# Digital Printing or Silk Screen Printing



## Sophia Cameron (Dec 11, 2007)

Hi, guys. I'm a designer who just started outsourcing my designs to t-shirt printers. I am looking for the best type of printing that will give a very soft feel (I don't like that hard/plastic feel that is almost like a press on).

The guy that does my silk screen printing said that if I did digital printing, it would give a soft feel to the printing, but it would be more expensive. Is this true?

What is the difference between silk screen and digital printing? Which do you guys recommend to give a soft print feel vs. raised?

Any advice or help you may have will be appreciated!

Sophia


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

DTG does have a very soft feel, it almost feels like the print is part of the shirt (I do dtg printing) It would most likely be more than screen printing depending on the amount of colors. also what has a really soft hand is discharge printing which I believe is a type of screen printing where they thin out the ink. If someone who knows about discharge printing could jump in  They can give more info than I can but discharge is also very soft and would probably be cheaper than dtg.


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## adawg2252 (Dec 12, 2007)

Discharge is such an animal, this post may take some time.

Discharge is actually a process where the dye of the shirt is discharged (hence the name) and replaced with the color of your ink/imprint. So the feel is incredibly soft.

However this comes with lots of cons, both economical and environmental.

Discharge inks when printed are transparent, so you will not know if the print was good until AFTER it's dried, which can take more than one pass through a 15ft GAS dryer. That's a lot of time and heat. Plus that means if the shirt was bad, lined up wrong. You have to start all over. You're essentially printing blind.

They have to be mixed with a discharge agent, which contains formaldehyde (spelling?) so when the print is cured, that is released into the air, and some residue is left on the shirt. This means that now the shirt has to be pre-washed prior to wear, to ensure no residue remains on the shirt for the end buyer.

It's a lot of work, but yes the print yeilded is extremely soft handed and looks great, almost as if it was dyed that way (because of the discharge process).

If you could find someone to do that for you (it's harder and harder to find a printer. I stopped a long time ago.) it will probably cost more than traditional printing, but less than dtg on long runs. For short runs there isn't a cheaper way (multi-colored) than a DTG.

But seeing how a lot of people won't do discharge, it may cost you more to have it printed for you.

Using certain additives, meshes, printing methods via traditional you can yeild a soft hand, but it would not be nearly as soft as a DTG print. It will most likely be more expensive, but gives you the ability to modify your prints, designs, and colors on the fly without incurring additional screen charges, ink costs, etc.

I would stray from discharge unless you absolutely needed the softest hand, but beware of the issues involved and understand why your printer may not even entertain the idea.

Good luck
-andrew


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

Wow I had no idea there was so much involved in discharge printing  I bought a shirt from Rodney that was very soft that was discharge printed and it was almost as soft as what I can do with my dtg, that was why I thought of it. 
I agree that for short runs you cant beat dtg printing, It just gets more expensive on the longer runs. Well actually its more expensive for short runs too but most screen printers wont do short runs because it cost them to much for the screen setups.


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## adawg2252 (Dec 12, 2007)

Yeah, definitly. There is a lot of work to discharge, but that's just the nature of the beast. I also run a DTG (TJet3) and the pricing thing is always tough. You want to make it cheaper, but there is more manual labor involved that makes it hard to be REALLY cheap. Plus, if you want just ONE it's going to cost you.

Can't have your cake and eat it too right?


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

Yep I have an HM1 and it prints amazing but the cost of inks can kill ya on long runs. Short runs however are great


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## Sophia Cameron (Dec 11, 2007)

Thanks to everyone for giving me such useful information. T-shirt printing is a new to me, so I am trying to learn as much as I can. After reading your posts about discharge printing, I definitely won't go down that road, but I'm interested in the direct to garment and digital printing. I'll have to find a printer in the NY area who will do this.

Thanks, again!

Sophia


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