| Shirt Printing Machine: What It Can Do For You |
 Rather than doing thousands of expensive shirt printing jobs by hand, one color at a time, we are able to do a number of them with this special large size printer designed to work directly on garments. Working with a similar technique as your desktop inkjet printer, this machine is able to put quality full color work (using water based inks) directly on fabrics of several kinds and then have it sealed in place with a standard heat press.
Printing great T-shirts is one of the main things we use this machine for, so far having done thousands of them in hundreds of styles. You can see numerous examples of this throughout our Four Color Process Printing Machine Gallery section. If you want to learn more about how the machine works you can click on any of the sub-menu options to the left. The sections that follow tell you what you need to know to see if this method is right for your needs. |
What Can We Print On?
What Range of Colors Work?
How Well Does It Hold Up?
| What We Can Print On? |
|
The great thing about this printer is that it works well on just about any standard fabric as long as it's not a full synthetic. This leaves most of the garment standards open to printing, from cotton tees to company lab coats. It technically can print on full synthetics but the ink doesn't seem to like to adhere as well to them, so we don't offer that feature normally. We care about quality and don't like to advertise things that don't work up to our normally high standards.
We are also able to print on just about any part of a garment and it's style doesn't matter, as long as the area we are printing on is within the size range of the printer and doesn't cross over a seam. Seams cause the shirt to be raised in those areas, which puts it close to the print heads than the surrounding area, and that makes the printing uneven and blurry. The print area limit is14" wide by 16" long, but it's usually best to keep it slightly under that to be safe. |
| What Range of Colors Work? |
 This combination of things allows you to be as free as you want with your color selection, as long as printed on a light color garment, so don't be afraid to bring us any image you have as we can most likely do it better than you expect. Just look at the sample picture to the right. That color selection page was printed on a cotton shirt (and the whole thing can be found in the Gallery Section). The only color limitations it has is that it doesn't have white ink, so printing on darker fabrics limits what will show up. We have had success with numerous light colored garments, still showing the printed images nearly as well as on white. With simpler, less photo-realistic images, it can even work on some mid-tones to great effect. The only thing it really can't do is work on dark garments, as the inks just don't show. |
| How Well Does it Hold Up? |
|
Not only does the manufacturer say it holds up under multiple washings and regular wear, but most of our staff has at least one shirt made on the thing that they have worn regularly and they all seem to still be in great shape. Some of them are worn every week and put through numerous washings and still have the same vibrant colors they did when they were printed.
The prints are completely machine washable and dryer safe (as long as the material itself is). Our manager has even used color-safe bleaches with his wash and they have still stood up great for him.In some cases these shirts have even stood up better than those that have been screen printed or done in vinyl, depending on the thickness of the print or the type of vinyl used. |
|
Last modified: 31.10.08 by admin
|