There’s nothing quite like the feeling of watching your design come to life on a t-shirt. You put in hours perfecting the colours, tweaking the details, and your logo or artwork appears on a real, hard product. When the printer goes racing back and forth with the precision of laying ink on the paper, it’s like magic. Then you yank up the shirt, and everything turns pedestrian. It is not quite the colours. The print is somewhat rough, or in the worst case, faded and washed out. You wonder what happened, what you did wrong, and you scratch your head. The reality is that DTG (Direct-to-Garment) printing is an incredible technological marvel, but it is not a mind reader. It also has rules, and violating them may bring forth a world of frustration.

This blog post is intended to help an aspiring entrepreneur, a creative who wishes to print their artwork. Even if you are a small business owner looking to learn how to operate a press, this one is for you. We are here to unfold the curtain of the most frequent DTG printing pitfalls and to guide you with the precise way to avoid them. Get ready to make perfect t-shirts all the time.

The Pre-treatment Puzzle

The Problem: Pre-treatment is just like a wall primer. It is some special substance you apply to the garment (before printing), and it primarily does the following: makes a surface where the white ink can bond to. Using too little will cause the white ink to soak into the fabric fibbers rather than appearing on the top surface, giving a dull and faded appearance to the colours.

The Fix: Stick to consistency. When using pre-treatment, you must apply a very even coating over the entire print surface. A small-scale, hand-held spray gun may be used, but an automated pre-treater is the game-changer. It disperses its liquid in the right amount and covers a surface evenly. After using it, the pre-treatment has to be cured using a heat press.

Designing for Print, Not Just for Screen

The Problem: The typical errors here are the low-resolution image or a file that preserves the incorrect background. Any print that is not high resolution (less than 300 DPI) will appear blurry and pixelated when you blow it up to be printed on a t-shirt. It is like attempting to have a billboard out of a small photograph on your phone. Saving your design as a JPEG is the other big mistake. JPEGs are not transparent, and when you print them, you have a hideous-looking white or coloured box.

The Fix: Always, and we mean always, start your design at a high resolution. One good rule of thumb would be to set your artboard to your print area size (e.g., 12×14 inches) and then set the resolution to 300 DPI. When you save it, make the files a PNG. Only this way, you can be sure your design has a transparent background, helping to lay the ink directly on top of the garment, without using an ugly box around your design.

The Fabric Fail

DTG printing doesn’t work well on every type of material. The type of fibre and its weave can make or break a print.

The Problem: The most unavoidable trap is attempting to print on the improper cloth. The print ink (DTG ink) performs best on cotton. Apparel material such as a 100 percent polyester t-shirt will not take the ink in the right manner and will most definitely wash out within just a few moments. Thoroughly loose weave fabrics or excess fuzz in fabrics can also be responsible for causing a bad print.

The Fix: Keep to the gold standard – 100 percent combed or ringspun cotton. Such materials possess long, smooth fibres that are closely tied to each other, which is the perfect surface that the ink can absorb and bond with. Should you insist on a polyester mix, use at least a 50 percent cotton mix and pre-treat using a special blend treatment. With darker garments, this is more essential, as white under base ink must have a foundation to rest on.

The Curing Conundrum

You’ve done everything right so far. The pre-treatment is perfect, the art file is flawless, and the t-shirt is the right fabric. But without a proper cure, all that hard work is for nothing.

The Problem: Up to now, you have had the line cold; you have been careful. Pre-treatment is ideal, the art file is good, and the t-shirt is the correct fabric. However, this hard work goes to waste without adequate treatment.

The Problem Curing: Curing is where heats are used to dry or cure the DTG ink. Unless you apply sufficient heat or sufficient time, the ink will fail to make the bond with the fabric, and when it gets through the wash, it will just flow away. We have all seen a bad DTG-created print that looks like it is about 3 years old after a single wash. Now, that is a classic case of under-curing. Over-curing, on the other hand, may crisp the ink, and the print is brittle, rough, and cracks easily.

The Fix: You cannot do DTG printing without a heat press. A dryer via conveyor can also work, but a heat press enables you to have more control. You have to manage to strike the right balance of time, heat, and pressure. Most inks are anywhere between 330–340 degrees F (165–170 degrees C) and 90 seconds or so, but always refer to your ink manufacturer. To mitigate the possibility of the print sticking, a heat press with a Teflon sheet or parchment paper is used to dry the print and ensure that the heat is spread over the design equally.

Contact Miami Tees Online for Quality DTG Printing In Miami, FL

DTG printing can be a very rewarding thing to master, but it demands a great deal of attention to detail. By steering clear of these frequent pitfalls, getting pre-treatment just right, getting your art file ready to go, selecting the right material, and curing your finished print, you can transform yourself from an annoying newbie into a printing expert.

No one needs to be an expert on everything technical. If you’d rather be spending your time doing what you do best: designing, creating, or managing your business, we’ve got your back. Miami Tees Online has you covered with screen printing, sublimation, and DTG printing. We’re committed to being the fastest, most versatile, and customer-service-focused t-shirt printing company in the United States. We deliver premium T-shirt Services in Miami, FL, and more to our clients, guaranteeing each order is precise, punctual, and reasonably priced. That is our goal!

Come experience a world where your designs come to life with precision and passion. Contact us today!