By, The Curator
When it comes to getting your designs printed on a shirt there are two methods that you will hear about the most: screen printing and direct to garment (DTG) printing. It can be a little bit confusing to differentiate between the two at first, but hopefully this post will help you to understand what these methods are and which may be the most ideal for you to use.
Screen Printing
Screen printing, which is also referred to as silk screening, is the more traditionally used method of the two. The printer creates a mesh screen for each color in your design. They will often create an additional screen for a base layer of white ink if your art is getting printed on a darker surface. This white layer makes the other colors in your design stand out more and look less dull on a dark base. Screen printing is most ideal for those who need to order in large quantities and have designs with low color counts.
Pros
-Most common printing method so there is a variety of different printers you can work with
-Very quick production time for large orders
-More print location options since you can create different sized screens and print by hand or with a machine
Cons
-Can get very expensive if your design has many colors
-Complex designs and images will have a lower resolution
-Preparation work can take a long time since the design needs to be separated into individual colors and each screen needs to be burned and washed
Direct to Garment Printing
Direct to garment printing is a newer technology based printing method. To explain it in the most basic terms possible, it is essentially printing your design with an inkjet printer. Imagine that form you had to print out last month. Now replace the paper with a t-shirt and enlarge the printer about ten times. That’s direct to garment printing. It is a very precise method that offers the ability to print a large number of colors at once. Direct to garment printing is really useful for printing images and designs with a lot of colors.
Pros
-Price does not change based on the number of colors in your design
-High resolution printing capabilities that are not hindered by design complexity or color count
-Very little preparation work required
Cons
-Since this is a newer method it can be hard to find an experienced printer who offers DTG printing depending on your location
-Slow production time so this is more ideal for smaller orders
-Less print location flexibility since the base shirt needs to be passed through a printer
Screen and DTG Printing Shared Traits
-Print quality, lifetime, and durability will be about the same as long as you take care of your garments the correct way
Most Ideal Situations for Each Method
Screen printing is most ideal for designs with lower color counts and larger quantity orders. For example, printing promotional shirts with your logo on them would be a great order to get screen printed. Your logo is most likely pretty clean and simple with not too many colors. You will also need a lot of shirts printed since you need a full size run to sell or give out.
Direct to garment printing is most ideal for lower quantity orders and ones with complex designs. If you need a one off sample of a design so you can see how it looks on a shirt or you just want an exclusive one of one shirt, DTG printing is the way to go. If the design you want produced is an image or has more than four colors, DTG printing is probably the route you want to take. Just keep in mind that if you have a sophisticated design, but need a large quantity produced, DTG printing will be slower so if you have a deadline, order way ahead of it.
If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for reading and I hope I was able to help explain these printing methods to you. If you have any questions feel free to email us, or hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram!
Make sure you read our article on t-shirt production because a lot of the information in that post is related to what we covered in this one:
How Much it Will Cost You to Produce Your First Run of T-Shirts
The Curator 
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