Screen Printing vs. DTG
Also known as: Direct-to-garment printing
What Is the Difference Between Screen Printing and DTG?
Screen printing pushes ink through a mesh screen onto the fabric, with a separate screen for each color. DTG (direct-to-garment) prints the design straight onto the fabric with an inkjet printer, in full color and without screens. Screen printing pays off on larger runs of designs with a few solid colors, while DTG suits one-offs, small orders, and photos.
The two methods also need different files: separate spot colors for each screen, or a full-color image for the inkjet. CE.SDK exports both from the same design.
Screen Printing vs. DTG: How Do They Compare?
The screens decide most of it: they make large runs cheap per shirt and small runs slow to set up.
| Screen printing | DTG | |
|---|---|---|
| How it prints | Ink pushed through a mesh screen | Inkjet straight onto the fabric |
| Colors | A few solid colors | Full color, photos, gradients |
| Setup | A screen for every color | No screens or per-color setup |
| Order size | Larger runs of one design | One-offs and small runs |
| Feel | Ink sits on top of the fabric | Ink soaks in, softer |
| Fabrics | Cotton, polyester, performance wear | Best on cotton |
When Should You Use Screen Printing or DTG?
Use screen printing when many shirts share one bold design, and DTG when every order is different.
Use screen printing for
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Uniforms, team shirts, and event merch
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Bold logos in a few solid colors
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Specialty inks such as metallic or glow
Use DTG for
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Print-on-demand and one-off orders
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Photos, gradients, and detailed art
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Cotton shirts in small batches
How Do You Prepare Artwork for Each Method?
Screen printing needs vector art in spot colors
Give each ink its own named spot color, so each one becomes a screen, and turn gradients into halftone dots.
DTG needs a transparent PNG at print size
Send an RGB image at 300 DPI at the size it will print, with a transparent background around the design.
Dark shirts need a white base
Both methods lay white ink under the colors. In DTG files, soft or semi-transparent edges print as white specks.
How Do You Prepare Apparel Designs in CE.SDK?
Design inside the print area
The T-Shirt Designer starter kit keeps the design inside a print area over a garment mockup. On the web, each area, such as the front and back, is its own page.
Prepare inks and vector art for screens
Swap the default color library for one holding the shop’s inks as spot colors, so they show up in the color picker on the web, iOS, and Android. On the web, the Vectorizer plugin traces an uploaded logo into vector shapes, ready to color with the shop’s inks.
Export for the method
For screen printing, export a PDF, which keeps every spot color on a plate of its own, one per screen. For DTG, export a PNG, which keeps transparency and gets its pixel size from the page at the scene’s DPI. PNG vs. JPG covers the PNG settings.
Apparel Printing in Merch Shops and Brand Portals
One-off shirts from a merch shop
A print-on-demand store lets each customer design a shirt and exports it as a print-ready PNG for DTG, with background removal to cut photos out cleanly.
Event merch in brand inks
A brand portal swaps the default color library for the company’s screen-printing inks, so staff designs for event shirts start from colors that each map to one screen.
FAQs
Screen prints usually outlast DTG, because properly cured ink forms a tough layer on the fabric. DTG holds up well on cotton when the shirt gets a cold, gentle wash and skips the dryer.
Most shops print up to about six solid colors, since each one needs its own screen and every extra color adds setup and cost.
Yes, with extra steps. The shirt is pretreated and a layer of white ink goes down first, so the colors show. For large runs on dark shirts, screen printing gives more opaque color.
Yes, by turning the image into halftone dots spread across a few inks. Fine mesh holds the detail, but each ink still needs its own screen, so DTG is usually simpler for photos.
DTF (direct-to-film) prints the design onto a transfer film, coats it with adhesive powder, and heat-presses it onto the garment. It needs no pretreatment and works on polyester and blends as well as cotton.
Links
Documentation and references for this concept.
Related Terms
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