Which process is better to choose when customizing T-shirts or cultural shirts?
T-shirt printing is basically divided into four categories: screen printing, transfer printing, hand-painting and digital direct printing.
1. Screen printing
Screen printing is a widely used T-shirt printing. 90% of the T-shirts bought in stores outside are screen printed. The screen printing technology is relatively complicated and mainly includes design, film production, printing, and printing. Drying takes several steps. Screen printing, to put it simply, if the pattern of a T-shirt has three colors: red, yellow, and blue, it needs to be printed in three versions, one for each color, but it is a bit different from the CMYK printing. Similarly, most domestic printing uses spot colors, and it is difficult to control the superposition of CMYK dots on T-shirt printing.
2. Thermal transfer
Thermal transfer printing can be said to be a supplement to screen printing. Since many overly complex images cannot be completely printed by screen printing, thermal transfer printing is used. Simply put, heat transfer printing is to press special paper with printed images onto clothes through a heat transfer machine. Its advantage is that the printing pattern is vivid in color, and more importantly, it is quick and convenient. The disadvantage is that some light-colored patterns are not clear enough, and the areas where the pictures are printed are not breathable. T-shirts made by heat transfer printing are generally suitable for producing a large number of disposable cultural T-shirts for group activities.
Transfer printing technology is a printing technology that has become popular in recent years. The principle is to first print (print) the pattern onto the transfer On the printing paper, the pattern is printed on the T-shirt fabric through high temperature and high pressure. Compared with screen printing, transfer printing has the advantages of speed, convenience and realistic colors, but it also has the disadvantages of relatively low color fastness and high mass customization costs. If you just want to design a unique T-shirt, you can consider printing the design and then transferring it to the T-shirt. There are many tutorials on the Internet, so I won’t go into details here.
Hand-painted T-shirt
Hand-painted, most hand-painted T-shirts are now spray-painted Of course, there are also many paintings that use pens. The paints used are usually acrylic paints and textile dyes. The cost of hand-painted T-shirts is relatively high, and no one can guarantee that every piece will be the same.
Hand-painted printing is to draw on a T-shirt by hand using a pen. The commonly used pigments are textile dyes and acrylic paints. Because it is drawn by hand, the experience and skills of the painter have a great influence on the entire printing process. And once a mistake is made, it is inconvenient to change, so the cost of paint and workmanship for hand-painted T-shirts is very high.
Digital direct injection
Digital direct inkjet printing is currently a high-end and cutting-edge printing. Digital direct inkjet printing can be printed. The extra-long and thickened platform can make printed items 600-1800mm wide and 1- 2.5m, thickness 0-20cm, different manufacturers have different parameters. The market space is beyond imagination. Stones, shells, plates, bamboo crafts, mobile phones, cups, lighters, keys, stationery, laptops, CD players, MP3s, crystal badges, smart cards, business cards, certificates, photos, plaques, flowers, couple sets , CD… The printing range covers dozens of categories and tens of thousands of items such as personal supplies, craft gifts, office supplies, stationery and signs, home decoration and building materials, flowers and fabrics, clothing\shoes and hats.
Digital inkjet printing is a new technology that mainly includes drilling, splicing, stringing, peritonealization, cutting and other processes. Although it is inseparable from professional digital inkjet printers, direct inkjet technology is relatively mature. Of course, digital direct-injection printing also has many advantages that traditional printing cannot match. In addition to large-scale printing, it can also be printed uniformly. And it has the advantages of non-fading patterns, breathability, no odor, and non-toxicity.
Which printing process is better to choose?
The above four types are the common types of T-shirt printing. So which printing type is better to choose to customize T-shirts?
In fact, each of the four types of printing has its own advantages. As for which process to choose, it depends on the quantity of customization and the needs of the individual.
Select from cost price:
Comparing the above four technologies, if your design only needs a few pieces to be printed, you can choose thermal transfer printing, which is more cost-effective. If you want to make dozens or hundreds of pieces, you should still choose screen printing or direct-injection printing (cotton 75%). The larger the printing volume, the cheaper the plate making fee will be per T-shirt.
