An Overview of T-Shirt Printing Techniques

Throughout many years the industries of fashion and clothing have evolved by leaps and bounds, especially when it comes to middle and lower classes. These days, it is literally possible to obtain any type of clothing, made out of any type of material. After all, to witness all the imagination spent in making new clothes one simply needs to look at what catwalk models sometimes wear; it's mind-boggling. In any case, one of the greatest advantages which technology brought to us is referred to as T-shirt printing.

What precisely is T-shirt printing? Well, you've probably seen a variety of T-shirts already with run-of-the-mill designs that were mass produced for public consumption. While some of the designs are indeed noteworthy, the truth is that for a lot of people they do not have enough uniqueness, considering there are thousands, of not millions more models that are essentially the same. What T-shirt printing allows you to do is to make a shirt with your own design on it. You can literally put any type of art on it, whether it is a drawing, a picture, a painting, or something Photo-shopped. As a matter of fact, over the years many T-shirt printing techniques have been developed, each one having its pros and cons.

First of all, there is probably what is the most common method, screen printing. Why would someone use this printing technique? Well, to start things off this method more often than not produces extremely high-quality results that are very durable and will last for a very long time. Also, it should be mentioned that in terms of quality to price ratio, this method is the most economical one. However, when it comes to a choice of colours and sizes, this method may be lacking in variety. Also, it is somewhat of a tedious task to set up the whole thing.

The second method is referred to as heat transfer, which has also gained some popularity in the last few years. The main perk of this T-shirt printing method is the fact that it allows for prints to be done in full colour with a finish that makes it look like a picture. As far as customization goes, this method basically allows you to print anything you want. However, the quality of the print is lesser compared to other methods, especially considering that it starts to crack and wash out after twenty to thirty washes.

Finally, there is the direct to garment T-shirt printing method. One of its main benefits is the fact that it is very easy to set up and the process itself is extremely quick in comparison to other methods. Also, the design is very easily customizable, allowing you to have pretty much anything you like, how you like it on your T-shirt. However, this method does have some disadvantages as well, mainly the fact that good prints are very hard to make on dark-coloured shirts seeing as how the shirt itself becomes the brightest part of the design during the process.