Question: What exactly is DTG Printing?
Answer: DTG is undoubtedly an acronym for Direct to Garment printing. Other terms for this include, however they are not limited to, digital direct to garment printing, inkjet to garment printing, and digital apparel printing. The DTG printing process involves printing right to textiles or clothing with ripple printer which is designed specifically to print garments. It needs a specialized platen and inks that happen to be formulated especially for cloth textile printing. These inks are printed directly to the material, unlike dye sublimation textile printing or heat transfer printing which uses a paper carrier which transfers the dye image using a mix of heat and pressure.
The fundamental technology used to create a DTG printing device is identical technology employed to build an computer printer just like those used in homes and offices worldwide, except they be expensive more, sometimes a lot more, dependant upon the type of output the printer will produce. Faster, bigger, and machines can cost in excess of $300K.
DTG Printing “officially” became a commercial enterprise in approx. 2004 when the first DTG inkjet printers were introduced in a large trade show for printers wear by the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association (SGIA) in Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA). Considering that the original units were introduced in 2004, a number of other printer manufacturing companies have jumped in the fray, as well as the speed and resolution have risen significantly over the past 10 years.
One good reason for DTG printing, though, is the fact cotton along with other natural-fiber cloth fabrics can not be dye sublimation printed, due to the porosity of the fibers. Poly fabrics like polyester and nylon can by “printed” with dyes through the heat transfer through the transfer paper for the fabric as they are closed fibers that start and encase the dye then close again since they cool. Natural fibers are incapable of achieve this, so inks were invented that could fill the space, as it were, using inkjet printing technology.
Natural fabrics are already printed for several years using inks that have been suitable for cotton, but with the advent of dye sublimation printing, it had become the challenge to generate the uv printer that may print cotton as well as other natural fibers with similar results, although, in my opinion, the shades don’t pop as well about the natural fibers, possibly since they are natural fibers.
Similar to most inkjet printing, most printers are driven by computers which may have RIP software. RIP represents raster image processor. These processing programs dictate the amount of ink 07dexypky in addition to sending information about the shirt color (dark clothing demands a white base coat under the image to be printed). Some RIP software (more costly versions usually) can easily “drive” multiple inkjet printers.
The primary reason direct-to-garment printing was designed was to make a strategy to print small quantities of shirts without the expense of having to setup multiple screens to print just a couple shirts or possibly a few dozen shirts. You can actually print just one shirt using this technology. That would be a high priced T-shirt, but some people have the budgets to afford just one shirt intended to order, so the DTG printers were invented. However, in comparison with printing one t-shirt using traditional screen printing methods, Garment printer is incredibly cost effective. However, with everything else that is computerized, the machine and inks are costly, even though results are typically cleaner and a lot more concise compared to screen-printing.
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Barry Brown has been doing the Sign, Banner, Decal and Display Business in excess of twenty years. It isn’t what he thought he’d do with his life, but he says he knows too much now to do everything else! They have been marketing these items online since 1998, as well as the company he was general manager of in 1998 was the initial sign company to be listed on Yahoo!