Printing Tshirts with Digital Customisation Machines
Whether you're thinking of starting a custom t-shirt business, looking for a way to print more t-shirts faster, or you just want to sell t-shirts along with your existing products, digital print has a solution for you. Keep reading to find more easy ways to customise t-shirts and maybe even make a profit.
• Tshirt Printing: The Easy Way >>
• Making Custom Tshirts with a Heat Press >>
• Tshirt Design Options with Heat Transfer >>
• Screen Printing and Mass Production >>
• All-over Printed Shirts with Dye Sublimation >>
Tshirt Printing:
The Easy Way
Of all the ways to print a design on a t-shirt, it doesn't get much simpler than direct-to-garment (DTG) printing. Compact t-shirt printers aren't much bigger than everyday household printers and they're just as easy to use.
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Making Custom Tshirts
With a Heat Press
When you first start making your own t-shirts, you'll most likely begin with a simple manual screen-printing set-up, or you'll invest in a vinyl cutter and a heat press.
With the staggering range of interesting and eye-catching vinyl available, it's not hard to see why people get hooked on making t-shirts with a heat press. The best thing is, it's a simple (and fun) process:
DESIGN A TSHIRT
When you know what you want to print on the shirt, this is the easiest part. The tricky part is finding t-shirt designs that other people might want to buy.
PREPARE VINYL
You can cut the vinyl using a cutter, or you can even print on it first using a printer/cutter. Then, simply weed off the excess and lift the design using transfer tape.
PRESS
Place the design on the shirt, then use a heat press to fix it in place. All vinyl is different, but it should come with instructions for pressing times and temperatures.
Tshirt Design Options with Heat Transfer
Heat transfer is such a versatile way of making t-shirts or any other custom clothing for that matter. Since the technology really took off, creative designers have come up with innovative ways to mix media and produce premium effects like these:
If you're an expert with vector illustration, you only need one colour to create an awesome t-shirt design.
With printable vinyl, you can use a printer/ cutter to add your design and cut it out, then press it like any other vinyl.
This is another example of outside-the-box thinking: before pressing the printed vinyl, you can add a layer of doming resin.
Sparkly glitter media is just one of the popular design choices for personalised tshirts, hoodies or custom clothing of any kind.
How diverse is the range of t-shirt vinyl? Here's just one example: when heat is applied, this media expands for a 3D effect.
Not everybody likes rhinestones and gems - some people love them! Once you find a way to do it quickly, you can make big profits.
Screen Printing and
Mass Production
If you want to mass produce high-quality t-shirts, screen printing is a great way to make hundreds of units. However, if you want to customise them individually, the technology has its limitations.
Industrial DTG devices let you specify each unit in the software before sending the design to print and make a dozen individual t-shirts in a few minutes.
All-over Printed Shirts
with Dye Sublimation
Dye-sublimation is similar to heat-transfer in practice, but the technology is quite different. Sublimation inks adhere to synthetic fibres on a microscopic level. Put simply, they don't just go on the t-shirt - they go in the t-shirt.
This lets you print a pattern directly onto the fabric and once the ink is cured, the pieces can be cut out and stitched together to make a custom shirt from scratch.
Because the output is light and breathable, dye sublimation is especially popular for activewear and gymwear, and its bright colours make it ideal for competitive sports like cycling and motocross.