I’ve been asked by a few people about printing on dark shirts. Right now my DTG printer is out of white ink. I have some coming, but until then I can only print on light colors, or only in black. They way a DTG works is that it drops ink onto the fabric, and then gets absorbed. If that fabric is already has color, then it is going to change the color of the ink. To get around that first you pre-treat the fabric, then a layer of white ink is printed first, and then the colored layer. This allows the color to stay on top of the fabric, and not inside of it. Getting the colors to stay true.
It’s a lot more of a process, and white is thicker and makes it so I have to clean the printer more often. The company that owned it before me, never did any white prints for that very reason. The inks that were with it are to thick to use, so I have to get some new stuff.
I think it will be fun to be able to print on any shirt so I’m excited to get the white in so I can start playing with it. It will open up more possibilities.
Screen printing doesn’t have this issue by the way. It is a thicker ink, that is more opaque. It is actually a liquid plastic, that has to be heated and cured. Because of that, it sits more on top of the fabric, and doesn’t change colors. It is better for getting sharp colors on dark fabrics. There is more setup to the process, because a screen has to be exposed before you can use it to print. But ones it is setup, it is faster and the quality is better. So if you want more then 10 shirts it’s probably the way to go.