{"course":{"slug":"vector-and-print","title":"Vectors, Logos and Things That Get Printed","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/vector-and-print","level":"beginner","track":"create"},"lesson":{"slug":"garment-printing-processes","title":"DTF, DTG, sublimation and heat transfer","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/vector-and-print/garment-printing-processes","position":72,"of":73,"minutes":8,"answer":"DTG is cotton-only with a machine-printed underbase, DTF works on almost anything but sits on the surface and needs clean hard-edged transparency, sublimation bonds into polyester and cannot print white or work on dark.","keyIdea":"DTG is cotton-only with a machine-printed underbase, DTF works on almost anything but sits on the surface and needs clean hard-edged transparency, sublimation bonds into polyester and cannot print white or work on dark, and HTV is cut mirrored in flat colours."},"body":{"format":"markdown","text":"## Four newer processes, four different files\n\nScreen printing is not the only way to get a design onto fabric, and the alternatives have different economics and different file requirements. Knowing which is which lets you advise a client rather than repeat what the last shop told them.\n\n## DTG: direct to garment\n\nAn inkjet printer that prints water-based ink directly into the fabric.\n\n- **Cotton only**, or high-cotton blends. Ink does not bond to polyester.\n- On dark garments, a **white underbase is printed by the machine** after a pre-treatment liquid is applied and heat-pressed. The pre-treatment is essential and shows as a faint square if applied unevenly.\n- **No setup cost**, so a run of one is viable. Per-unit cost is high, so a run of 500 is not.\n- **Full colour, photographic**, no colour limit.\n- **File**: a high-resolution raster (300 ppi at final size) with a genuine transparent background. Vector is fine as a source; the RIP rasterises it.\n\nSoft hand-feel, excellent detail, limited to cotton, fades faster than screen print.\n\n## DTF: direct to film\n\nCurrently the process spreading fastest in small shops. The design is printed onto a PET film with white ink behind it, powdered with an adhesive, cured, and heat-pressed onto the garment.\n\n- **Works on almost anything**: cotton, polyester, blends, nylon, leather, dark or light.\n- **No pre-treatment**, no cutting, no weeding.\n- **Full colour**, and the white is printed automatically as a backing layer.\n- **File**: raster at 300 ppi with true transparency, or vector. The RIP generates the white layer from the alpha channel, so **the transparency must be clean**: a soft feathered edge produces a visible white fringe. Hard edges, or a deliberate 1 px feather at most.\n- Sits **on top** of the fabric as a film, so the hand-feel is plasticky compared with screen or DTG, and a large solid area is noticeably stiff.\n\nFor short runs of mixed garments, it has largely displaced everything else.\n\n## Sublimation\n\nInk is printed onto transfer paper, then heat and pressure turn it into a gas that bonds into the polymer fibres.\n\nTwo hard constraints, and they are absolute:\n\n- **Polyester only**, or a polymer-coated surface (mugs, phone cases, metal plates, coated MDF). It will not work on cotton at all.\n- **White or very light substrate only.** There is no white sublimation ink, so the substrate provides the white and you cannot print light on dark.\n\nWithin those limits it is excellent: the ink is *in* the fibres, so there is no hand-feel at all, and it does not crack or peel. All-over printed sportswear is sublimation.\n\n**File**: full-colour raster, and the image must be **mirrored** before printing, because it is applied face down.\n\n## Heat transfer vinyl (HTV)\n\nCut vinyl, weeded, heat-pressed. Covered in the vinyl lesson, and the two things to remember here are that it is **cut mirrored** and that it is limited to flat spot colours, which makes it ideal for names and numbers on sports kit and poor for anything detailed.\n\n## Choosing between them\n\n- **Run of 1 to 20, full colour, mixed garment types**: DTF.\n- **Run of 1 to 20, cotton, soft feel matters**: DTG.\n- **Run of 100+, few colours**: screen print, comfortably cheapest per unit.\n- **Polyester sportswear, all-over or full colour**: sublimation.\n- **Names and numbers, any quantity**: HTV.\n- **Premium feel, few colours, cotton**: screen print with a soft-hand or discharge ink.\n\n## Two things to tell every client\n\n**Ask for a sample before the run.** The same artwork looks different in each of these processes, and the difference in hand-feel is something nobody can judge from a photograph.\n\n**Wash test it.** A sample washed five times tells you more about the process than any specification sheet. DTF peeling at the corners, DTG fading, sublimation ghosting on a poly-cotton blend: all show up in the wash and not before.\n\n## What to supply, in one line each\n\n- **DTG**: 300 ppi PNG at final size, transparent background, sRGB, cotton confirmed.\n- **DTF**: 300 ppi PNG at final size, hard-edged transparency, no feathering beyond a pixel.\n- **Sublimation**: 300 ppi at final size, mirrored, and confirm the substrate is polyester or polymer-coated.\n- **HTV**: vector, mirrored, strokes outlined, overlaps welded, nothing under 2 mm.\n- **Screen**: separations on named layers, 1200 dpi films, underbase choked.\n\nPut the process in the filename. `acme-tee-DTF-260x200mm.png` tells the shop everything before they open it, and it stops a sublimation file being pressed onto a cotton shirt, which is a mistake somebody makes every week."},"check":{"question":"A client wants twenty black polyester sports shirts with a full-colour photographic design. Which process fits, and why do two of the obvious candidates fail?","options":[{"text":"Sublimation, because polyester is exactly what it bonds into and twenty units needs no setup cost.","correct":false,"tempting":"Sublimation is right for polyester but cannot print on a dark garment, since there is no white ink and the substrate must supply the white."},{"text":"Screen printing with a choked white underbase, since it handles dark garments and any fabric type at all.","correct":false,"tempting":"Screen printing works here technically, but a photographic design needs simulated process across six or more screens, which at twenty units is far too much setup."},{"text":"DTG, because it prints full colour with a white underbase on dark garments.","correct":false,"tempting":"DTG's water-based ink bonds to cotton, not polyester, so the design would wash out of a polyester shirt."},{"text":"DTF, because it prints its own white backing, adheres to polyester and has no setup cost.","correct":true}]},"prev":{"slug":"screen-print-separations","title":"Screen printing, separations and the underbase","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/vector-and-print/screen-print-separations"},"next":{"slug":"large-format-and-distance","title":"Signage, viewing distance and the seams","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/vector-and-print/large-format-and-distance"},"authorship":"Founder and series editor: Dr Mustafa Mun. Written by AI models to a written standard. Exam keys checked blind by a second model: 3,665 of 3,666 agreed. Academic review invited.","review":{"status":"Draft, open for academic review"},"cite":"Addaly (2026) 'DTF, DTG, sublimation and heat transfer', in Vectors, Logos and Things That Get Printed. Edited by M. Mun. Addaly. Available at: https://addaly.com/learn/vector-and-print/garment-printing-processes (Accessed: 13 October 2026).","licence":{"name":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/"},"reader":{"schema":1,"title":"DTF, DTG, sublimation and heat transfer","courseTitle":"Vectors, Logos and Things That Get Printed","module":{"index":8,"slug":"machines-that-make-things","title":"Machines that cut, stitch and burn"},"answer":null,"keyIdea":"DTG is cotton-only with a machine-printed underbase, DTF works on almost anything but sits on the surface and needs clean hard-edged transparency, sublimation bonds into polyester and cannot print white or work on dark, and HTV is cut mirrored in flat colours.","hero":{"kind":"plate","image":null,"alt":null,"caption":null},"blocks":[{"t":"h2","id":"four-newer-processes-four-different-files","runs":[{"text":"Four newer processes, four different files"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Screen printing is not the only way to get a design onto fabric, and the alternatives have different economics and different file requirements. Knowing which is which lets you advise a client rather than repeat what the last shop told them."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"dtg-direct-to-garment","runs":[{"text":"DTG: direct to garment"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"An inkjet printer that prints water-based ink directly into the fabric."}]},{"t":"ul","items":[[{"text":"Cotton only","b":true},{"text":", or high-cotton blends. Ink does not bond to polyester."}],[{"text":"On dark garments, a "},{"text":"white underbase is printed by the machine","b":true},{"text":" after a pre-treatment liquid is applied and heat-pressed. The pre-treatment is essential and shows as a faint square if applied unevenly."}],[{"text":"No setup cost","b":true},{"text":", so a run of one is viable. Per-unit cost is high, so a run of 500 is not."}],[{"text":"Full colour, photographic","b":true},{"text":", no colour limit."}],[{"text":"File","b":true},{"text":": a high-resolution raster (300 ppi at final size) with a genuine transparent background. Vector is fine as a source; the RIP rasterises it."}]]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Soft hand-feel, excellent detail, limited to cotton, fades faster than screen print."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"dtf-direct-to-film","runs":[{"text":"DTF: direct to film"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Currently the process spreading fastest in small shops. The design is printed onto a PET film with white ink behind it, powdered with an adhesive, cured, and heat-pressed onto the garment."}]},{"t":"ul","items":[[{"text":"Works on almost anything","b":true},{"text":": cotton, polyester, blends, nylon, leather, dark or light."}],[{"text":"No pre-treatment","b":true},{"text":", no cutting, no weeding."}],[{"text":"Full colour","b":true},{"text":", and the white is printed automatically as a backing layer."}],[{"text":"File","b":true},{"text":": raster at 300 ppi with true transparency, or vector. The RIP generates the white layer from the alpha channel, so "},{"text":"the transparency must be clean","b":true},{"text":": a soft feathered edge produces a visible white fringe. Hard edges, or a deliberate 1 px feather at most."}],[{"text":"Sits "},{"text":"on top","b":true},{"text":" of the fabric as a film, so the hand-feel is plasticky compared with screen or DTG, and a large solid area is noticeably stiff."}]]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"For short runs of mixed garments, it has largely displaced everything else."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"sublimation","runs":[{"text":"Sublimation"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Ink is printed onto transfer paper, then heat and pressure turn it into a gas that bonds into the polymer fibres."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Two hard constraints, and they are absolute:"}]},{"t":"ul","items":[[{"text":"Polyester only","b":true},{"text":", or a polymer-coated surface (mugs, phone cases, metal plates, coated MDF). It will not work on cotton at all."}],[{"text":"White or very light substrate only.","b":true},{"text":" There is no white sublimation ink, so the substrate provides the white and you cannot print light on dark."}]]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Within those limits it is excellent: the ink is "},{"text":"in","i":true},{"text":" the fibres, so there is no hand-feel at all, and it does not crack or peel. All-over printed sportswear is sublimation."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"File","b":true},{"text":": full-colour raster, and the image must be "},{"text":"mirrored","b":true},{"text":" before printing, because it is applied face down."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"heat-transfer-vinyl-htv","runs":[{"text":"Heat transfer vinyl (HTV)"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Cut vinyl, weeded, heat-pressed. Covered in the vinyl lesson, and the two things to remember here are that it is "},{"text":"cut mirrored","b":true},{"text":" and that it is limited to flat spot colours, which makes it ideal for names and numbers on sports kit and poor for anything detailed."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"choosing-between-them","runs":[{"text":"Choosing between them"}]},{"t":"ul","items":[[{"text":"Run of 1 to 20, full colour, mixed garment types","b":true},{"text":": DTF."}],[{"text":"Run of 1 to 20, cotton, soft feel matters","b":true},{"text":": DTG."}],[{"text":"Run of 100+, few colours","b":true},{"text":": screen print, comfortably cheapest per unit."}],[{"text":"Polyester sportswear, all-over or full colour","b":true},{"text":": sublimation."}],[{"text":"Names and numbers, any quantity","b":true},{"text":": HTV."}],[{"text":"Premium feel, few colours, cotton","b":true},{"text":": screen print with a soft-hand or discharge ink."}]]},{"t":"h2","id":"two-things-to-tell-every-client","runs":[{"text":"Two things to tell every client"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Ask for a sample before the run.","b":true},{"text":" The same artwork looks different in each of these processes, and the difference in hand-feel is something nobody can judge from a photograph."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Wash test it.","b":true},{"text":" A sample washed five times tells you more about the process than any specification sheet. DTF peeling at the corners, DTG fading, sublimation ghosting on a poly-cotton blend: all show up in the wash and not before."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"what-to-supply-in-one-line-each","runs":[{"text":"What to supply, in one line each"}]},{"t":"ul","items":[[{"text":"DTG","b":true},{"text":": 300 ppi PNG at final size, transparent background, sRGB, cotton confirmed."}],[{"text":"DTF","b":true},{"text":": 300 ppi PNG at final size, hard-edged transparency, no feathering beyond a pixel."}],[{"text":"Sublimation","b":true},{"text":": 300 ppi at final size, mirrored, and confirm the substrate is polyester or polymer-coated."}],[{"text":"HTV","b":true},{"text":": vector, mirrored, strokes outlined, overlaps welded, nothing under 2 mm."}],[{"text":"Screen","b":true},{"text":": separations on named layers, 1200 dpi films, underbase choked."}]]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Put the process in the filename. "},{"text":"acme-tee-DTF-260x200mm.png","code":true},{"text":" tells the shop everything before they open it, and it stops a sublimation file being pressed onto a cotton shirt, which is a mistake somebody makes every week."}]}],"check":{"question":[{"text":"A client wants twenty black polyester sports shirts with a full-colour photographic design. Which process fits, and why do two of the obvious candidates fail?"}],"options":[{"text":[{"text":"Sublimation, because polyester is exactly what it bonds into and twenty units needs no setup cost."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Sublimation is right for polyester but cannot print on a dark garment, since there is no white ink and the substrate must supply the white."}]},{"text":[{"text":"Screen printing with a choked white underbase, since it handles dark garments and any fabric type at all."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Screen printing works here technically, but a photographic design needs simulated process across six or more screens, which at twenty units is far too much setup."}]},{"text":[{"text":"DTG, because it prints full colour with a white underbase on dark garments."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"DTG’s water-based ink bonds to cotton, not polyester, so the design would wash out of a polyester shirt."}]},{"text":[{"text":"DTF, because it prints its own white backing, adheres to polyester and has no setup cost."}],"correct":true,"tempting":null}],"order":[1,2,3,0],"why":null},"prev":{"slug":"screen-print-separations","title":"Screen printing, separations and the underbase","minutes":9},"next":{"slug":"large-format-and-distance","title":"Signage, viewing distance and the seams","minutes":8}}}