GRAPHICS PRO

October '22

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1 6 G R A P H I C S P R O • O C T O B E R 2 0 2 2 G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M situations, such as memorial T-shirts needing a quick turnover. "I always make it a point to get those done for people because that's important," Amidon says, adding that to do the job, "it's working round the clock." She's considering expanding her embroidery services but will keep DTG as the heart of her business. She plans to add one to two more DTG printers and one to two DTF printers for addi- tional printing capacities. "We're getting so busy, we can't keep up with all the orders," Amidon says. "Having a commercial DTF printer will speed things up a great deal." Order sizes for DTG are small, typically ranging from 30 to 150 units, while DTF printing can be up to 1,000 units. Amidon currently does both, using her DTG machine to carry out any DTF printing jobs, but the transfer process is time-consuming. A DTF printer can print on rolls of film and does the printing, powdering, and curing all in one operation. With DTG, Amidon has to manually do the steps, printing on a 14" × 16" sheet of film, then applying the adhesive powder, putting the film in an oven to cure it, and then pressing the image printed on the film directly onto the garment. SCREEN PRINTING Screen printing, which Amidon also does, is a four-color pro- cess, while with DTG, the full spectrum of colors can be used, allowing for the transfer of photographs onto the garment. e result with DTG is a more detailed image, unlike screen print- ing's one- to two-color spot prints. "With screen printing, you have to separate the colors, but with DTG, what you see on the screen is what you get," Amidon says. Screen printing is great for large quantity orders and one- or two-color prints, whereas DTG is preferable for multicolor prints in smaller quantities, Amidon says. As such, it's more expensive to use DTG printing for a one-color job, she says. DTG, which can be used on any substrate from cottons to poly- blends and polyester, results in images that are sharp, a look that "DTG is preferable for multicolor prints in smaller quantities." T-shirts for Guy Fieri's "Guy's Family Road Trip" on the Food Network.

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