Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1362655
4 0 D I R E C T - T O - S U B S T R A T E R E P O R T 2 0 2 1 G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M DIRECT-TO-SUBSTRATE REPORT ease and simplicity of direct-to-garment printing presented to them at a trade show. However, after they put their money down and get the printer in, they realize that it may not seem as easy as originally pre- sented. Don't get me wrong: DTG printing is relatively easy, but you need to do the ba- sics and build upon your experience as you grow with the business. It is not as easy as "load a shirt and hit the print button." One of the biggest hurdles most people getting into DTG face is learning how to do the pretreating correctly. Pretreating is the process of applying a solution to the printed side of the shirt to give the inks a base to print upon, similar to primer-ing drywall before you actually paint the wall. A hand-controlled pretreatment machine spraying a shirt; pretreating correctly is a big issue to overcome. (Image courtesy Brian Walker) With the ability to print single, one-off designs, DTG has opened entirely new segments of the apparel printing market for on-demand type printing. (Image courtesy Brian Walker)