The quality of your prints will be determined by the printer you choose, whether you want to use it professionally or just for fun. While it is helpful to read reviews and learn about products, the printer you end up buying will depend on your specific demands. When looking for a t-shirt printer, keep these points in mind.
Ink and paper for printing
Is printing t-shirts a side gig or long-term venture for you? Do you want to go with the best t-shirt printing machine for small business right from the off, or do you want to test the waters with some limited runs? What is the monthly goal for shirt printing? If you need to print less than 500 t-shirts per year, a compact sublimation machine will suffice.
Techniques of Printing
T-shirt printing may be done in a variety of ways, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. A softer print is achieved by spraying a small coating of ink onto the cloth, which then absorbs part of the ink. They work well for intricate designs that need for seamless blending of hues, such as photographs. Since their operation is so similar to that of a standard inkjet printer, changing between designs requires no complicated adjustments to the printer’s configuration. However, printers are expensive, so unless you plan on printing a lot of orders, this is likely to be more than you need.
When it comes to printing on garments, screen printing is both a time-tested and widely used technique. To screen-print, ink is pushed through a stencil (the screen) onto cloth, with a separate screen required for each colour. Many artists use screen printing because it produces patterns that are both long-lasting and vivid, with a practically infinite range of colour options. It works well for production runs but not for intricate artwork.
For heavily printed tees, dye sublimation is the method of choice. Colors are vaporised using a unique process, making for prints that are both supple and airy. However, the process of sublimation is costly and can only be applied to synthetic textiles such as polyester.
Price of raw materials
When selecting on a t-shirt printer, it’s not only the printer’s price that matters; the cost of materials and maintenance does, too.
Heat press printing is the most cost-effective method since it just requires the purchase of transfer paper and a heat press in addition to a normal inkjet printer, which you may already have. Screen printing is similarly affordable, but the price will rise as you add more colours and complexity to your design. The time and effort needed to prepare printing screens also makes screen printing uneconomical for low-volume runs. T-shirt printing is good for small orders or for constantly swapping between designs, but it is not inexpensive since it takes an expensive machine to get started.
Maintenance
When looking for a t-shirt printer, reliability in terms of upkeep should be your main priority. Select a printer with self-cleaning features and minimal maintenance expenses to save hassle. As an added bonus, it should need little to no time out of your busy schedule to keep it in working order. You don’t have to remember the last time you cleaned your printer if it has a feature that notifies you when it needs to be serviced.
