Difference between DTF and DTG Printers

Difference between DTF and DTG Printers

In this article, I will explain what a DTF printer is and what a DTG printer is. For DTG Printers or what people usually call Direct To Garment, which means printing directly on the t-shirt material, so this DTG Printer can put the t-shirt material into the Printer which has a Tray installed to place the plain t-shirts for printing with the DTG machine. Until now there are still many who use the t-shirt screen printing method that uses the DTG Direct To Garment printer. The resulting print size can only be a maximum of 30x45cm because the Tray on the DTG printer itself is 32x48cm.

As for the DTF Printer itself, which means Digital Transfer Film and in this method the Printer prints the Pet Film first, then puts it in the oven, then sticks it on a t-shirt and presses it on a press machine with a temperature of 165 degrees for 10 to 15 seconds. It is very different from the DTG screen printing method which prints directly onto the t-shirt material, but this DTF method is well known in the market and the results can beat the DTG screen printing method. The result is like a plastisol screen printing which is very chewy and thick in texture.

DTG printers use a special ink, namely pigment ink, usually for those who are now using universal ink, which can be for the DTG method or for the DTF method. There is a lot of interest in this DTF printer, from A3 DTF printers to large format DTF printers with a width of 60cm. However, if you look at the results, DTF printers for A3 size or Desktop DTF Printers are not inferior in quality to Large Format DTF Printer machines.

For you who just want to start DTF screen printing, don’t be in a hurry to buy a Large Format DTF machine, because a Large Format DTF machine also needs a very large market, if the order is still small, it is recommended to use an A3 DTF Printer such as the L1800 DTF Printer because the market and the enthusiasts are still very much not inferior to the DTF Large Format. Because there are many people who are interested in screen printing t-shirts, there are also many sellers selling t-shirts on several Marketplaces such as Tokopedia and Shopee. Selling DTF prints or single t-shirt prints, both offline and online, is in great demand. If you want to start a DTF t-shirt printing business, this is the place for distributors of DTF printers with good quality and cheap.

You still want to know what’s the difference between a DTF Printer and a DTG Printer, so below are some of the differences.

The difference between DTF A3 and A3 DTG printers

1. Print area.

If the printer is large, the print area will also be large. The Roll to Roll DTF Large format has a work area of 60x100cm, for the length it can follow the customer’s wishes if you want 5 meters, that means 60x500cm. And this is very efficient because if a customer or customer wants to print in very large quantities it is better to use the Large Format. For the print area on the DTF A3 printer, the width of the print area is 28cm for a length of up to 3 meters, it can even be up to 100 meters. Now for the DTG Printer the print area only follows the Tray provided by the DTG Printer, which is 30x45cm.

2. Print quality.

For quality, there is no need to doubt it, for the A3 L1800 DTF Printer, it can have Gradient colors and can have more contrast than Large Format DTF Printers. For DTF Large Format Printers, gradient colors cannot be used and this is the weakness. When it comes to quality, both of them have good quality. With the L1800 Printhead technology, the quality and results are very contrasting, not inferior to the Large Format DTF Printer.

3. Power supply voltage on the Printer.

If you use a Large Format DTF Printer, they must have a high electrical power of at least 5000 kva. And you also need a UPS or battery intake to stabilize the voltage on the Large Format DTF machine. If you want to open a DTF Printing business with Large Format DTF sizes, you have to increase the power supply so that it is strong and the power doesn’t go down frequently. It’s good that the Large Format DTF machine also has Zero Grounding so that the large version of the DTF machine is also more durable and not easily damaged in use. The difference is if you use the A3 DTF Printer, it doesn’t need a lot of electricity because it’s only a small printer, but at least it uses a UPS because if a power failure occurs, the printer doesn’t suddenly turn off. And for the Epson L1800 type A3 DTG Printer, it also uses an unnecessary high voltage.

4. DTF Printer Maintenance.

The Epson Stylus Photo L1800 DTF printer, which already uses a vacuum and modules to produce high-contrast and sharp images, is very easy to maintain because you don’t need to call a printer technician, even though you can do it yourself. However, it is also necessary to maintain the printhead, such as cleaning the area under the printhead, because ink often hardens on the edges of the printhead, which makes the quality worses Print DTF becomes less good.

5. Print Process Speed.

For A3 DTF Printers, now you can use Acrorip 10.3 with a slightly faster speed than using Acrorip 9.0.3. By using the DTF screen printing technique, the screen printing process will only take between 15 and 25 minutes, that’s if you use an A3 DTF printer. However, if you use a Large Format DTF Printer, the time is even faster, 1 meter only takes 7 to 10 minutes depending on the resolution you use.

6. The strength of the print.

For the strength of each machine, it has a different level of strength, but so far both the A3 DTF Printer and the Large Format DTF Printer have perfect print durability, strong on t-shirts and the results are very contrasting.

The need for machine spare parts.

For the needs of spare parts for DTF printers and DTG printers, they are equally easy to find in marketplaces such as Aliexpress and others. When you have orders, many possibilities can happen, whether it’s having to replace the printhead or other spare parts, such as a capping station pump.

If you using a Large Format DTF Printer also need appropriate information when a Large Format DTF machine experiences problems, ask the seller or vendor you choose. As long as the DTF printer that you use gets maintenance that is quite intensive, the life of the machine or printhead will certainly be long, especially if you have a room that is cold enough such as an air conditioner to keep the machine cool because if the machine is hot, the printhead will automatically clog quickly and there will be a lot of costs incurred to buy a new printhead.

So for you who are struggling in the field of Digital Printing, especially DTF and DTG printing, you have to be diligent in terms of maintenance so that your Printers last longer and don’t interfere with your work, good luck.