Thinking about buying a DTG printer? It's not just print and press, especially on dark shirts.

Here's the real step-by-step process and the honest trade-offs, from someone who's been printing direct to garment since 2020.

How DTG printing works

DTG prints ink straight onto the shirt, so there's no transfer film, cutting, or weeding involved. Compared to DTF, there's no powdering and no transfer sitting on top of the fabric that can feel stiff or peel, and you can see and feel the shirt's weave under the print. Compared to sublimation, a DTG printer can print white, so it works on both light and dark shirts, and it prints directly onto cotton and cotton blends instead of requiring polyester.

To see how DTG compares to DTF in more detail, see DTF vs DTG Printing: What's the Difference and Which Is Better?

The 4-step DTG process for dark shirts

A white shirt is quick: load it on the platen, print, then heat press to cure the ink. Anything darker takes four steps: apply pretreat, cure the pretreat with heat, print a white underbase followed by the color layer, then cure the ink. Pretreat is the step that makes or breaks a dark shirt print. It's a barrier that keeps the white ink from soaking into the fibers, and most DTG problems like patchy prints, cracking, and dull, washed-out color trace back to pretreat that was too light, uneven, or missed an area. The platen holds the garment flat and smooth while it prints, and it doesn't clamp down, so it generally doesn't leave a mark.

What to know before you buy a DTG printer

DTG is hands-on for every single shirt, which makes it great for one-offs and custom orders but hard to scale. Any printer with white ink also needs more maintenance than a CMYK-only machine, since white ink settles and has to be kept moving. The price of the printer isn't the full cost either, because you'll also need a pretreat applicator and a heat press or conveyor dryer for curing, and platens are machine specific, so check which sizes are available. DTG is a great fit if you want to print on cotton, need both light and dark shirts, and love the soft feel of a print that's part of the fabric. If speed, simplicity, or scaling up matter more, DTF is worth a hard look.

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through my links, I receive a small commission. That's what helps fund Silhouette School so I can keep buying new Silhouette-related products to show you how to get the most out of your machine!

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