Direct-To-Film (DTF)
What is DTF – Direct-To-Film?
Direct-to-Film (DTF) Printing is a relatively new technology in digital printing, especially in the garment and textile industry. It is a method where designs are printed directly onto a special transfer film and then transferred to the fabric or material using heat and pressure. DTF has replaced DTG (Direct-to-garment) printing and has numerous advantages, namely it can be applied to any type of fabric and the colors are vibrant. More detailed information on DTF vs. screen printing can be found here.
How Does DTF Printing Work?
Direct-to-film printing involves printing your design using a special printer ink, directly onto a transfer film. After printing, it runs through a shaker where a fine-powered adhesive sticks to the back of the ink (the logo is printed in reverse, so the adhesive is on the back of the logo). White ink is printed over the entire back of the logo, so it can be used on any color garment, similar to printing a white base in screen printing. The adhesive sticks to the white ink, and then it is run through a hot dryer where it cures. When dry, the logos are cut out and can be immediately pressed onto the item or stored for future use.
When it is time to apply the logo, it is positioned on the garment and then heat-pressed. The outcome is a durable and vibrant print. There is no weeding and the logo works on cotton, poly, blends, etc. The number of colors in the logo is unlimited and it doesn’t cost more to print a full-color logo or a one-color logo.
What Items Can Be Printed With DTF?
- Apparel - T-Shirts, Jackets, Vests, Etc.
- Hats - Baseball Hats, Golf Hats, Beanies, Visors
- Bags - Duffel Bags, Backpacks, Totes, Luggage
- Accessories - Blankets, Towels, Flags
What Are The Minimums For DTF Printing?
With an online company store at iCoStore, we pre-configure program logos and incorporate style guides into our system, allowing us to decorate individual pieces (no minimums). We print and stock pre-approved logos for our programs, and print custom logos as ordered.
The introduction of Direct-to-Film (DTF) printing technology has revolutionized on-demand decoration, offering a superior alternative to traditional screen printing and direct-to-garment (DTG) methods. DTF provides high-quality results with greater efficiency and reliability.
The iCoStore infrastructure is specifically designed to handle single-item decoration using a variety of methods, delivering significant benefits to our clients by ensuring quality, customization, and speed.
High Quality Embroidery
Digitizing
A good logo starts with great digitizing. There are a lot of shortcuts that people take to make logos sew faster, but that reduces the quality. We digitize every logo in-house, sew them on multiple materials and adjust them until we are happy with the result.
Machines
There are many different types of commercial embroidery machines. We use Tajima, which are the gold standard in embroidery.
Experience
Experienced operators know to slow down machines when running small text or fine detail. They know when to use double backing or adjust the tension. The machines are great, but experience makes a big difference. Running on-demand embroidery, changing styles, logos and colors for every item is challenging, however our team has done it for years.
Attention to Detail
Our goal is to make your logo look great. That isn’t the goal of many contract embroiderers. They get paid on the number of pieces they produce, so they turn up the speed and don’t trim between letters, etc. We set up our logos to have extra stitches hidden under the logo, which helps it sew better. We trim between letters, which significantly slows down production, but produces a much cleaner result. The attention to detail in our on-demand embroidery department is unmatched.
Looking to Upgrade your Swag?
Our attention to detail and logo quality is unmatched. The details are what set us apart from the competition. Let’s discuss how we can take your program to the next level.
iCoStore builds, hosts and runs customized online company stores that sell branded corporate apparel and promotional products. Our on-demand production makes it possible to offer unlimited products with little to no inventory liability. Controlling everything in-house, from back-end technology to product decoration warehousing & fulfillment gives us a significant advantage. We revolutionized on-demand logo stores and we continue to lead the way.
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