DTF vs DTG vs screen printing for a small print shop

For one-off designs that customers make online, DTF suits most small print shops: it prints on any colour of garment, cotton or polyester, one at a time with almost no set-up. DTG gives the softest print on cotton t-shirts, and screen printing pays only on larger runs of one design.

A shop that sells custom designs online gets a stream of small, different orders: one shirt with a family photo, two hoodies with a club logo, a tote bag with a name. The printing method decides what those orders cost you, what the customer gets and what files you need from them. This guide compares the three methods small print shops use most, direct-to-film (DTF), direct-to-garment (DTG) and screen printing, for that kind of work.

Equipment and ink prices change quickly and vary by country, so this guide doesn’t quote them. Price your own set-up from your suppliers’ current quotes.

How each method works

DTG: printing straight onto the garment

A DTG printer is an inkjet that prints water-based ink straight into the fabric. The garment lies on a flat platen and the print head passes over it.

• Light garments print directly.
• Dark garments are first sprayed with a pre-treatment and heat-pressed, so the printer can lay down a layer of white ink (the underbase) that the colours sit on.
• The print is cured with heat, in a heat press or a tunnel dryer. Under-cured prints fade or crack in the wash.
• Fabric: DTG works best on cotton. Printer makers commonly recommend at least 50% cotton; polyester is harder, because the ink does not bond to synthetic fibres in the same way.

The print soaks into the fibres, so on light shirts it feels like part of the fabric.

DTF: printing a transfer, then pressing it

A DTF printer prints the design in colour onto a PET film, with a layer of white behind it. While the ink is wet, a hot-melt adhesive powder is applied, the film is cured, and the transfer is then pressed onto the product with a heat press.

• No pre-treatment, and the same transfer works on light and dark fabrics.
• Fabric: cotton, polyester and blends, and heavier materials such as fleece. That makes DTF the usual choice for hoodies, bags and mixed-fibre workwear.
• Transfers keep. You can print transfers ahead, or buy them ready-printed from a DTF transfer supplier and only press them yourself.

The print sits on top of the fabric as a thin, flexible layer, so large solid areas feel more like a film than a DTG print does.

Screen printing: one screen per colour

Screen printing pushes ink through a fine mesh screen. Each colour in the design needs its own screen: coated with emulsion, exposed to light through the artwork and washed out, so ink only passes where the design is. Colours are printed one after another, then the ink is cured.

• Set-up per design and per colour: screens, registration and clean-up take the same time whether you print 5 shirts or 500.
• Per print, it is cheap once the screens are made, and the inks are durable and vivid.
• Fabric: best on cotton and cotton blends; polyester needs inks and curing made for it.

What file each method needs

	DTG	DTF	Screen printing
File type	PNG with a transparent background	PNG with a transparent background	Separated spot colours; vector artwork separates most cleanly
Resolution	300 DPI at the real print size	300 DPI at the real print size	Vector, or high-resolution raster for separation
Photographs	Print as they are	Print as they are	Need halftones; more colours mean more screens
Fine detail	Good	Very thin lines and isolated pixels may not transfer	Limited by the mesh and halftone

For DTG and DTF, the file has to be the size of the print. A 28 × 36 cm print at 300 DPI is 3307 × 4252 pixels, and everything that isn’t transparent will print, including a white box around a logo saved as JPEG. Print-ready t-shirt files explains the arithmetic and what goes wrong, DTF print file requirements goes through a DTF file point by point, and the image print size calculator shows how large a customer’s image prints sharp.

That is the file PrintBlob Pro makes: when a customer adds a design to the cart, it renders each printed side as a transparent PNG at exactly the print area’s size at 300 DPI, attached to the order. It goes straight to a DTG printer’s software, or onto a DTF gang sheet next to other orders.

Screen printing needs more than a print file: a screen printer separates the design into colours before any screen is made. PrintBlob Pro also makes each printed side as a vector PDF and an SVG at the print area’s size, in which typed text, emoji and SVG clipart are vector shapes, which separate more cleanly, and, once you upload the ICC profile your printer gives you, a CMYK PDF. A customer’s photo stays the image they uploaded, and PrintBlob makes no separations and no spot or Pantone colours. Separating works well for a logo with a few flat colours; a photo or a design with gradients needs halftoning and more screens.

Where the costs and minimums come from

The difference between the three is where the money goes:

• Screen printing has a high fixed cost per design (screens, set-up, clean-up) and a low cost per print. The fixed cost is spread over the run, so it gets cheaper per piece as quantity grows. Many screen printers set a minimum order per design for that reason.
• DTG has almost no set-up per design, but each print uses ink, pre-treatment on dark shirts and press time, so the cost per piece stays roughly the same at any quantity. The printer is the biggest investment and needs regular use and maintenance.
• DTF also has almost no set-up per design. Each print uses film, ink and powder, plus pressing time. Several designs can be printed on one gang sheet, which keeps waste down when orders are small; DTF gang sheets in WooCommerce covers selling them as well.

Where the lines cross depends on your own costs, your designs and how many colours they have. Price a typical order both ways with your own numbers before deciding. The t-shirt printing cost calculator does it for all three, with screen printing’s set-up divided over the run, and the DTF pricing calculator works out what a transfer costs from a gang sheet.

Which suits one-off customer designs

An online designer brings orders of one or a few, each different, often with photos. For that:

• DTF handles the widest range: any colour garment, cotton or polyester, hoodies and bags, one at a time. You can start by pressing transfers from a supplier and buy a printer once volume justifies it.
• DTG suits shops that mostly print cotton t-shirts and want the softest print, especially on light colours. Dark garments add pre-treatment to every order.
• Screen printing rarely suits one-offs. It suits larger orders of one design: a team, an event, a business’s staff shirts. Many shops keep it for orders above a set quantity and print everything else with DTF or DTG.

Other methods fill specific gaps. Dye sublimation prints polyester and polymer-coated products such as mugs, in white or light colours. Heat-transfer vinyl is cut from vector outlines, which suits simple text and numbers; DTF vs sublimation vs HTV compares those two with DTF. Embroidery is digitised into stitches by a specialist.

Checking before you print

Whatever the method, check each order’s files before printing:

• Open the print file and check it is the expected pixel size and has a transparent background.
• Look for very thin lines, tiny text and faint, semi-transparent effects. These are where DTF and DTG lose detail, so check how your printer’s software handles them with a test print.
• Check images the customer placed large. PrintBlob’s designer warns customers while they design when an image would print below 150 DPI at the size they’ve placed it, but a customer can still order it.

Questions shop owners ask

Next steps

• Get the files right: print-ready t-shirt files and print areas and print sizes per product.
• Price by printed side: how to price custom t-shirt printing.
• See how a print shop takes these orders with PrintBlob: a print shop taking custom orders online.
• Try the designer and download the print file it makes, then open it in your printer’s software.