ImagesMagUK-Sep18

TIPS & TECHNIQUES www.images-magazine.com 26 images SEPTEMBER 2018 D TG printing is an increasingly popular way for apparel companies to translate what has been designed on the screen to a finished printed garment quickly and easily. The DTG process allows for quick one-offs and repeat orders with not much more than the click of a mouse and within a couple minutes you have a finished product. DTG machines are capable of much more than many printers realise, however. In fact, they could be likened to the Swiss Army knife of garment decoration: they’re extremely versatile and capable of printing everything from the front, back or sleeve of a shirt, a baby all-in-one, or even other items like socks and tennis shoes. Another type of print that DTG machines are especially well suited for is often overlooked and yet is a great way to add value to a customer‘s clothing line or to promote your own apparel brand: custom label printing. Many shirts now feature a tear-away label allowing for the creation of ‘tagless‘ garments that can then be printed on the inside neck area. This gives DTG print shops the opportunity to offer branded private label printing for customers’ fashion clothing lines, add corporate logos to business customers’ staffwear, or even print the number of each shirt within a limited edition collection. What’s more, there is also the possibility of adding your own shop‘s details to every garment you print, if your customer agrees to you marketing your business in this way. Back in the late late ‘90s and early ‘00s I was trying to figure out a way for my small shop to become more known for its screen printing services. One day while visiting a retail store in the local mall it hit me that every shirt hanging on the rack in the store had a hangtag – the apparel manufacturer’s tag. It was obvious and right in front of my face. So why wasn’t I doing it? I set out to create an attractive, glossy hangtag with all of my information and began tagging each shirt. It was a small price – in time and expense – to pay for the potential to achieve wider marketing awareness: whoever received the shirt, whether they were given it, ordered it online or picked it up from a local shop, saw my branded hangtag. Hangtags are still a great promotional tool for clothing brands, but DTG has expanded the marketing opportunities. While I still believe in hangtagging, once the end user receives the shirt and removes the hangtag, there’s nothing to indicate who printed or designed the beautiful piece of art they are wearing. By printing the label on the garment on the inside neck, the consumer will be reminded of your business every time they put the garment on. Here we will take a look at a quick step-by-step process for private label printing DTG shirts... Brian Walker They could be likened to the Swiss Army Knife of garment decoration Brian Walker of RTP Apparel explains how to print neck labels with ease using a DTG printer Remove the label. Pretreat the inside neck of the shirt if necessary. If you are using a shirt that is ready-to- print, the pretreatment will already have been done for you. 1 Create a small, raised printing platform. I used a 7-10 mm thick piece of plastic that was slightly larger than our label area to print. This platform needs to be thick enough so that the collar of the shirt will lay below the top of the raised surface. This piece of plastic measured approximately 75mm x 65mm. 2 3 Position the raised platform on your DTG platen so it is centred at the top of the platen. Tape into position or use an easy-to-remove double-sided tape. Also, lower the platen to allow for the additional height the raised platform adds. Most DTG printers allow for easy adjustment of the platen height. You’re now ready to print. Make sure that your image is smaller than the raised platform area. This will allow for the ‘fudge factor‘ of misplacement of the artwork or other misplacement discrepancies.