Types of Printing We Do

All custom printing is not equally the same, and it’s essential to know the difference between the available types of printing. It would help you to choose the process that will work best for you properly. Here in Inksterprints, we offer five different types of T-Shirt printing at our South Philadelphia location that differs depending on your custom printing needs. We can guarantee you that you will have high-quality, professionally finished products that are perfect for events, group outings, teams, and just for fun!

Light Direct to Garment Printing (Light DTG)

Direct to Garment Printing is a way for us to print your designs, logos, and images directly onto a custom t-shirt or custom clothing, absolutely the same way you would print out something on your paper printer. DTG printing is one of the best custom t-shirt printing mechanics that we use here in Inksterprints. By making use of a specialized ink printer, we will run your t-shirts through the machine and print directly onto the shirt, which creates custom t-shirts with a smooth image that won’t peel or crack over time.

Light DTG is the correct option for light-colored garments that do not require white ink. Colors such as white, grey, light blue, or light pink are great for Light DTG printing and are very inexpensive with no minimum order. Light DTG printing is recommended for kid-size t-shirts run and t-shirts with complex designs with multiple colors.

Dark Direct to Garment Printing (Dark DTG)

Dark DTG printing is used when you need custom printing on a darker-colored garment that requires white ink under-base to reveal your design. The white ink under-base is printed first. Then the color is printed on top of that ink to make it stand out on the custom t-shirt or garment.

This method is usually twice as expensive as Light DTG and takes five times longer to print. Dark colors such as black, navy, red, and green usually need white ink under-base. Dark DTG printing has no minimum order, but if you have many shirts needed, Screen printing is recommended.

Screen Printing

Screen printing employs a thick layer of ink pressed through a stencil and directly onto the garment or t-shirt. It is considered the more traditional approach to custom t-shirt printing. By applying this printing process, your design will appear slightly raised off of the surface of the t-shirt, unlike DTG, which looks like you directly printed it on the garment.

Screen printing is trendy for simpler designs that do not use many colors, making it perfect for large batches. The artwork must be in vector format and is limited to 8 full colors on the t-shirt. If you want to apply Screen printing methods, Inksterprints require a minimum order of 20 pieces because there is a heavy setup involved. We do not charge any setup fees.

Screened Heat Transfer

Have you ever thought about adding your name or a number to the back of your basketball t-shirt? Here in Inksterprints, we offer screened heat transfers, including our custom printing.

Screened heat transfer is not considered a true printing method. But it is still great for customizing names and numbers, Jersey-style, on mesh or poly-based materials. The transfers are done by the use of plastisol ink and then heated directly onto the garment.

Vinyl Cutting

Vinyl Cutting is one of the most creative parts before adding it to clothing or accessories. It follows a certain process which includes preparing the layout, printing it on the film, cutting vinyl, selecting irrelevant elements, rolling the film, and rolling it on a hard, flat surface.

You can use a vinyl cutter for various purposes, such as making cards and stationery, creating a pattern for sewing clothing and accessories, cutting it for iron-on transfers, etc. You can also make refrigerator magnets with a vinyl cutter. Then you can cut signs from vinyl to add to your windows, walls, and other surfaces. It is also possible to prepare stickers from a vinyl cutter to personalize the design for adding it to a product later on.