Direct to Garment Printing

Direct to garment (or D2G printing) is the process of printing a design onto fabric through an ink jet style printer.

Unlike screen printing where a water based ink or plastisol is pushed through a stencil, a direct to garment printer is connected to a computer and the ink jet printer jets the ink out using CKMY inks. It’s quite similar to an office printer however formatted for textiles, and much bigger!

This allows for a “soft to touch” feel as the inks are absorbed into the fibers of the fabric, rather than pasted on top like traditional plastisol printing.

The team at Neto Uniforms are experts in this awesome printing process- but don’t just take our word for it! Check out the video on this page!

Why Choose Direct to Garment Printing (The Pros)

  • It’s Affordable!- Unlike Screen printing, the number of colours does not affect the cost of D2G printing. So it’s GREAT for designs with a high amount of colours like photos or technical gradients.
  • Low minimum orders- With the minimum order number at 10 items compared to screen printing or embroideries minimum of 20, D2G is perfect for these smaller runs like that upcoming bucks party or your sports team tees.
  • Looks (and feels) Amazing- With the ink absorbing into the fibers of the garment, this printing style leaves a super soft to touch finish. Screen printing can often feel a little thicker or rougher. While digital transfers have a reputation for feeling like a sticker with a slightly plastic finish.

Why Direct to Garment Printing May Not be Right for Your Job (the Cons)

  • Limited garment selection– With 100% cotton fabric being the ideal choice for this process, you’re limited to the types of clothing you can use this method on.
  •  Print Vibrancy can Differ– D2G printing can sometime end with the product looking more opaque than other methods. Colours can also seem duller than the original PMS (pantone matching system for those who don’t know). PMS Colours are typically harder to match and the shades can be slightly different from what was requested- However, we do our best to ensure that colours match as closely as possible.
  • Not great for Large orders– It’s actually not as cost effective to get Direct to garment prints for your larger orders, nor do we recommend it for designs with limited colours.
  • Pretreatment lines can be left on the outskirts of the garment– This often alarm people, but pretreament lines will come of in the first wash of the garment. However, if you are selling the product for retail purposes the lines can sometimes be less than ideal.

If direct to garment printing doesn’t sound right for you, check out our screen printing, embroidering, or give us a call and we can chat through what you need!

Direct to Garment at Neto Uniforms

Neto Uniforms purchased a brand new, market leading D2G machine in 2019.

This machine creates astonishingly clear and crisp prints from high quality imagery, providing you with a perfect, long-lasting design

Get in touch today!

Our Direct to Garment Printing Process

At Neto Uniforms, we love bringing people’s designs to life with our direct to garment printing!

In 2019 we introduced this service along with a top of the range D2G printing machine. Operated by one of our highly trained technicians, who are responsible for quality control and maintaining weekly cleans and checks on the machine, we are able to continuously produce the highest quality prints for businesses across the Perth region.

Here’s how we create amazing prints with our Direct to garment printing service:

Choose your shirts

We have a great selection of 100% cotton tees (we recommend cotton for D2G) available in all the colours of the rainbow! You can either visit us in store or order online too!

Send through your design

We’ll need your t shirt design of course! All you need to do is email it through to us!- Just make sure the image is high quality!

Pre-treatment of clothing

For any designs that have the white in the print, we are required to pre-treat the garment so that the colour can be seen. This pre-treatment basically allows the white to stick to the fabric, so that your design is fully realised on the garment.

The design is uploaded into our computer

Our technicians will upload your design into the D2G computer. They’ll make sure that the design is perfectly placed and that any requests to your design, such as background removal, are completed before printing starts! They’ll then select the best print setting for your design and then…

Printing begins!

Your clothing is printed. Our technicians are close by the entire time to ensure that everything runs smoothly, and our high printing standards are met.

Curing and Cooling

When the garments are finished printing they move on to the curing process where they will be blasted with heat for a few minutes to make sure that the ink sets into the fabric.

Ready for pick-up!

Once your garments have cooled down from the curing process they’re folded, ready to be shipped of picked up! We offer flat rate delivery across  Perth or you can pop in to our conveniently located store in Osborne Park- Whatever is easiest for you!

Frequently Asked Questions About Direct to Garment Printing

What is your minimum order? I only need a few items to start with.


At Neto Uniforms our minimum order is at 10 units per print design. 
A lot of time and care is put into each order to ensure that the quality is the highest possible. For this reason, we are unable to print orders of less than 10 items.

Can I bring in my own items for direct to garment printing?

Unfortunately, we only offer embellishment onto items that we have supplied.
 All the items that we supply are embellishment friendly so we are confident the print quality will not be affected by the fabric or any unknown chemicals.

We have an awesome selection of garments available that are priced competitively. We’d be happy to help you find clothing that is within your budget for our D2G services
.

With thousands of garments to choose from, our team can source almost anything that you are looking for 🙂 


How long will it take for my order to be printed?

Our standard turn-around is 10 working days from quote and artwork approval. However, if you’re in need of something fast, we are very well known for our speedy turn-around times for urgent orders.

Get in touch with our staff know straight away if you are working to a deadline, and we will do our best to arrange this for you.

Can you design something for me?


Great news- we don’t need to! There are so many free apps these days that allow anyone, even those with no graphic skills what so ever, to whip up a great design!

No ridiculous graphic design fees, which we’re sure is music to anyone’s ears. 
One of our favourites at Neto Uniforms is www.Canva.com.au.

Canva is a free site, and allows you to choose from hundreds of designs, and then edit the colours, text, and size to your liking. 
(This is not endorsed by Canva, we just really love the site!)

How much does direct to garment printing cost?

Direct to garment pricing have 3 deciding factors:

1. Garment colour- 
 printing onto white is much more cost effective than printing onto a a coloured item of clothing. The reason for this is that coloured garments require a white under base to be printer underneath the colours in your design. These inks are of a very high quality and carry a high price tag, meaning the cost per print is higher.

2. Size of print- 
As mentioned above, the inks for this style of printing are rather pricey meaning the size of the print will affect the cost. This is unlike screen printing where the inks are more affordable, resulting in the size of the print not effecting the print price.

3. Quantity- 
Once the job is set up and going, most of the hard work is done. For this reason, when larger orders are placed the individual cost can be discounted.

In summary, a left chest sized print can cost anywhere between $5 – $15 and a large back print can cost anywhere between $7 – $25
(Price not including the garment)

Contact Us

Neto Uniforms provides the highest quality embroidery, screen printing and digital transfer services, complemented by an in-house graphic designer. We deliver on time with a fast turnaround. At Neto Uniforms we strive to help your business, sporting team, school or association make an impression.

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