DTG vs. DTF Printing for Custom Apparel Orders

Whether a custom order suits DTG or DTF depends first on the fabric, then on the garment color and the size of the print. In DTG (direct-to-garment) printing, an inkjet head jets water-based ink straight into the fibers of the shirt. DTF (direct-to-film) is a transfer. Its design is printed on plastic film in color and white ink and coated with hot-melt adhesive powder. A heat press later fuses it onto the fabric as a thin surface layer.

DTG vs. DTF by order type

Order	Better fit	Reason
Full-front print on light-colored cotton	DTG	A DTF film that large feels plasticky
Left-chest logo on a light cotton tee	DTG	Prints in colored ink alone and keeps the cotton soft
Full-front print on a dark cotton tee	DTG	Keeps the cotton soft if the pretreatment is even
Full-front print on a dark hoodie or sweatshirt	DTF, approved on a full-size sample	Their construction and fiber content make hoodies a poor fit for dark DTG
Mid-size chest print on a dark cotton tee	DTG or DTF	A DTF film stiffens the shirt more as the print grows
Left-chest logo on a dark garment	DTF	Small film patch and no pretreatment step
Blank with more polyester than cotton	DTF	Blends under 50% cotton are not ideal for DTG
Stretch sportswear	DTF	The print stretches with the fabric
All-over print on white polyester sportswear	Dye sublimation	The dye goes into the fiber and leaves no layer on the surface
Nylon jacket	DTF	DTG ink is made for cotton
Print area crossing a seam or button placket	DTF	Transfers are more forgiving of seams and buttons
One- or two-color design in large quantity	Screen printing	Screen setup cost is spread over a large order

Left-chest: a logo 8 to 10 cm (3 to 4 in) wide over the heart. Full-front: a design of 25 × 30 cm (10 × 12 in) or larger. Mid-size: anything between the two. Dark: a shirt color deeper than the inks printed on it. A red tee printed with white lettering is dark in this sense. Shirts in colors named heather, antique or ash usually contain polyester.

Pretreatment for dark DTG garments

On a dark shirt, a layer of white ink is printed under the translucent DTG colors. Because part of that white stays on the fabric surface, a dark DTG print feels firmer than one on a light shirt. The white bonds only to fabric that has been sprayed with a liquid pretreatment and dried. The coat varies from one operator to the next when it is sprayed by hand, and an automatic pretreatment machine evens it out. Pretreatment can leave a faint rectangular mark around a fresh print. The mark is gone after one wash on most fabrics.

Folded black and light green cotton T-shirts beside cotton sprigs

A heavy coat leaves the treated area shiny and stiff, and at the extreme the ink rests on top of the coat and washes off with it in the first wash. A thin coat gives dull, washed-out color. Softening finishes on the fabric can interfere with pretreatment. Blanks meant for dark DTG prints are better made without them.

Some strong fluorescent dyes turn spotty under acid-based pretreatment fluids. For a neon garment that needs white ink, you can have a test print made on that exact blank before bulk production or move the design to DTF.

Blank fabric

On pure cotton, DTG prints come out brightest and hold up best in the wash. Linen and bamboo blends print well in DTG. DTG ink takes only on the cotton fibers of a heather blend. The print comes out slightly speckled and faded. Some brands pick heather blanks for that vintage effect. Ink drops land more accurately on densely knitted ring-spun cotton, and fewer loose fibers poke up through the print.

Stack of folded fabrics topped with a cotton boll

Heat from the DTF press, or from curing a DTG print on a cotton-polyester blend, can pull dye out of polyester fibers into the ink above them. Dye migration of this kind can turn a white print on a red polyester shirt pink, and the stain may take days or even months to appear.

Polyester dyed with cationic dyes tends to have better colorfastness and bleed less. It costs more than standard polyester. Heat transfers made for dark polyester can include a charcoal backing that holds back bleeding dye. A migration test on the production fabric is worth doing before bulk printing starts.

Artwork files

A Pantone logo color, mixed as a dedicated ink in screen printing, has to be approximated from the printer's ink set in DTG and DTF. Some newer DTG and DTF printers add extra colors such as orange and green to the usual cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) plus white. Spot colors printed on a CMYK DTG printer can come out duller than in a screen print. Designers can raise saturation in a DTG file by 10 to 20 points to recover part of the loss. The match itself can only be judged in daylight, on a printed sample next to the Pantone chip.

Pantone swatch book showing color swatches

Full-front prints in standard placement start 7 to 10 cm (3 to 4 in) below the collar seam. Full-front designs on hoodies have to fit between the neckline and the top of the front pocket. A full-front design sized for a medium shirt looks narrow on a 3XL. Orders with a wide size range are often printed at two design widths. The second print size takes only a resized file in DTG and DTF.

Print-ready artwork needs:

a PNG file with a transparent background
200 to 300 pixels per inch at the final print size, or at least 2,000 × 2,400 pixels for a 25 × 30 cm (10 × 12 in) design

A JPEG file cannot store transparency, and any white background saved with it prints as a white rectangle on dark DTG garments and on DTF prints of any garment color.

Soft fades and drop shadows have to be converted to halftone dots for DTF. A transfer has white ink and adhesive under all its printed colors. A partly transparent pixel prints as a solid, lighter patch with a hard edge. Tiny isolated details, such as small dots or hairline strokes, have little adhesive under them and can lift when the film is peeled. Gaps cut into broad solid shapes of the design make a DTF transfer lighter and more flexible.

Sample approval

Samples printed on your production garment can be washed to ISO 6330, the international home-laundering procedure for textile testing, at the temperature on your care label and compared with an unwashed sample. In a crocking test, a lab rubs white cloth over the print, dry and then wet, then grades how much color the cloth picks up. Full-size prints are tested under AATCC TM8. Left-chest logos and other small areas go on a rotary crockmeter under AATCC TM116.

Pretreatment and dye migration vary from one garment color to another. Orders in several colors are sampled in all of them. The bulk order is judged against the approved samples.

Print	Signs of a good print
DTF on any garment color	Crisp edges and colors exactly on the white layer
DTG on a dark garment	Bright, even color and fabric around the print as soft as the rest of the shirt
DTF finish	The matte or glossy surface approved on the sample

Wash durability

DTG prints fade gradually as the cotton fibers wear, and after many washes they look soft and slightly worn. DTF ink is sealed in adhesive on the surface of the fabric and holds its color longer. Large solid areas of DTF film can crack after repeated flexing. Transfers pressed with low heat or pressure can lift at the edges.

DTG and DTF costs

A dark garment costs more than a light one on a DTG quote. Its print takes more ink and machine time than that design on a light shirt. DTG and DTF are otherwise priced by print size and the number of print locations. Sleeve and back-neck prints are quoted on top of the front print. A twelve-color design and a two-color one of equal size cost alike. A single sample garment can be printed without a setup charge. Per-piece prices fall only slightly as order quantity grows. DTF transfers for cotton garments are printed identically whatever the garment color. Logos printed together on one sheet of film use less film than logos printed one at a time.

DTG and DTF lead times

DTG and DTF samples come back faster than screen-printed ones. No screens have to be remade when the design changes between samples. DTG prints on light and dark shirts alike go into a heat press for a few minutes to cure. Print times published in 2019 for a 25 × 30 cm (10 × 12 in) design were three minutes on a dark shirt and 90 seconds on a light one. DTF transfers for garments sewn to order can be printed before the garments are finished and pressed on later.