# Honest opionion needed on this DTG quality



## HoustonPrideWear (Sep 7, 2008)

I am so disappointed. I contacted someone to do some DTG tshirts for me on dark tees. I think I had some pretty realistic expectations, but someone tell me if I need a reality check or not. I've attached 2 different samples. This was from washing the tshirt 1 time, inside out, cold water, and hung dry. No fabric softener.

The tshirts used were Gildans. Both were the Womens 2000L. One in Orchid color, one in Black.

I had my first customer complaint today. And guess what, it was my first sale!!!

The person that did these I found online. Not in this forum. And I don't know if they are on this forum or not.

I was charged $12.50 for each shirt. The design was on the left front chest and full back.


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## BBProd (Oct 29, 2008)

HoustonPrideWear said:


> This was from washing the tshirt 1 time, inside out, cold water, and hung dry. No fabric softener.


I don't have the experience to say whether or not this is normal or what might have caused it if it isn't, but I'm wondering if you are 100% sure about how they were washed, or if this is what you were told?

Chris


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

From what I can see is that there are two possible culprits that could have caused these type of results. The first is that they were improperly pretreated and the second is that they were not fully cured. I can see on the first one very clearly that the ink is flaking off. This can be caused by too much pretreatment or it not being cured long enough. Does the second one have a white underbase, it almost appears to me on that second one that it is fibrilation, which means that the fibers are sticking up, not allowing the ink to lay down properly. The second one almost appears to me to not be with a white underbase.

Do you have pics of the full designs? Can you take pics of the whole shirts with the design and post them? Well basically the design with the color of the fabric around it? that might help too so that we can see the whole pic. But my guess would be improper pretreatment or improper cure. They should not look like this after one wash if they were done properly.

I have added a couple of images that are taken very close up, basically that part of the design in the pic is no bigger then 2"high by 3 inches wide. This was printed on a infant jean jacket and has been washed five times. The reason I was testing this jacket is that I messed up on the print haha, it was a first print of a run, so I keep my mess ups to do wash tests with  But you can see that there is not any ink flaking off or fibers sticking up thru the fibers.


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## Teeser (May 14, 2008)

I would consider that subpar printing. Our very first test prints when we first got the machine and were figuring out how to pretreat and cure the ink had wash results exactly like that. We print on the Gildan 2000L and have test washed 12+ times without any flaking/peeling/cracking or white spots. 

To be fair there is a possibility that the entire run isn't subpar - ie the pretreat fluid was running low and they fixed it or the operator was only 95ish% consistent when applying it. You might want to test wash some yourself to verify the results. You'll find out pretty quickly if they were aberrations or the standard of production.


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## mrbigjack50 (Jun 9, 2008)

If it is first wash than not really acceptable 
Bobbie hit on money in my opinion because I only use Gildan shirts and never have issues (when I did darks) not anymore though was pain in butt Lol


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## Agnieszka (Feb 9, 2013)

Hi,

Just like the thread starter I have a question about quality of a DTG print.

Together with my husband we're planning to start a DTG printing business and since I wasn't sure what DTG print was I ordered a cheap t-shirt with a DTG print. I took it out of the bag and was surprised at the low quality of the print. I emailed the seller with questions, but he said all was fine and it would get better after a wash. After one wash the blue visible in the last pic got slightly yellow.

I took a few pics of the t-shirt after I got it out of the bag. Could you please tell me what's wrong with this print? Should the colour of the t-shirt be visible from underneath the print? And what about the creases? Should they be there? True, they vanised after the second wash, but should they be there in the first place? Is blue changing into yellow normal in DTG?


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## spiderx1 (Oct 12, 2009)

Simple answer is no to all. Obviously printed by a person without a clue! DTG printing is not as simple as most are led to believe. While it is not as durable as screen printing it is quite durable when done correctly. I suggest reading here a lot!

Sent from my SCH-I605 using T-Shirt Forums


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

Aggie, there could be several things wrong with this print.

1) Not enough pretreatment: The fact that the whites are not bright could be an indication of not enough pretreatment. Some machines can't print a great white to begin with because of the inks, but in this case, I'd be more inclined to agree with Randy, the operator did not know what they were doing.

2) Not enough white ink lay down: If the pretreatment was not applied properly, then no matter how much white ink you lay down, it won't ever be bright. That being said, if you look at the pits or holes everywhere in the design, this could indicate not enough white ink was laid down to begin with.

3) They used a wrinkled sheet of paper when curing. The parchment papers most people use will absorb moisture as the print is curing in the heat press. If you do not replace the paper every few cures, it will begin to wrinkle and then be embedded into the design.

Overall, just a poor job and not representative of the quality of DTG.


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## dragonknight (May 30, 2009)

Yes Jerid said it all

One more thing it could be the t-shirt fabric is not 100% cotton or 50/50 blend


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## beanie357 (Mar 27, 2011)

Jerdi on the money.

We still do a test wash sequence occasionally after 2 years of dtg.

It is a great print producer, but keeping variables under control is a daily process.


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## Smalzstein (Jul 22, 2008)

Jeśli masz pytania odnośnie DTG to pisz na priv z chęcią doradzę. Jak koledzy napisali wcześniej DTG to cholernie skomplikowana technologia i czynników wpływających na jakość druku jest od groma. 

If you have any questions concerning DTG send my a private message. As stated above there are many variables that could affect the print.


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## NZACO (Jan 21, 2012)

Agnieszka said:


> Hi,
> 
> Just like the thread starter I have a question about quality of a DTG print.
> 
> ...


Jakie były koszulki drukowane na?


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## Agnieszka (Feb 9, 2013)

Cheers guys for all the info. Jerid, your input is very informative, thanks. I felt that DTG shouldn't look like that. Although it's printed on 100% cotton FOTL tshirt the print is not 100%. Now I know why.

I'm annoyed that I spent money on something like this, but on the other hand it gave me a valuable lesson. I felt that testing tshirts throughout your business is part of success and I'm glad that Shep confirmed my assumptions.

Bogusław, thanks for the offer, I'll definitely contact you.

Thanks again to all.


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