How to choose the printing technique for my artwork, orders from 1 piece of clothing

Have you finished creating your dream artwork that you would like to print on a garment for yourself or do you need a gift in the form of a T-shirt for a loved one, but don’t know which printing technique will be most suitable for this?

No worries! This article will help you choose it.

The printing technology mainly depends on the following factors:

the number of garments
the type of garment
composition of the garment material (cotton or polyester)
the number of printed colours
size of the print
overall appearance of print
whether there are colour transitions / gradients, whether there are fine details or very fine lines…
format of your artwork: vector (.cdr, .eps, .pdf, .ai) , bitmap image (.tiff, .png, .jpg)
lead time

Once we have this information, we will be able to select the right printing technique for your idea.

If you would like to know more now so that you can use the print price list yourself, please see the description of the individual technologies.

Printing techniques that we can use from 1 garment onwards

Flex foil (plain) and flock foil (flocked)

A durable printing technique that we can use on cotton or polyester garments (but only on light-coloured garments, where the print would be in a dark colour). Inscriptions, logos and uncomplicated graphics are well suited to this printing method. It is most often used for single-colour graphics, but simple graphics can also be done in two or three colours (without tonal transitions). Graphics for this type of printing should not have too fine lettering or elements and thin lines The thinnest line for printing must be at least 1 mm, and preferably 1.5 mm. The lettering should be at least 5 mm high and preferably 7 mm. Graphics for printing in this technology should be prepared in vectors (.cdr, .eps, .pdf, .ai). Flex / flock foil colours available in classic colours:

Flex film with blocker

This type of film is used on polyester materials. Thanks to a special blocker, we avoid migration of the T-shirt colour onto the print. Especially when printing in white, you should use foil with blocker. All other information is the same as for the standard flex foil. Available colours of flex film with blocker:

You can find more information about flex / flock film printing here

DTF digital printing

We will use DTF digital printing on 100% cotton garments. We can print almost any graphic with this technology. We print mainly on cotton t-shirts, as the print comes out best on these. Graphics for printing in this technology should be in .tiff, .png, .jpg formats. Colours in RGB. Of course, we will also print in CMYK, but the colours may not be reflected according to the customer’s vision.

Sublimation

We can use this technology to print on garments with a significant majority of polyester in the composition (minimum 65%). The print is made on white or light-coloured fabrics. This is because the printer does not have white ink, so a print made on dark fabric would be invisible. The print will be indistinct to the touch, ‘pressed’ into the structure of the T-shirt and will only deteriorate when the T-shirt is destroyed. Any multi-coloured graphic can be printed in sublimation (even with tonal transitions). Graphics for printing in this technology should be in .tiff, .png, .jpg formats. Colours in CMYK.

Subliflock

This is another of the more durable printing techniques. This technology can be used on garments of any colour and on both cotton and polyester. The print is sublimated onto a flock foil and then the whole thing is heat set into the garment. We can therefore obtain a full-colour print of multicolour graphics as well as any photograph. It is important to remember that with this technique, the graphic must be outlined in such a way that it can be cut out by hand, so the shapes cannot be too detailed or complicated to cut out. The print is tactile (“fleece” texture). Graphics for printing in this technology should be in .tiff, .png, .jpg formats. Colours in CMYK. Would you like to find out more about this printing method – subliflock?