The printing industry holds a wide variety of printing techniques. Techniques which are all differentiated based on their methods and key benefits. Some examples of this are screen printing, dye sublimation, heat press printing, and most importantly, direct-to-film printing. But have you ever wondered what makes DTF printing different from the rest?
Direct-to-film printing is known as a printing technique that revolutionized the texture industry and updated the graphic creation of clothing for the digital era. Its distinct method involves printing a design onto a special film where a powder adhesive is melted and applied to the design and pressed onto the garment or goods afterward.
Aside from its process of printing, DTF printing is also known for its own set of benefits that gave it a spot in the printing industry. Check them out below:
- Applicable to a wide variety of materials
Unlike direct-to-garment printing which is best done on 100% cotton, direct-to-film printing offers more variety allowing it to work on many different garment materials. It includes working on garments made of cotton, nylon, treated leather, polyester, 50/50 blends, and both dark and light fabrics.
Other than fabrics, the process of DTF printing can also be used on different types of surfaces like shoes, luggage, metal, wood, and even glass.
- Lesser usage of white ink
Can you guess what the most expensive ink color is? You’re right, it’s none other than, white! This is why the lesser the use of white ink in the printing industry, the bigger your saved cost would be. And since direct-to-film printing only requires about 40% of white ink, it makes it a lot more economical than the other techniques.
- Long-lasting
Things thriving in our world will not remain forever. However, you can still do your best to ensure it lives a long life. The same thing applies when printing garments and/or goods. In every printing project is the demand for the products to survive in some environment. Direct-to-film printing transfers well and has flexible results making them great for printing heavy-use items.
- Faster production process
People nowadays love speeding things up. Especially when it comes to the mass production of printed goods. And direct to film printing offers this benefit to its users since, in its process, pretreatment and drying won’t be needed. Removing these time-consuming steps in the process allows people to save more time and enable faster production. This can be great news for one-off or small-volume orders that traditionally wouldn’t be profitable.
- Painless Application
The biggest challenge to any printing technique is the type of surface where the design would be transferred. And most printing methods can only be used on a few types of surfaces. Meanwhile, direct to film printing offers more than that. Since its process is printing onto a film transfer, you get to easily place your design on hard-to-reach or awkward surfaces. If the area can be heated, you can just simply apply a DTF design to it, as easy as that.
Every printing method available for use has its own distinct way of shining. They have differences that only they could offer to its users. And one of these is direct to film printing. Just like the other printing etchniques, DTF printing has its own reasons why it can be a great addition to a business’s growth.
