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Custom Tee Shirts, Screen Printing in the San Francisco Bay Area
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DTG Direct-to-Garment Printing

We temporarily no longer offer DTG services.  Please check back soon for DTG printing needs.

Digital printing is a method of garment printing that prints directly onto a shirt just like a regular desktop printing prints onto a piece of paper.

Artwork

First, the design is created or obtained from the customer.  It is placed in a graphic program like Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, where any necessary art changes, resizing, touch ups, and layout modifications are made.  Once the file is ready for print then the shirts are prepared for decoration.

Pre-treatment

The garments placed on a heat press which flattens out all the fibers on the shirt.  If the ink color is darker than the garment color, a chemical called “pre-treatment” is sprayed onto the fabric.  Pretreatment is necessary for white ink to properly bond to the shirt.

Artwork

Printing usually takes just a minute or two until the garment is finished.  They are then taken to the heat press one last time for a final cure.  In order for the ink to make its final bond to the shirt they need to be heated at a temperature of 330 degrees Fahrenheit for 1-3 minutes.  Before wearing the garments, it is recommended that you wash them first.  This will rid the apparel of the pretreatment used in the printing process.
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Pros

No minimum - There is no minimum pieces required when ordering digital prints so even one custom shirt can be easily made, unlike screen printing.

No set up -Digital printing does not require any initial set up costs.  That means no sert up costs for the customer as well!

Eco-friendly - DTG printing uses water based water soluable inks.  There are no nasty chemicals use in the process unlike those commonly associate with screen printing.

Cons

Color accuracy - DTG printing cannot produce the same very bright or bold colors as screen printing with plastisol inks.  The DTG printer uses a mixture of CMYK inks.  because of this, certain colors are difficult to use, such as rich blues or reds.

Short runs only -  This method of printing is intended for short run orders.  Unfortunately there is a 3 dozen piece maximum for all digital prints on colored shirts.  But at this quantity it is usually better and more affordable to have your garments screen printed anyways.

Quality -  DTG printing is best for photo-realistic images.  So if you were to do simple, spot color prints, the design will not come out nearly as nice as if it were screen printed.  They will also fade a lot faster than screened garments.

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