AN INTRODUCTION TO PRESTIGE DTF PRINTING TECHNOLOGY
DTF (Direct-to-film) technology is a modern version of an old technology that uses a special ink which is printed onto a film. White ink is printed on top of the colour inks- This becomes the base colour when the image is transferred onto fabric and is the reason this technology works so well on dark fabrics. When the print comes out of the printer it’s still wet and a powder is sprinkled onto the wet ink. This powder is the glue that adheres the print to the fabric. After this, it’s cured and pressed with a heat press onto the fabric item.
Is DTF only for Fabric items?
For fabric and other porous substrates only. It will not work on metal, glass, ceramics and so on.
Who should look at DTF?
Anyone who has a demand for printed shirts or other fabrics on a regular basis and who needs excellent quality coupled with low print cost and excellent washability.
There is no other process that can produce this quality at this price that lasts as long.
This process is so revolutionary that even companies traditionally only doing silkscreen printing (which has been the standard for wash durability for decades) are starting to move to DTF for their full- colour work. Even companies using heat transfer vinyl primarily are moving to DTF because the cost saving is huge with zero weeding of unwanted areas. Print costs on DTF are much lower than ANY other transfer process. The film is cheaper and so is the ink with durability not possible with other processes. The total DTF print cost is under R 20 per A3 whereas just the paper for dark shirts on other technologies costs more than the total DTF print cost.
RIP Software, do I need it?
In addition to the printer, powder, film and inks, RIP (Raster Image Processing) software is essential. Without a RIP there’s no way to tell the printer where to apply the white (critical when decorating a dark substrate) and tell the printer how much ink to apply. You also need the RIP for accurate colour matching. By making sure the correct amount of ink is applied for each image, the RIP also saves you money. Many low-end competing systems are supplied with a pirate copy of a sub-standard RIP often with no profiles for the printer they are supplied with. When you have a problem you’re on your own.
JG Electronics ONLY supplies systems with an OEM CADLINK DTF RIP Licence.
Page | 12
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online