After 20 years in the t-shirt printing business, it finely dawned on me. Every online company goes about creating the perfect t-shirt backwards. You see, in order to design the perfect printed tee, you have to start with the art.
There are as many different types of t-shirt art as there are different types of t-shirt fabric. So let’s take a look.
Distressed art is typically very broken up and worn looking. Usually this type of art is one or two ink colors. Because of the worn/textured look, the print surface is usually very soft. This type of art works very well on softer, fashion forward types of fabric. Tri-blends or 50/50 blends of the trendy brands such as Bella – Canvas, Next Level or District are all good options for this type of artwork.
Spot color art is what you may be most familiar with when thinking of a screen printed t-shirt. Spot color printing consists of solid objects of ink and usually have an outline “Key Line” color around everything. Minimal coverage spot color art would have scattered objects and would create a nice image with minimal ink coverage. Most garments are suitable for this type of art work.
Maximum coverage spot color art is usually a full front or back design with relatively heavy ink coverage. This is typical of many souvenir shirts. In this type of art, most of the area is printed and a heavy shirt is best suited for this type of printing.
Sim process art is what is often considered photo-realistic. Although not quite as heavy as Maximum Coverage Spot Color art, Sim Process art is still often times full coverage. This type of art is also best suited for heavier fabric weights.
Often called DTF (Direct To Film), full color transfers are suited to many types of fabrics due to a very soft and thin ink layer. DTF has gained a lot of popularity in the last few years for it’s ability to allow full color decoration in small quantities.
Full Color Digital is one of the most advanced decoration techniques available. This decoration method utilizes both traditional screen print and Digital printing at the same time. The possibilities are amazing when used on the highest quality fabrics.
So there you have it. A lot of different art types, all best suited for specific fabrics. So, for the best outcome on your custom decorated apparel, we created a unique filtering system that starts with the art. From there you can filter down as far as you would like and then be left with the products best suited to your particular avatar.
Go to our products page to get started.
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