How to Avoid Losing Money in Garment Printing

One question that remains a repeated concern for almost every potential direct-to-substrate printing convert is if it's a sound investment. The top selling points compelling an entrepreneurial investment hinges on environmental protection, quality, accelerating production and keeping operating expenses reasonable. The direct-to-garment ecosystem continues to get immense support from micro-entrepreneurs and small-scale enterprises.

The body of leading industry giants that have joined the revolution isn't as impactful. Nonetheless, dtg garment printing has enabled many businesses to seamlessly transform and expand their merchandise. It’s had an incredible run role as a combination method. Moreover, it’s a trend that's quickly gaining favor as eager entrepreneurs learn about its versatility and options; to maximize business opportunities.

Is productivity suffering?

Predating the age of DTG digital technology, operators made do with conventional techniques like digital transfer paper and silkscreening. However, both methods involved demanding steps that greatly impacted productivity. For instance, digital heat transfer uses laser technology and desktop inkjet for single shirt printing. Although one-off shirt printing makes an attractive feature, this method uses polymer adhesive to bond the ink and fabric together. Sometimes this causes discoloration or creates a polymer window around the image.

With recent technological innovations, specialized image transfer papers have been introduced to remove the polymer window altogether or minimize it. With demands for high-quality short-run personalized merchandise increasing every day, apparel designers needed a faster method.

While silkscreening does high-precision printing, a lot goes into preparation, especially the artwork. What's more, silk screening requires a spacious work area, which is not always feasible when operating a micro and small-scale production. Direct to substrate UV printer brings new, exciting possibilities to the apparel decorating industry. It doesn't involve time-intensive processes as observed with conventional screen printing.

Finding a creative solution

Custom printed merchandise generates substantial income for those in garment decoration. Direct-to-substrate printing lacks common setup frustrations found with screen printing and other techniques. As a high-precision technique, DTG inkjet printing accentuates image details to a greater degree than normal silkscreening. What’s more, it’s on-demand capabilities makes it an excellent model for small startups processing short-run orders using multiple colors. Normally, this required intensive manual labor and skilled hands to produce each print job.

This is particularly true for silkscreening which involves meticulous techniques and intensive preparation to achieve desired results. With an increasingly urgent need for immediate turnaround and small batch printing nowadays, not having the right equipment can hurt the business. Having direct-to-substrate technology with on-demand capabilities creates more business because it promotes automation and supports creativity. Moreover, the DTG technique puts no restriction on color variety and one-off designs.

A lot of consideration should go into buying apparel decoration equipment for the business. Yet, handpicking any machine from a product comparison chart always seemed so right. Even so, it’s imperative to do meticulous research before investing. The wrong approach could easily jeopardize an investor’s business design. Both silkscreening and direct to substrate techniques yield quality prints although choice weighs heavily on the needs of the business.

For example, low to medium level garment production doesn’t necessarily require a traditional screen printing setup. Alternatively, it makes an ideal match for high-volume garment manufacturing. In comparison, DTG inkjet printing thrives in a low-volume manufacturing environment, especially one-off designs that include intricate graphics.