Welcome to the modern age! The best way to understand digital t-shirt printing is to think of it as ink jet printing but instead of printing onto paper it prints onto cotton. But that is where the simplicity ends! Whilst the process is still in its infancy, here at Shirtlab we have still embraced this technology in its current form as it produces outstanding results for certain jobs. Many t-shirt printing machines currently do not have this capability due to the high set-up cost.
For instance, screen printing can print at a resolution of up to 300dpi (dots per inch) and whilst it can produce excellent results,digital printing can print at 2000dpi! Digital t-shirt printing is therefore great for very detailed or very fine images as it can reproduce remarkably vibrant garment prints.The downside is that it is more expensive, per garment, than screen printing as only one garment is printed at a time and a lot more ink is used during the process.
Finally, the process also works best on 100% cotton or high percentage cotton garments. This makes it ideal for t-shirt prints and printing onto hoodies, sweat shirts and polos. Digital printing can produce a high quality print for all sorts of customised and personalised clothing.
For printing shirts under 6 items, this is our preferred method. Start designing now!
Great for printing detailed images-fantastic reproduction; used for orders of less than 6 items.
Expensive on higher numbers.