By: Bimol Bee
Submitted: 2011-08-06 06:05:36 | Word Count: 496
Nowadays, it has become possible for every person to make his or her own inscriptions or images on T-shirts. While making the final decision of what design to choose in order to be printed on the shirts, each of us wants to receive the highest quality of the chosen design on the t-shirt. Today, there are many different kinds of prints. An individual may a quality print the ink of which will be felt on the shirt. Some other people refer to have a smooth print soaked deep into the shirt fabric. Besides, bright or dull colors of print may be also chosen. In order to make the right choice of the design and color of print on your t-shirt it's important to understand various t-shirt printing processes. Getting acquainted with them and knowing the technical aspects of printing it will be easier to realize which print will better meet your needs and desires. The most common t-shirt print processes are described further.
Screen Printing
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A screen is produced from a piece of finely woven fabric (this is your t-shirt in fact) laid on a frame of aluminum or wood. A stencil is formed by some areas of the screen which are covered with a non-permeable material. This is a negative of the image and the ink will be visualized on the open areas of a t-shirt. The operator starts its work with the filling bar at the end of the screen, behind the ink reservoir. The printer raises the screen in order not to touch the shirt and with a slight downward force moves the filling bar to the front of the screen. Thus, we receive mesh openings thoroughly filled with ink. Then the operator pulls the ink reservoir to the front of the screen and using a squeegee moving the mesh down to the t-shirt pushes it to the rear of the screen. The ink in the mesh opening is transferred by capillary action to the t-shirt with the human controlled. When the squeegee moves toward the rear of the screen the tension of the mesh moves the mesh up away from the t-shirt leaving the ink on the t-shirt's surface.
Direct to Garment Printing (DTG)
DTG is a fabric printing method that prints an image directly onto the t-shirt's surface via the changed version of a traditional inkjet printer. The matter is that instead of a screen and a stencil used to apply ink to the t-shirt, the ink is printed directly on the surface of the t-shirt. Method DTG gives more flexibility compared with the screen printing in terms of color variation and spent time.
Heat Transfer Printing
Using the heat transfer printing, ink is transferred from a carrier paper to the t-shirt. With the help of heat and pressure applied to the carrier paper, the ink is transferred onto the t-shirt's surface. This method has the same principle as the one of using an iron to the carrier paper.
