| When it comes to getting your designs printed on | | | | openings with ink and moves the ink reservoir to the |
| your shirts, you always want to make sure that the | | | | front of the screen. The operator then uses a |
| quality of your designs on your t-shirts turn out the | | | | squeegee to move the mesh down to the t-shirt and |
| way you wanted. Do you want a print quality where | | | | pushes the squeegee to the rear of the screen. The |
| you can feel the ink on the shirt or do you want the | | | | ink that is in the mesh opening is transferred by |
| print smooth and soaked deep into the shirt fabric? | | | | capillary action to the t-shirt in a controlled way. As |
| Are you printing bright colors or dull colors? When | | | | the squeegee moves toward the rear of the screen |
| thinking about this, you gotta have an understanding | | | | the tension of the mesh pulls the mesh up away |
| of the different t-shirt printing processes to see | | | | from the t-shirt leaving the ink upon the t-shirt's |
| which one suits the feel that you're going for. Know | | | | surface. |
| the technical aspects of printing. Here's some of the | | | | Direct to Garment Printing (DTG) |
| most common t-shirt print processes available to you. | | | | DTG is a fabric printing method that prints an image |
| Screen Printing | | | | directly onto the t-shirt through a modified version of |
| A screen is made of a piece of finely woven fabric | | | | a traditional inkjet printer. Basically,instead of using a |
| (or in other words a t-shirt) stretched over a frame | | | | screen and a stencil to apply ink to the shirt, the ink |
| of aluminum or wood. Some areas of the screen are | | | | is printed directly onto the garment. DTG offeres |
| covered with a non-permeable material to form a | | | | more flexibility than screen printing in terms of color |
| stencil, which is a negative of the image to be | | | | variation and turn around time. |
| operator meaning that the open spaces are where | | | | Heat Transfer Printing |
| the ink will actually show up. The operator begins | | | | With the heat transfer process, ink is transfered on a |
| with the fill bar at the end of the screen and behind | | | | carrier paper to the t-shirt. When heat and pressure |
| a reservoir of ink. The printer then lifts the screen to | | | | is applied to the carrier paper, the ink is transfered |
| prevent contact with the shirt and then using a slight | | | | onto the t-shirt. A common way that this is done is |
| amount of downward force pulls the fill bar to the | | | | by applying an iron to the carrier paper for a period |
| front of the screen. This effectively fills the mesh | | | | of time until the ink appears on the shirt. |