Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1425980
graphics-pro.com 21 S T A R T H E R E 2 0 2 1 Learning how your DTG printer performs will only come by experience. Keep a record of jobs printed, the brand of shirt, the amount of pretreatment applied, etc., so you can refer to that when you are printing future jobs. Over time, you will learn how your printer prints, how the pretreatment affects the look and wash durability of the shirts, and you will be able to instantly make a good judgement call on the fly as you print. But this only comes by experience. There is no shortcut to becoming proficient in DTG printing. You can get some good advice to get started, but every shirt is different just as every piece of artwork and job is different. How DTG Has Grown and Improved Direct-to-garment is currently one of the fastest growing seg- ments of the apparel decorating industry. 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, from small shops operating out of a bedroom to print shops like Custom Ink. A single shirt — or dozens of shirts — printed and delivered within days; single color or full-color photographic reproductions … this is the beauty of DTG. With improvements in inks, ready-to-print shirts that require no pretreating, printing machine speeds increasing, and automated software making it easy to set up an online store to full produc- tion management of artwork and shop streamlining — DTG has grown from being the new kid on the block to a serious player in the decorating industry. From a single printer in a bedroom to full production shops with hundreds of DTG printers printing tens of thousands of shirts per day, direct-to-garment has found its place. That place is in many screen printing and embroidery shops looking to expand their capabilities as well as brand new, all-DTG- printing shops catering to the masses or individual niche markets. DTG is here to stay and continue its growth trend as it continues to open new markets in the decorating industry. Where will DTG be in a couple of years? If the past growth in innovation, speed, ink improvements, and other advancements are any indicator, we will see direct-to-garment become even more prevalent within the decorating industry. The question is, will your shop be a part of it? Wondering how to price your DTG-printed T-shirts? Adam Tipre, DTG Connection, shares 5 questions you need to answer when creating your pricing strategy: http://gpro.link/pricedtg Direct-to-garment is currently one of the fastest growing segments of the apparel decorating industry.