Choosing the best print type for your personalised t shirts

For all t shirt printing whether you're a budding shirt designer or just looking for a one-off print for a party, holiday or present, you're going to have to decide which type of print to use.

Should you care? Does it make any difference? Read on and you'll see that it does. You can use the following information to choose your print type before you do your designing, therefore ensuring that your printed t shirts have the look and feel you're after, rather than approach the printer and realise you have no choice over the type of print because your design has limited your options. This may not matter, but it's better to know the results you can expect and not end up disappointed.

Before we go on here is a summary of the processes used when t shirt printing.

The following processes are best for single shirts or very small print runs, due to there being no set-up costs. But if you plan on printing lots then the price per shirt won't drop much. If you print one, it might cost you £15 and that's great! If you print 500 they'll probably still cost you at least a tenner each. That's not great!

Direct to garment printing
Print and cut
Vinyl / flex-print
Shop bought inkjet printer transfers
Marker pens (not as dumb as it sounds)

The following are only suitable for larger orders as there will be a large set-up cost, but you can get each shirt at a very low cost. Great if your going to print, for example, 50 personalised t shirts.

pre-made transfers
screen printing

Embroidery falls between these 2 camps depending on the printer and how much set-up time is involved. Text only will be cheapest. If you have a graphic to be embroidered, some, not all printers may charge you.

Lets look at how each print type will effect your design and the feel of the final printed t shirts.

Direct to garment printing. (DTG) This process simply prints via an industrial ink-jet printer directly onto the garment. Any type of design can be printed from text to full colour photo's. There are limited options regarding where you can print the design as the shirt runs flat through the printer wrapped over a board, so it's hard to print very close to necklines or on sleeves.

This technology is improving all the time, although there is a tendency for the print to be less vivid. In most cases you won't be able to print onto dark colours. Not the best option for text only designs or bold simple designs with few colours.

The big advantage is that to the touch the printed part of the shirt will feel no different to the rest of the shirt, and it also doesn't 'weigh down' the shirt at all.

Print and cut. This process prints onto a special sheet that are then used to transfer your design onto the shirt via a heat press. The colours may tend to be a bit brighter and there's a bit more flexibility regarding where you position your print due to a heat press being a more flexible tool than an ink-jet printer. Again you may prefer to steer clear of this process for very simple and bold designs. The 'Print and cut' process does leave a fine slightly plastic surface on the fabric under the design itself which feels different to the shirt itself, but this is cut very close to the outline of the design, even if the outline is very irregular. It's not heavy and it is very durable.

Vinyl/flex-print. A great and flexible solution for text only designs, but also for bold simple 'silhouette' type designs. The limitations are that the level of detail needs to be low because someone is removing the surplus print material by hand. You'll also be limited by colour. The site may only offer this print type for text only designs, but if your design is very simple and from one to three colours then you're probably safe to just ask for it anyway.

Shop bought ink-jet print transfers. Now don't laugh. In the right circumstances these can be all right! All you need is your design on a computer, an ink-jet printer and an iron. The results I've seen have tended to be less vivid than a professional print and cut service and the lower temperature of the iron over a heat press means the design will be less durable, and you won't be able to cut the backing sheet with such precision, so you'll be left with more of the plastic feel on the shirt, but if you want something quick and cheap that you can apply to your own garments then don't discount it as an option.

Marker Pens. Now you are laughing! Well think again. Marker pens can give a great urban feel, wonderful if it's your kids doing the designing, but expect a few mistakes, and they probably won't matter anyway. You can also buy special fabric pens with all sorts of paint in them (glittery etc) if you want to get artistic. Don't expect the design to survive the wash. If what they tell us on the soap powder ads is true then even marker pens should wash clean away (yeah right!).

Screen Printing.

Screen printing is very time intensive to set up and you can pay the printer hundreds of pounds just getting your design ready to print. However after that you'll get each shirt for only a few pounds over the base-cost of the shirt. How about the design itself? Well if you want a good photographic reproduction then screen-printing isn't what your after. Tones will tend to jump from one to another rather than having a perfect gradient. Also very fine detail can disappear due to the thickness of the ink spreading over very fine lines and details. Very fine text will also be a problem. For those sorts of designs 'direct to garment' or 'print and cut' processes are the best, with print and cut giving the sharpest result. However, if you have a fairly complex design with plenty of colour and you want a lot then this is the process you want.

Pre-made transfers.

What applies to screen printing pretty much applies here. The only difference being that you would buy the transfers, and press them onto the shirt yourself. For this you'd need a professional heat press, but if you're starting a small cottage industry then it's not a bad solution. The result and feel is very similar to a screen printed design.


You should now be able to make your design knowing what to expect from the printer and the final shirt. Enjoy designing!