Direct to Film and Direct to Garment Printing | What's the Difference

Direct to Film and Direct to Garment Printing | What's the Difference

The perfect comparison between the 2 most popular technologies for printing custom t-shirts.

DTF, or Direct to Film, has many features that make it an attractive option for busy shops.

- Very fast transfer production
- Use with any fabric
- Stretchable – and looks great afterwards
- Low cost per print
- Sell transfers as well as completed custom apparel
- No pretreat needed
- Low heat press time
- Washes like screen printing

DTF Printers do everything you need to make a t-shirt transfer inside the machine. First, it's an inkjet printer, so it is going to print your art in reverse on a film with a white layer behind it.

Then it will travel through the powder system. This powder is like a glue that will cover your design. Next it will go through a shaking process where any excess powder will be beaten off the film.

The final step is the dryer. This is where your ink and powder dry onto the film, making it a transferable transfer. All your printer transfers will gather into a roll for easy storage.

But those features don’t take anything away from what makes DTG or Direct to Garment printing a popular choice:

- Highest quality low volume prints
- Incredibly soft hand or “feel”
- Low cost per print
- Fade to shirt is perfect. Great for smoke, flame and other effects
- VERY quiet operation
- No odor or fumes
- Perfect for home, office or kiosk operation

ColDesi's DTG G4 has several features that make it stand apart from traditional DTG printers that you may be used to. To start, it features a patented vacuum platen that sucks the ink down into the shirt fibers.

This gives the prints a super soft hand feel and a very vibrant finish, but also drastically reduces maintenance inside the machine.

Instead of the ink flying around inside the machine it's being pulled into the shirt.

[bohicasnafufubar]

Thank you very much. I just recently heard of DTF printers as I've been out of the silk screen printing business for a while.
I tend to do small batches or one offs and you made my choice a lot easier when it comes to DTG versus DTF.

[robreid]

We have ours being installed on Tuesday next week... cannot wait!!

[CharlesMambwe-zj]

I didn't quite understand, how long does it take to print a continuous full roll of dtf film?

[ClankyRochet]

Funny how DTG has been around for so long and the printer are getting better but still not able to eliminate pretreat. Surely this step can be eliminate.

[BHENTECH]

I hope I have a lot of money to buy something like that.

[bryanquenga]

Is there a way to manipulate the white base when making a DTF transfer as you would in screen printing to make an image appear to fade on to the garment? For example fire fading into the background(garment)

[ToddSobel]

How does the DTF print feel compared to the DTG print?

[cashmoney]

How is the quality over time comparable between the two?

[OjaioFansub]

how about the feel of the print on cotton shirts?

[justpaintjohn]

Hello, are you able to print DTF on the G4 DTG printer? Really looking into getting the G4.