The DTG Column Quality DTG: from concept to final product
Dmitry Sarbaev, managing director of FLUXMALL DTG, explains how you can create quality direct to garment prints from the off.
fastness might occur if the selection of the fabric is not taken care of properly. In most cases, this is a trial and error method of choosing a proper DTG-friendly fabric, so it is essential to complete it at sampling stage.
D
irect to garment printing has always been one of the premium methods enabling merchandisers and garment decorators to unleash their creativity with full-colour designs and make outstanding printed apparel. The graphic designer has the full scope of tools to create a very integrated graphic into whatever garment they are printing on. Mastering photographic-quality artwork creation first and foremost is an absolute necessity to benefit from using DTG. However, next to knowing how to prepare the artwork, any decorator should be aware of various print production and post-production aspects to be taken into consideration, especially if it is not a simple one-off T shirt, but rather bulk manufacturing of the same print (fashion market, promotional merch, etc.).
Samples first – always test! Don’t neglect the opportunity to print samples yourself or go make them at your DTG printing service provider’s facility. Samples play an important part in any production process, and DTG is no different. It might happen that what you visualise in your head and further in your graphics application would look completely different when printed on the fabric, so you will need to make the adjustments in your design.
| 52 | October 2022
Another common task is to select the colour of the substrate properly – most state-of-the-art RIP software can cut the very same colour from your artwork automatically, so that you will be using the colour of fabric instead, as part of your image. Sometimes you might need to reposition the artwork and scale it up or down in order for the print to be proportional to the size of the garment and be properly located, for instance, with relevant offset from collar or pocket.
Needless to say, that doing proper colour management of your artwork is frequently required. This will depend much on the initial ICC colour profiles of your DTG printer, but often times some specific colour tweaking is necessary. Bear in mind that common printers have CMYK output only, whereas most designers operate in a much wider RGB gamut, which makes some spot colours close to impossible to replicate while printing.
Fabrics
The role of fabric is typically underestimated when it comes to the quality output. The final print is the result of multiple chemical reactions between DTG pretreatment/ post-treatment liquids, DTG pigment inks, but also various chemicals that are used in fabrics color dyeing and finishing. Different issues like dye migration, fading of the image, strong fibrillation and poor wash
Output consistency Once you are set with the artwork preparation, colour management, fabric selection and sample printing – you are ready to print in bulk! This is when the printer operator’s skills play the major role to ensure consistency across the printing batch. In other words, all prints of the same artwork should look equal in a single production run. In order to make it happen, the operator should: • Watch out the spray pattern of the pretreatment unit, so that pretreatment liquid is evenly applied in the target area.
• Ensure the fibres being down and the fabric being flat on the printer platen
• Use enough white ink coverage to make a solid layer of underbase, especially at the areas of solid colour blocks.
• Maintain full nozzle test for perfect jettability of print heads.
• Run the wash test to check the wash fastness of the prints.
There is a variety of common production issues that you or your printing service provider should be familiar with, which normally comes with much printing practice only. This includes pretreating too much or too less, bleeding, excessive fabric moisture, stain and colour fading and many others. It requires skills, determination and being meticulous in details to print products that would satisfy the most picky customer.
Customer experience
Customer experience is the culmination and is far beyond just the print. It is also the way you present the final product: how you achieve nice and soft handfeel, which handtags you design and use, how you select proper packaging. These are your post-production steps that you need not neglect, should you strive to achieve both the best quality of DTG printed products and the customer experience.
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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