Screen printing vs DTG vs vinyl

Two tees can carry the same artwork and be completely different objects. The difference is how the ink got there. There are four methods you will actually meet, and you can usually tell them apart by touch alone.

Here is what each one is, and where each one fails.

Screen printing

A stencil is made on a fine mesh screen, the screen is laid on the garment, and ink is pushed through it with a squeegee. One screen per colour, so a three colour design is three separate passes lined up by hand.

The ink sits as a layer on top of the fabric and is then cured with heat so it bonds. You can feel it as a distinct panel under your fingers, slightly raised, with clean hard edges.

Good at: bold graphics with a limited palette. Colours are dense and opaque, so a bright print stays bright on a black tee. Properly cured, it is the most durable of the four by a distance.

Bad at: photographs and gradients, which need a colour separation process that gets expensive fast. Every colour adds setup, so it only makes sense in runs rather than one-offs.

How it fails: it cracks, and almost always because of heat. That is avoidable, and it is entirely about how you wash it.

DTG, or direct to garment

An inkjet printer, but for fabric. Water based ink is sprayed straight onto the cotton, where it soaks into the fibres rather than sitting on top.

On a light garment the result is very soft, almost no hand feel at all. On a dark garment the printer first lays down a white underbase and the shirt has to be pre-treated with a fixing fluid, which is where DTG gets complicated.

Good at: photographic artwork, gradients, unlimited colours, and single copies. No setup cost means print-on-demand shops are almost all DTG.

Bad at: vibrancy on dark fabric, and longevity. Because the ink sits in the fibres rather than on them, it fades with the fabric as the fabric wears.

How it fails: it goes gradually pale and slightly fuzzy. It rarely cracks dramatically, it just quietly loses contrast over a year or two.

Heat transfer vinyl

A sheet of coloured vinyl is cut to the shape of the design, the excess is weeded away by hand, and what is left is heat pressed onto the garment.

It is a solid plastic layer sitting on the fabric. You can feel the exact outline of every shape, and it is usually slightly glossy or matte in a way that reads as plastic rather than ink.

Good at: names, numbers, simple bold type. Football shirts are vinyl. Cheap for one or two garments, and available in finishes ink cannot do, like metallic and reflective.

Bad at: anything detailed, anything with many colours, and anything with fine lines, because every shape has to be physically cut and weeded.

How it fails: it peels. The edges lift first, usually at a corner, and once air is under it the piece comes away. It also traps sweat, since it does not breathe at all.

DTF, or direct to film

The newer one, and increasingly what you get from small print shops. The design is printed onto a film, coated with adhesive powder, then heat pressed onto the garment.

It behaves like a hybrid: photographic detail like DTG, vibrancy on dark fabric closer to screen printing, and no setup cost. It sits on the surface as a thin flexible film.

Good at: detailed multi-colour artwork in small quantities, on any colour garment.

Bad at: feeling like fabric. It is a film, and on large solid areas it reads as one, with a slight sheen.

How it fails: the edges of large blocks can lift after enough washes, though it is considerably tougher than vinyl.

Which one to want

For a graphic tee you intend to keep, screen printing is still the answer, provided the design suits a limited palette. Nothing else holds colour that well for that long.

DTF is the sensible middle ground for detailed artwork in small numbers. DTG is right when the image is genuinely photographic and you accept it will soften over time. Vinyl is right for a name and a number and very little else.

None of it matters if the fabric underneath gives out first, which is worth reading about in what GSM means.

Every Trials tee is screen printed by hand in small runs, one screen at a time. Have a look at Time Loop and Golden Hour.