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Direct-To-Garment Life Expectancy

SignsNowOH

New Member
I have a question that may have already been answered. How durable is direct to garment on a full color process design compared to screenprinting?
 

signage

New Member
All depends, what color shirt? If it is a dark shirt the inks sit ontop of the material much like screen printing and if it was pretreated properly it will last quite long, But over several washings will show some degrading.
 

WDP

New Member
We have a 2 Brother machines and whether its light or dark shirts our prints have held up in the wash. Brother says wash inside out and hang dry but we have wash normally just to test and have had good results. Not to say ignore their rules but we tried it by accident and ok so far.
 

binki

New Member
on lights, screen printing looks better until the shirt is washed, then they perform about the same.

on darks they are about the same.

The bigger issue is the shirt itself and the cost of white ink on dtg printers. The white is expensive. The shirts break down over time and the fibers pop through the print making it look faded.

For many of our shirts we do vinyl or flock. These hold up better than screen printing or dtg printing but it is more expensive in some cases.
 

SCOTTD

New Member
We get people in our shop with DTG printed shirts and the first compalint is that after the first washing the the print lost most of its color...

One day they will perfect DTG machines but they still have a long way to go.

Don't buy a new one there are tons of them out there that people want to get rid of cheap...

We see this daily so I am speaking from experience, not opinions..
 
We do screen printing, DTG and heat apply. The screen printed garments if cured properly will keep vibrancy and color for the life of the garment and the hand is very soft. DTG is good for several months if cured properly with basically no hand. Heat applied will hold the color but the hand is heavy. It is like most other things if done properly and with good equipment it will work. We have M & R autos, Workhorse manuals, Brother and Anajet DTG, Stahl's and Hix heat presses and M & R dryers. All process have thier uses.
 

WDP

New Member
We get people in our shop with DTG printed shirts and the first compalint is that after the first washing the the print lost most of its color...

One day they will perfect DTG machines but they still have a long way to go.

Don't buy a new one there are tons of them out there that people want to get rid of cheap...

We see this daily so I am speaking from experience, not opinions..

I can't agree. I feel dtg has gone a long way and is near perfection for what it is intended to be. We own the Brother GT 541 & 782 and see the shirt dye fade before the print becomes unacceptable. I have see many Screen prints look just ass bad as DTG after alot of washing if not sooner. Also most screenprinted shirts unless done by highly qualified individuals look like a shape of gunk (opinion) unless its discharge ink. And as for discharge ink, shirt with color they seem to fade rapidly.

All process have thier uses.

Very True
 
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