Apparel Printing
Apparel Printing
Apparel printing is a weird science of chemistry, craftsmanship, resources, and good old-fashioned elbow grease. There are a lot of important details that go into every order. A seemingly small mistake can dramatically affect the outcome of your project. This may all seem complex or stressful, but it's our job to make apparel printing easier for you.
Each order is custom, and we can help guide you through the process. If you're experienced in your chosen printing process, that's great. However if you are new to the process or need more information, we are always more then happy to help out. Our team will advise you on the best methods for gettting the results you desire.
SCREEN PRINTING
Plastisol inks are the most common type of ink used when printing. This is the type of ink that you can feel on the shirt. We use a soft hand, more opaque type of ink that allows for a comfortable print that doesn't feel heavy. This type of ink produces a solid print that will last for decades.
We also offer water based inks. This is the type of ink that "soaks" into the shirt and leaves a print you cannot feel. You can achieve bold prints that are dyed into the fabric. When printing onto colored shirts, especially black, a discharge additive is needed. This removes the dye of the shirt and leaves behind the color dye you want the print to be.
Our minimum for orders is 60 shirts, but there are price breaks as you order more! Our standard turn around time on most orders is 7-10 business days plus shipping. If you need them in a quicker turn around, let us know and we will do what we can to accommodate. Depending on the turn around, there may be rush charges to expedite your order.
DIRECT TO GARMENT (DTG)
DTG is the acronym for the apparel printing technique called “direct to garment”. DTG uses water based eco-friendly inks to print artwork directly from a computer to fabric using a digital printer. Colored garments require a “Pretreat” which is a clear liquid that allows white ink to adhere to the garment. The colors in the design are then printed on top of the white base.
Designs going on white garments do not require pretreat or white ink, reducing cost when compared to colored garments. Artwork is sent to the digital printer through a software called a “RIP”. The software allows control over printing variables that effect quality and density of the print.
This process is ideal for very small runs of shirts and designs with many different colors. Our minimum is 20 shirts. If you're looking to get 60 shirts or more, we highly reccomend screen printing over DTG.
Order Details:
- Submit art as a high resolution .pdf or a vector image such as .ai, svg, or eps file.
- If you need your art cleaned up, our team can turn your graphics into vector images for an additional fee.
- Full color art will require a graphic design fee to separate colors and set up films
- You can mix up the colors of your order as long as there are 25 of each color shirt
- If the graphic stays the same, you can change the ink color for $25 per screen
- There are no set up fees, they are rolled into the print cost
- Darker shirts tend to need an under base, which increases the number of screens/cost.
Have questions? Ready to place an order? Email our screen printing department to get started!