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Digital vs. Screen Printing

A lot has changed in the world of printing over the last couple of decades and those changes have impacted garment printing.

If your print order is for less than 36 pieces, your logo will be printed using digital printing which is also known as Direct to Garment, or DTG printing. If your print order is for more than 36 pieces, your logo will be screen printed onto your garments.

What's the difference? Digital printing is best understood as being like a piece of paper going through a color printer. Of course, it is not quite that simple. Special inks are used, garments must be pre-treated to ensure the ink bonds with the fabric, and the finished print must be properly dried. The process, however, is digital, which means your design can be full color, and we can print from any file that is 300 dpi or higher. And because there is no machine set-up involved, our minimum digital print order is just one garment, though each shirt is printed one at a time which adds to the cost.

Screen printing is old school. All the colors in the artwork must be separated, and mesh screens “burned” for each color used. Ink is literally poured onto the screen and drawn across the screen with a squeegee which presses the ink onto the garment, one color at a time. Between burning the screens, mixing the ink and getting the machine all loaded up, there is a lot of set up for each order, which is why the minimum order for screen print is 36 pieces. We also limit screen print orders to a maximum of 5 colors per printed design.

Digital printing uses water-based ink, which makes for a little softer, but a slightly less vibrant print. Water based inks are also a little less durable than oil-based screen print ink. For this reason, it is recommended that digitally printed shirts be turned inside out for washing and hung to dry. Screen print ink produces a very vivid, durable print, which tends to be a little rougher to the touch. Screen printed garments can be washed and dried without any special care.

While sometimes a digitally printed shirt can look similar to a screen printed shirt, if consistency of look and feel is important, it is not advisable to combine digital and screen print in a single order. We also don’t advise using a digitally printed garment to fill in or substitute for a previously screen printed order.

Please let us know if you need any help understanding the difference between digital and screen printing or if we can help you decide which is the best process for you.