© Copyright 2021 RushOrderTees.com. Much of it depends on the capabilities of the print shop you’re using. Download the Digital vs. Screen Printing 1-pager Even though DTG machines can provide a bright underbase (plastic particle pretreatment and titanium dioxide white ink) which improves the vibrancy, the final results are still lacking, compared to screen printing. Whichever print method wins the most rounds takes home the championship belt. When you want to produce brochures, flyers, books, newsletters, posters, and other marketing material, your first step is … No variable data or customization options. He brings his well-rounded skill set and forward-thinking approach to every project he's involved with at Printfly / Rush Order Tees. In fact, the majority of online on-demand printing companies are currently using DTG printing machines. Most halftones for screen printing are output from a RIP program at anywhere from 30 LPI to 65 LPI (lines per inch) before being burned to screens. Imri Merritt aka M Imri (pronounced em-rye), also known as “M”, joined RushOrderTees in the spring of 2015, bringing over 10 years of graphic design and color separations experience in the screen printing industry. Like ink jet printers, this technique allows you to print millions of colors making it a perfect choice for full-color photographs. You need a t-shirt printing system that matches both your dreams AND your budget. I expect a clean and fair fight. Conventional machinery may print up to 200 metres per minute (gravure: 150-200 metres/min – screen: 50 metres/min), whereas the digital printer performance is only 50-100 metres per hour. SCREEN PRINTING … 6 rounds Ladies and gentlemen, people around the world, this is the moment you have been waiting for. With screen printing in the lead, DTG needs to get busy as we enter the sixth round. DTG has a big opportunity to catch up this round because it’s all about consistency. Get in touch with one of our consultants. Screen printing is a method of printing that gives you your artwork laid down layer-by-layer with a solid base underneath. Screen printing doesn’t have this durability problem if it’s done right. It’s just how it goes with screen printing. DTG has been making a few in-roads on the specialty ink front, but nothing that is widely available or as easy to accomplish. Source: fogra.org Today, there is a growing interest in the market for customization, branding, and unusual design for everyday things. Typically, DTG will have trouble with 50/50 blends, and not do well on polyester. Offset vs. Digital Printing. The screen is then placed on the fabric. Matching colors accurately is especially important when it comes to corporate branding. A steady stream of technological advancements improved quality and efficiency, but the central concept remains the same: push ink through a mesh stencil onto fabric (or “the substrate” if you want to sound like an expert). Digital Printing vs. Screen Printing – All you need to know. It's a good discussion to have, but ultimately the best printer depends on your product, the quantity you're looking for, and the desired application. He is a contributing writer for Impressions Magazine, Printwear Magazine, and ASI Central. If you’re ordering shirts for your staff, or as promotional items, or especially for resale, it’s always smart to go with what’s popular– if you want to make sure your employees or fans are happy. Digital printing differs from traditional, analog printing methods--such as offset printing--because digital printing machines do not require printing plates. WINNER OF THE ROUND: Save. When you want your design to really stand out– when you want it to pop off the shirt– you go with screen printing. A graduate of the Multimedia program at University of the Arts in Philadelphia, he has explored various creative pursuits, including art and design, marketing, DJing, and even producing comedy shows. But fade it will, eventually. The screen printing process has many variables. DIRECT-TO-GARMENT At The Print Authority, we are always happy to discuss your options when you are ready to place a print order. While screen printing is leading once again, this has truly been a back and forth battle so far. Especially when printing halftones. One round a piece as we go into the third. For example, if you wanted your logo to be placed 1″ from the collar of an upper back location, DTG may not be able to get that close to the seam. If using Plastisol, it means to thin the ink down with an additive to make it smoother and more lightweight on the shirt. As Direct-to-Garment digital printing has gained popularity and affordability, the question that arises more and more often: how does DTG printing stack up against traditional screen printing? Still, it doesn’t make up for screen printing’s ability to print a range that includes every color on the planet. SCREEN PRINTING. VERSATILITY Print locations: Screen printing is also less limited when it comes to locations. Two rounds each. Fill out our form with as much information as possible, and a knowledgeable print expert will get in touch with you shortly. The benefits offer a sustainable footprint. When printing, you will print one color at a time and cure that color before applying the next color this makes full color screen printing more expensive. 0. You can imagine what that is. DTG printing is typically favored for those fast, low run, high color count jobs; whereas, screen print will offer a better range of color, more flexibility in what it can print on, better hand on darks and a much larger printable size range. The primary reason is that the underbase isn’t opaque enough, so the shirt color bleeds through. WINNER OF THE ROUND: 0. From raised print to textures to shines and sparkles and glows, there’s a specialty ink or additive that can do it. When deciding between Digital Printing and Screen Printing for your T-shirt, we need to dive into comparisons to decide which is best for your business. Not many things in life are truly consistent, but when it comes to printing a run of T-shirts, we want them to look identical. Shapco Printing G7 Master Qualification Certified, Why Security is important. Browse our expansive library of design templates to help get those creative juices flowing! There are no screens involved, and therefore much lower setup costs. But the setup involved makes it much less efficient, especially for smaller orders. Even though DTG machines can provide a bright. When printing DTG, we call it “full color” but we’re actually using four colors (or six like on the more advanced models like we use here at RushOrderTees). And when screen printing logos onto coloured t-shirts, a “base print” is required – think of it as an undercoat – so for example, a white print on a black t-shirt requires 2 screens. It depends upon that printer is using which machines. SCREEN PRINTING. With DTG it really depends if the printer has a specialized platen (or if there’s even one available) that fits the garment location you’re trying to get printed. If you try to match those colors with DTG, they’re almost always going to be off. DTG has been around for barely 15 years, but in that time the advancements in technology have come at a rapid-fire pace. Screen printing is typically done by applying ink through a mesh-like stencil of the design. Digital printing vs. offset printing. DTG uses halftones as well, but these digital machines can print up to 1200 DPI, and use diffusion dither. DIRECT-TO-GARMENT. DIRECT-TO-GARMENT. Screen printing is a form of stenciling that initially gained popularity in China during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD). The list goes on and on. Both the printing techniques are suitable for t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, etc. It is old fashioned, dirty, smelly, unreliable, a craft, and it takes twenty years to become an ink covered expert. This allows the ink to overlap and blend together much easier, making beautiful, smooth gradients and giving DTG the winning edge in this round. The corner of DTG had some fear in their eyes because this round is about versatility. Nowadays, with advances in technology and digital printing it’s more important than ever to know the difference between a giclee print vs digital print, especially if you intend to purchase a fine art reproduction. When you want to produce brochures, flyers, books, newsletters, posters, and other marketing material, your first step is to create your design, copy, and layout. Subsequently, colors are applied one by one to the shirt, which is then dried and cured to complete your final product. Digital printing is newer, whereas silk screen printing is as old as the Chinese Song Dynasty. One major drawback of digital is that it is limited regarding colour. The major difference between digital and screen printing is how a print is transferred to the target medium. Beispielsweise können Kunden QR-Codes auf Online-Auftritte geleitet werden, auf Online-Portalen können Kataloge und andere Print-Produkte bestellt werden, die Möglichkeiten sind unbegrenzt und so können möglichst viele Werbekanäle genutzt werden. “Alright fighters, we’ve been over the rules. What are the Advantages of Digital Printing Services? Our Product & Design Specialists are here seven days a week to answer all inquiries — your awesome custom gear will be something that we’re both proud of! Need 50 tees printed now? SCREEN PRINTING. Three rounds to three as we enter the seventh round. Digital printing can be used for near enough anything and makes it very easy to personalise, and it’s a quicker alternative to screen printing. Back to training. A steady stream of technological advancements improved quality and efficiency, but the central concept remains the same: push ink through a mesh stencil onto fabric (or. Color blending is the ability to create smooth gradients and a range of colors by blending a lesser amount of colors. How it works . Screen tension, clogged mesh, ink viscosity, dot gain, flash dryer temperature, squeegee sharpness, squeegee pressure,  squeegee angle, registration, placement. An early adopter of digital print technology, Prisma, the Phoenix, AZ commercial printing company, decided the SCREEN Truepress Jet520HD digital inkjet continuous feed press delivers the productivity, efficiency and quality its growing list of customers expects. What we’re talking about in this round is color blending. With all the different printing methods out there, it can be difficult to find out which one best suits your application. A well-done DTG print can potentially get dozens of washes before it starts fading a little bit. SCREEN PRINTING If you would like to speak with a print or direct mail consultant or get a custom quote for your project, close this window. The most advanced DTG machines have added slots for two extra colors: bright green and bright red. Or, you can stack high-density until you get a print so raised it looks like an appliqué. When you absolutely need to match exact colors for your brand, you go with screen printing. Each separated color is exposed to individual screens. It works using process printing; the four colors of CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) blending together to create a spectrum of colors. There are two methods; UV-curable digital glass printing (also called digital UV glass printing) and digital ceramic glass printing. They are pigments and dyes. With Digital Printing, your design is printed directly onto the garment using water-based CMYK inks. “Excellence is in the details. Printing a specialty job can be a trial and error at first, but once you get it, successful results are super impressive and satisfying to achieve. Each one of these things can make a difference on their own. Halftones were developed in the 1800’s and first used in newspapers to reproduce the tonal range of photographs, and soon became ubiquitous in screen printing. And of course, any color garment your heart desires. In the early days of DTG, you would be lucky to get 10 washes out of a T-shirt before the colors would start fading. MORE NEWS. Instead of using metal plates to transfer an image, digital printing presses print the image directly onto the media substrate. Unfortunately for the DTG corner, their print method is somewhat limited in this category. There are two types of t-shirt printing, digital printing and screen printing. How Do You Choose the Best Printing Service? WINNER OF THE ROUND: Currently, digital printing accounts for 16.2% of the global print market value and 2.9% of the volume. Digital printing is increasingly utilized for print jobs that were previously printing using offset, flexo or screen printing. Screen printing uses screens of ink to print onto t-shirts and is often used for mass production. DTG relies on process printing, or the CMYK color model (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) to make the various shades of color. If the ink is applied too thick, it can weigh down the front of the shirt, or wherever the print sits. COMFORT & FEEL Craft Screen Printing VS Professional Screen Printing. Which is a tall order. Screen printing is more adept at standing up to wear and tear and washing. Which means if you’re not holding it, you’re losing it. You place the t-shirt directly into the printer, and the inks are squirted directly on to it (hence the name Direct To Garment). There is no need of making the plates. Sure, there are colors that are out-of-gamut for screen printing as well, but overall, its gamut is much bigger than DTG. Screen printing is more adept at standing up to wear and tear and washing. July 3, 2019. Each year this print method gets faster,  more affordable, and produces higher quality prints. COLOR BLENDING But adding this style is up to the customer and will not look right on all designs, so this saving grace only applies to particular orders. Screen printing techniques like “distress effect” can also create a softer hand by reducing the amount of surface area the ink occupies and breaking it up so it’s more flexible. Until then, screen printing remains the fan favorite. Digital Printing vs Screen Printing There have been great advancements recently in large format digital printing that are narrowing the gap in capabilities and allowing a wider variety of printable substrates including wood, glass and more. Screen Printing vs. Digital Printing: The Difference. It just works as a personal printer. Give attention to the details and excellence will come.” – Perry Paxton. WINNER OF THE ROUND: It’s just a metaphor. Read the latest news and updates about Shapco and the print industry. Next, the printer swipes ink across the screen … In short-run small format (A3 size) printing, digital is taking over from offset for both color and B&W printing. Digital printing, on the other hand, uses water-based inks, which lack the opaqueness and vibrancy of plastisol inks, especially on darker garments. When produced by a professional using the right equipment, either printing process will result in a high-quality t-shirt, but a few important differences still come into play depending on your design. All rights reserved. Got any crazy ideas? Screen printing versus digital printing. Justin Haynes 6 days ago. But DTG must be worried as the fifth round starts because this one is about durability, or, The quality of the machine, the inks used to print, the pretreatment, the. It's really only used for printing tee shirts and simple posters. This round is predicted to be a blowout. Instead, photographic prints are built digitally to copy and paste the final design. And several DTG manufacturers claim they can Pantone match – but only within gamut. Many companies have brand guidelines that specify Pantone colors. The last print of the run is going to look a bit different than the first print. COLOR MATCHING Darker shirts and color shirts can easily become a problem when trying to color match. This comparison will lead you in the right direction. How heavy the print the feels on the shirt. The Challenger. WINNER OF THE ROUND: The print buyer’s choice between offset printing and digital printing is driven by price, turnaround time, and the quality of the final piece. Ink in digital printing is applied directly to the print material using either a laser jet or inkjet printer. DTG comes out swinging in the second round with excellent color blending. DIRECT-TO-GARMENT. A decent professional machine can cost anywhere from $15,000 all the way up to $800,000. And digital printing on fluorescent colors is a no-go. Longer than some marriages. 2. Skip to content +86 15850596034 (0086) 025 86228894. sales@subli-star.com. You might remember seeing them if you ever looked at a comic book with a magnifying glass. Or should I say opaque? But the bottom line is that screen printing has much fewer restrictions. We take a look at the different types of t-shirt printing and answer questions like what's the difference between digital printing and screen printing. You don’t want to give someone road rash from hugging them. Unlike screen printing, digital ceramic printing on glass does not require screens and the files are stored digitally making printing of all sizes and replacement of any panel simple, in high resolution, full color. Digital printing is an alternative to traditional methods such as lithography, flexography, gravure, letter press, and others – it eliminates many of the mechanical steps required for conventional printing, such as making films and color proofs, manually stripping the pieces together, and making plates. Everything you need to know about custom screen printing vs. DTG so you can decide which option is the best one for you. Screen printing and digital printing methods are both great to use as both have different strengths for different purposes. POPULARITY. If an image is photographic or has gradients (fades, blends), screen printing will require, Most halftones for screen printing are output from a, Two rounds each. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Even at the higher LPI, these dots are visible if you look close enough. Pantone matching can be done with process inks and specifically with inkjet printing– and is done, all day every day– in other printing mediums. Screen vs Digital Printing Charlie SEOtool 2019-05-20T14:37:39+00:00 In recent years, DTG—direct to garment—printing has arisen as a notable rival to traditional screen printing for its low-cost appeal. It offers a highly detailed image, and you can enjoy live prints also. You are being directed away from Shapco.com to our online ordering site, Shapco Direct. It does not work on moisture wicking fabrics at all, without special treatment– and even then it’s not recommended. Like most things in this business, it depends. Questions? And that’s exactly what direct-to-garment printers were made to do. SHAPCO - 2019 SOC 2 & HIPAA Security Compliance Assessment, The Importance of Brochures as a Marketing Tool. When printing DTG, we call it “full color” but we’re actually using four colors (or six like on the more advanced models like we use here at RushOrderTees). When deciding between digital printing on fabric and screen print for your next apparel run, its important to understand the unique benefits each has to offer. Let’s have a quick look at some differences between pigments and dyes. Nowadays, you can get many many more until it starts fading. We have a fight on our hands. Since the technique’s primary advantage was that it could be used to print unusually shaped objects that couldn’t normally be printed, it became extremely popular in the Swiss watchmaking industry. WINNER OF THE ROUND: The versatility of digital printing allows the unlimited design potential to print any image, pattern, text, or graphic AND the ability to replicate the … ariacole. Minimum water is required for fabric pre-coating, printing, or finishing – a seamless process saving precious resources. There are several factors that affect screen printing detail: If an image is photographic or has gradients (fades, blends), screen printing will require halftones (tiny dots). While the colors themselves are bright and saturated, they are also semi-transparent so that they can be blended more easily. Screen printing is a more traditional t-shirt customization method in which each color in a design is separated and burned to individual fine-mesh screens. Now you people are thinking that why we should use offset printing in place of digital printing after a lot of time consumption is done in offset printings the reason is cost. Declaring your winner… by unanimous decision… and still! Digitaldruck (oder kurz „Digidruck“, im internationalen Sprachgebrauch auch Direct Digital Printing (DDP) oder Computer-to-Print) bezeichnet eine Gruppe von Druckverfahren, bei denen das Druckbild direkt aus einer Datei oder einem Datenstrom von einem Computer in eine Druckmaschine übertragen wird, ohne dass eine statische Druckform benutzt wird. Let’s go over digital printing vs screen printing and what the difference is. Der Unterschied zwischen gedruckten und digitalen Marketingmaterialien ist in wenigen Worten erklärt: Gedruckte Unterlagen sind Materialien, die du deinen Interessenten und Kunden auf Messen, bei Veranstaltungen oder direkt im Kundengespräch in die Hand geben kannst. To be honest: lately an attractive alternative has been created which combines the best of both worlds: direct sublimation printing. When considering digital textile printing, printers are often insecure because they fear it is a high initial investment that is doubtful to be earned back.When making a cost comparison between rotary screen and digital printing, the initial investment is often the only parameter besides the price of inks that is taken into account. Also, the color of the fabric can be a problem, mostly due to something called dye migration. And remember kids, nobody is getting punched in the head. Digital printing is a fresh and innovative solution that offers more flexibility than screen printing on glass. This is especially important for all the lightweight blends that are so popular today. Published on July 8, 2019. This can severely reduce the breathability of the fabric, causing what is affectionately known as a “sweat patch”. Consistency is DTG’s middle name. Over the next three years, he helped transform the Art Department, improving the overall quality, efficiency, and customer service of the team, while making some beautiful T-shirts along the way. 3. Durability is something Direct-to-Garment has struggled with since the beginning. Here at RushOrderTees, we have some of the most state-of-the-art machines on the market, but when it comes to high quantities, we rely on traditional screen printing. Although screen printing offers a higher quality print output, digital printing is becoming extremely popular as it entails far less pre-press artwork which makes it far more cost-effective. We’ve previously written about what high quality screen printing is (and why we have thousands of happy customers through using it), but there’s another type of printing that you may have heard of called Digital Printing (which is also known as Direct To Garment, or DTG). Versatility in this context is the ability to print on a variety of textiles, as well as a variety of garment styles, print locations, and placements. Although I design letterpress and screen printed invitations, I also do a lot of digitally printed invitations and “day-of” wedding stationery, like ceremony programs, menus, escort cards, and more. Screen printing remains the most widely known and widely used form of decorating custom apparel, but DTG is fast becoming a contender. As long as the printer can somehow position the garment on a platen, it can be screen printed. But we all have that shirt in our drawer from the family reunion 20 years ago that is still holding on. This can be really cool for a small sleeve logo. During the screen printing process, the image is turned into a stencil or screen. A DTG printing machine is essentially a giant version of an inkjet printer, similar to what you might have at your home or office, but it’s designed to print on T-shirts and other garments. Screen printing can be consistent, but only if the job is set up perfectly and each item is printed exactly the same. Think about someone running a 5K in the summer with a thick, solid layer of plastic covering their chest. Dazu zählen zum Beispiel Visitenkarten, Flyer oder Broschüren. With screen printing, we can take spot colors of Plastisol and create a spectrum of colors using a technique known as “simulated process”. Published on October 1, 2020 in Technology. Both techniques offer different advantages, but usually cannot be used interchangeably depending on your design and printing goals. We have a fight on our hands. In the Red Corner: When choosing between pad printing and screen printing, it’s not really a case of which method is better in general but which method is better for your printing project. Garment styles: If you’re only printing on the basics like T-shirts and hoodies, you can DTG all day long. “Sometimes students only need to get the main idea,” Singer said, “and then digital is just as good as print and a lot quicker … But if you want deep comprehension and synthesis of the material, have the students print it out and navigate the material that way. “the substrate” if you want to sound like an expert). Quantity: Vinyl printing is generally reserved for small runs (1-12 items) because it takes less time to set up than screen printing. DTG and Screen Printing are the two most common types of printing methods for textiles. You may be asking: why is popularity a factor? . Screen printing vs. Digital printing – 5 key factors to consider. With so many options, it’s sometimes difficult to know how to decide between on-demand digital vs. screen printing. SCREEN PRINTING. The primary differentiators between the two are production quantity, the amount of detail in the design, which is most cost-effective, and the overall process of both. Though offset printing dominates the printing industry, the demand for digital printing is increasing rapidly. Screen printing is the superior process for designs that require a high level of vibrancy as the ink in screen printing is applied thicker than that in digital printing, which results in colors with more brightness and depth. While choosing the best printing process for you: Digital printing vs Screen printing, you have to understand the pros and cons that each process offers. These print methods are evenly matched so far. 500,000+ Customers Nationwide w/ 99.7% Satisfaction. Think Roy Lichtenstein. That includes colors that are outside the range of CMYK, super saturated colors and specialty inks.