apparel printing techniques, apparel printing services, or custom apparel printing in general, feel free to call us at +65 6362 2440 to speak to our enthusiastic team of apparel printing Singapore experts!
