You’ve gotten accustomed to shirt printing by screen printing. Wearing them, seeing them and buying them. Several years ago the first generation of digital printers for shirt printing entered the marketplace and introduced the first digitally printed shirts. Although full color images were possible, the results did not match industry expectations.
The problem areas included:
- Only white and very light colors could be printed. white ink was not available, color saturation (vivid colors) was missing
- Pre-treatment (needed for digital imaging on apparel) was done manually causing slow turn-around time and erratic results
- As was done in screen printing the ink was laid on top of the garment causing a plastic feel and not allowing the shirt to “breathe”
This equipment is still in use today and continues to be sold by the manufacturers.