Direct to garment printing tips
Printing onto dark shirts
In order to achieve consistent and even white prints and good wash
resistance on dark or coloured fabrics, a fabric pre-treatment must
be added to the textile / tshirt surface.
The application of the pre-treatment is the key to produce good white opacity and ink adhesion to the fabric.
Equipment required for DTG printing:
Liquid spray gun (HVLP), the spray gun must be a high volume low
pressure model to achieve a spray with fine drops.
Tshirt heat press
Sheets of baking paper ( G-sheets )
Mask ( optional ) helping to limit the spraying surfaces to only
those areas that need to be precoated.
DTG Pretreatment procedure:
Press the tshirt for 5 seconds in your heat press to remove all
wrinkles and any moisture from within the fabric.
Place the tshirt on a flat surface to ensure even coverage. We prefer to use a simple t-shirt fixture that allows hanging the shirt in a vertical position. Additionally we use a mask that limits the precoating area to the size of the heat press.
Spray pre-treatment evenly on the are you want to print. The recommended amount of precoating is 10 – 15 mls to prepare a typical area of 36x43cm.
Set the spray gun to low pressure and medium amount of fluid. The goal is to apply a fine and even liquid layer on the shirt. On a dark shirt you should see a fine grayish layer on the surface of the textile fibres.
Place the garment on the heat press, and using the roller provided roll the pile of the fabric in a single direction, creating a flat & smooth work area.
Dry the pretreated garmen in a tshirt heat press at 120c for 15 seconds, using medium / high pressure. Use a sheet of baking paper to cover the top of the shirt.
Using the heat press will matt down the fabric fibres and will dry the pretreated garment. This forms a smooth printing surface for best image quality. Make sure the textile is completely dry before printing. If not completely dry, press the shirt again for several seconds.
