Screen Printing
Screen printing involves using a screen which is actually a stencil. The screen is laid on top of the garment and the ink is then manually squeezed through the screen to lay out each color. It takes one screen for each color in the design. Each screen requires separate preparation and is not practical for small quantity orders.
Digital Printing
Digital printing is a brand new process and eventually will become the dominant way to print tee shirts. The process is very simple and easy to do. You can have as much detail and colors in the design as you want. The neat thing about this is that you are using a onetime set up. There is no charge for a re-order set up.
Kornit printing www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRJsXMcbb74
Required Art Work
All that is required is a design which is 300 dpi or better. Adobe Illustrator and Corel files are preferred. The design is then converted to our printer format. This is called ripping a design for printing. When the design is ripped it is ready to print. The design is then loaded into our Kornit digital printer and the printing begins. This is a onetime operation and there will never be future set up charges on re-orders.
Simple Process
The process is so simple but patent protected. The Kornit company owns patents which effectively keep competitors out of the market. There are other digital printers but they cannot achieve the production of the Kornit.
It takes about 3 minutes to print a shirt. When printing is finished all that’s left to do is run the garment through a dryer and pack and fold.
The advantage that digital has over screen is:
- More detail in design at less set up charges
- Small runs with unlimited colors
- High detail in design
- Excellent color matching
- Environmentally safe because the in is water based.
- Passes all consumer protection regulations
- Photographic quality printing
The greatest advantage is time to delivery. On super rush orders delivery can be had in hours not days. It cost more but there is a demand for one day delivery. People do forget they have events coming and DTG will save the day for them.