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The invention of modern equipment and technology leads to an increase in human demand. They desire to have a better user experience and assert themselves by using personalized custom products.
Hence, the custom printing industry has been prospering across multiple countries. It creates a promising market for entrepreneurs nowadays because of the endless inspiration flow and prospective customers from all brackets.
Still, there are lots of methods of printing a customized design on your products.
If you choose Printful as your supplier, you need to clearly distinguish between several types of Printful custom printing.
We’ll list the most common Printful custom printing methods to help you gain a better understanding and make a decision.
Printful custom printing
Printful is widely known as a products fulfillment, warehousing, and dropshipping company.
Printful is widely known as a products fulfillment, warehousing, and dropshipping company.
They help you to put your loved designs on the surfaces of trading products.
Custom printed items are usually personalized, unique, ordinary, and tell others who you are. Sometimes, what you wear reflects the social bonds you have and the communal group you belong to.
For instance, if you are a big fan of The Simpsons cartoon, you would love to own this one for yourself.
A T-shirt design draws inspiration from The Simpsons.
4 methods of Printful custom printing
Screen Printing
Screen printing is one of the most popular methods of customized printing in Printful. So, it’s important to have a comprehensive picture of the screen printing method.
What is Screen Printing?
Screen printing is a technique in which the ink will be pressed into a woven screen (also known as a mesh stencil). It doesn’t sink into the fabric but instead sits on top of it.
How does Screen Printing work?
Screen custom printing necessitates the creation of a unique screen for each constituent of your design.
After that, the colors and segments of the pattern are printed to the garment layer by layer.
The colors and segments of the pattern are printed to the garment layer by layer.
The more layers you have in your design, the longer it will take to print. Besides, you’ll feel the printing is thicker when touching the product.
However, screen printing is generally implemented for designs with few colors because each color is applied individually with multiple layers.
What should you note about Screen Printing?
Print providers will limit the number of colors you use in your custom design, mostly allowing no more than 9.
Besides, the screening printing orders are normally from 5 to 100 products at a minimum.
To get your products fitted as standard, you also need to supply Printful custom printing with the print files. It should be divided into layers for each color.
They may also inquire about the ink color codes that should be used to print your custom design.
The ink color codes may be required to print your design.
Screening printing at Printful isn’t the best solution if you want to “submit your design and forget about the rest.”
Pros
- The printing is highly durable.
- The outputs are always of high quality.
Cons
- It takes time since Prinful has to create a separate stencil for your design before printing.
- It’s merely cost-effective when producing goods in bulk, not a single one.
- Because it’s a sequential technique, creating the final designed products may involve numerous steps and stages.
- It’s only ideal for solid graphics that don’t have lots of little details. Getting the details correct throughout the printing process is challenging.
- Environmental pollution is more likely to happen as a consequence of a higher risk of overproduction.
Direct to Garment Printing (DTG)
DTG printing will satisfy businesses who want to try out various colors and designs.
What is Direct to Garment Printing (or DTG)?
Direct to garment printing (or DTG) is also a well-known custom printing method. It sprays the ink directly onto the product’s surface.
How does Direct to Garment Printing work?
Contrary to screening printing, the ink will be deep down in the fibers of the garment.
Most Printful DTG printing orders don’t require a great number of items, so each product is printed on demand.
For example, when a customer orders a single tote bag from your business, Printful custom printing gets your order immediately.
They print your design on the bag at once and ship it to the customer under your brand.
A single tote bag will be printed immediately.
What should you note about Direct to Garment Printing?
DTG printing in Printful custom printing satisfies businesses who want to try out various colors and designs without color limitations.
Additionally, intricate patterns and photorealistic images can be suitable for this method.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that transparencies should be avoided when using DTG. DTG printing doesn’t work well with elements that aren’t completely invisible.
Printers will try to compensate for the missing color by spreading the ink resulting in a fabric with many gaps.
It’s better to employ solid colors or create graphics in the sRGB – a color profile used by Printful custom printing. It matches Printful printers’ colors best to produce the final appearance of color as you want.
Pros
- It doesn’t need time to set up.
- You can print your products whether in bulk or individually based on your business requirement.
- A wide range of colors can be printed on a single item.
- It works best on printing with complicated patterns.
- Printful custom printing offers you a bulk discount according to the DTG orders you made.
- You don’t have to worry about keeping stock as products only get printed once they are bought.
- Printful’s DTG is more eco-friendly as customers can avoid overproduction. Besides, the company works with Kornit whose printers make nearly no wastewater and use less energy.
Cons
- It’s not economical with in-bulk orders.
- The color of real products cannot be guaranteed to reach 100% accuracy when compared to the color on computer screens.
Sublimation Printing
What is Sublimation Printing?
Sublimation printing is also a well-known method of Printful custom printing.
It embeds your design into the product’s substance rather than printing on top of it as other printing methods.
It’s used to print on a wide range of materials from hard-surfaced mugs to diverse textiles.
How does Sublimation Printing work?
To commence with, your customized design will be printed on a sheet of paper.
Then, the sublimation ink is infused into the sublimation paper which is subsequently thermally transferred to the materials.
Sublimation printing embeds your design into the product’s substance.
To have the sublimation ink embedded into the materials, it’s subjected to extreme pressure and heated to a high temperature.
What should you note about Sublimation Printing?
Sublimation printing is best for light-colored fabrics made of 100% polyester, polymer-coated polyester, and polyester mixes.
Printful custom printing employs sublimation to print mostly on custom coffee mugs and flip-flops, as well as other textile products.
Printful custom printing employs sublimation to print mostly on flip-flops.
Products printed with sublimation in the textile industry at Printful custom printing are separated into two categories: ready-made and cut-and-sew.
- Ready-made items: socks, towels, blankets, and laptop sleeves.
- Cut-and-sew items: clothing, accessories, and home decor.
Pros
- It’s the best Printful custom printing method for intricate design patterns.
- There is no need to worry about individual color alignment because this procedure prints all of the colors at once.
- It’s easier for you to customize printing designs.
Cons
- The best results are only achieved when the clothes are white or light-colored.
- The outcome is whether durable or not depends on the material of the underlying fiber.
Embroidery
What is Embroidery?
This isn’t technically printing; rather, the design or logo is stuck onto your products.
The design or logo is stuck onto your products.
How does Embroidery work?
Firstly, you need to do digitalization. It is the process of converting your design file into an embroidery-friendly format.
Each embroidery will necessitate its own digital file. Your digitalized files can be reused for future orders of the same embroidery type with Printful a custom printing service.
Printful custom printing has its embroidery file templates. It helps you keep inside the maximum allowed area for your design and avoid printing issues.
Plus, you can order samples to test out your designs before selling and receive a 20% discount from Printful.
Pros
- It’s appropriate for presenting a professional outlook, particularly if you want to work on polo T-shirts.
- It produces long-lasting results and is effective for huge design patterns.
Cons
- When dealing with complex patterns, the procedure proves to be problematic.
- The output quality varies depending on the underlying fiber.
Final thoughts
Prinful custom printing has several printing methods for you to choose from depending on your products and business demand.
Hence, you need to thoroughly understand how custom printing works.
Also, each Printful custom printing technique’s benefits and drawbacks should be seriously considered before purchasing the printing service.
To discover all custom printing techniques, you can read more in other blogs talking about the printing industry.
Different Types of Shirt Printing Methods in 2022
