Have you heard about DTF printing? Not yet? Then it’s probably time. We introduced this style of printing to our range at the end of 2021, and well we’re pretty impressed. Here you can find out why!
Different designs require different printing methods. On our Marketplace we’ll always find the right method for your designs and products. Most designs are printed with the infamous allrounder, digital direct printing. But for accessories made from more rigid materials, including caps, bags or products with particularly fine fibers such as polyester shirts we need to find a better match. This is when it‘s DTF (Direct-to-Film) printing’s time to shine.
DTF Printing Transfers: The Ins and Outs
Digital printing involves spraying your designs, just like an inkjet printer, directly onto the products. With DTF printing, however, your motif is firstly pressed onto a foil (or film). This allows for very exact ink quantities, meaning vibrant colors, opaque whites as well as remarkably sharp and fine edges. DTF film absorbs almost every drop of color, so even high levels of detail and color gradients are no problem.
Once the film has been printed, it gets a layer of adhesive, before being pressed onto the product, which sits in a pressing device. This makes DTF printing ideally suited for both light and dark products. It’s ultimately just as durable and stretchable as the product fabric. Here’s a quick summary of the main advantages:
- Available for all file formats
- Extremely stretchable and durable
- Suitable for dark and light textiles
- Compatible with cotton, polyester, blended fabrics and many other materials
Which products do we use DTF for?
Thanks to the moderate pressing temperatures, DTF printing is suitable for numerous different fabrics, whether coarse, fine or mixed.
The rougher materials include baseball caps, hats, bags and backpacks. But it also works well on T-shirts and hoodies, and on finer materials, in particular polyester fibers. As such, as they protect more sensitive fibers, DTF prints are perfect for sport and function shirts.
What do I need to look out for?
Basically, nothing. All our usual printing recommendations and requirements also apply to DTF printing, including:
- Transparent Backgrounds
- Best possible resolutions
- No half-transparent prints.
- Minimum line thickness of 1mm, as otherwise they can break away from coarser materials
You don’t even need to worry about which products you need to print with DTF. It’s part of our job as print-on-demand experts to find the printing style which fits your designs and ideas. That’s we set up the printing process to match each individual order.
Now you want to find out more about how we bring your designs onto the Marketplace? Let us know in the comments. Otherwise keep your eyes peeled for further reports on what we do.
Ok just make it look professional as you can I want to look like I got it from a high in store I trust you and if it come out great we will be doin more business thanks
On va tenter le coup et on verra ce que pense la clientèle !!!
Very interesting. Is the DTF replacing the DTG since it works on everything?
Hello Almdrs,
DTF is only an additional print method so far that is used for certain products (made from more rigid materials such as caps, bags or products with particularly fine fibers such as polyester shirts) where such good print quality cannot be achieved by using DD Print Type. Moreover, DTF is more expensive than DD, and since we have a seasonaly driven businees, we cannot easily switch to it for a large part of our products.
Best regards,
Kristina from the Marketplace Designer Team
I was having trouble with black hoodie with a large area of solid yellow looking washed out.
Can DTF take care of this and is it more expensive?
Hello Bo,
Yes, it is more expensive and the problem can be solved by using DTF. But it is not possible to switch individual orders from DD to DTF in our system so far. In fact, we cannot switch existing product types from DD to DTF.
Best regards,
Kristina from the Marketplace Designer Team