Digital Garment Printing

Running Threads offers a variety of print options to meet all your needs!  Quickly becoming one of our most popular methods is Direct to Garment printing, often referred to at DTG or Digital printing. Our customers love the results, so lets dive into this a bit!

What is it?

This process uses water-based inks which are absorbed into the fibers of the fabric. Creating a vibrant image made up of thousands of pixels (smallest measurable point in a photo/design).  Similar to a large photo printer but on a larger scale!

Why use it?

We utilize the latest Digital Printing technology!  The outcome is precise and ideal for full color and detailed designs. Digital printing gives you nearly endless color options and can make small details pop. It’s a good print method for small orders as well!  Ever needed just One? Or ten shirts?  

Digital printing is the best way to print photos on t-shirts. No more large pieces of vinyl plastered on your chest!

This service is a great way to get full color prints on small orders and catch all the detail that is sometimes lost with screen printing. Screen printing small orders with a large number of design colors had previously been cost-prohibitive before the advent of Digital Printing. 

What fabric is best?

Considering DTG ink is water-based, printing works best on natural fabrics and natural-synthetic blends.  In terms of the best fiber content to use we recommend:

• Ringspun 100% cotton
• Regular (100%) cotton
• 50/50 poly-cotton blends
• Tri-blend (cotton, poly, rayon blend)

We’ve found that there are a few garments that are difficult to print using digital methods. Safety colored shirts, pique polos, and shirts with splash guard often fall below the standard we strive for. If you’re having trouble figuring out the best print method for your order, our product and design specialists can help.

How to care for your DTG Items?

Upon receiving your digitally printed item, we recommend washing inside-out in cold water, hang dry or tumble dry LOW heat.  All colored items require a special chemical pre-treat which you may feel on your item, generally one wash will dissolve the remaining chemical and leave you with a soft-feel and vibrant print.

Summary 

• Yields high quality, durable images.
• Print on any color garment, light garments give us the best results but there are no limitations
• Price: Fixed cost per shirt, regardless of quantity ordered. Often cheaper than screen printing for detailed, multiple-color images or small runs.
• Used for: Photos, Graphic Effects, and highly detailed images