Images Magazine June 2018

www.images-magazine.com JUNE 2018 images 21 TIPS & TECHNIQUES designed only for the white ink to bite into so the white ink becomes stable on the garment and won’t wash off. The pre-treatment is then designed to deteriorate and wash off the garment in areas that have not been printed, leaving the garment feeling much softer after a 12-hour period or after the first wash. If you have multiple garments to pre- treat, the best method is to use a pre- treat machine as this will give you more consistent prints. If you try and do too many at a time manually, you can start to get varied results in the coating. By using a pre-treat machine, all prints will look the same with good results. Analyse the fabric It is important always to know what material you are working with. DTG is predominantly designed for garments that are 100% cotton, however DTG inks will still adhere to garments with a cotton mix. The higher the cotton content, the more achievable vibrant, crisp prints will be. A low cotton content may lead the print to have a distressed or vintage look and feel. Analysing the material of your garment will stand you in good stead for the next step in the preparation process. Fine-tune the settings Print quality can be improved by using RIP software. The software tunes the finer details of the prints and vastly improves the colour output. Different garments will require distinct settings so it is important to adjust them accordingly. Quality and ink density settings will control the amount of ink laid down on the garment and also how fast or slow the printer will lay down the ink, which will affect the ink dot formation. Too much ink could result in colour bleeds, however not enough ink could cause the print to be faded. Test prints It is important to make sure you’ve covered all the preparation aspects before you start production and test prints will allow you to verify this. Maybe the quality setting isn’t quite right if the test print looks faded or there may be a crease in the garment. In short, testing is vital in order to achieve quality DTG prints. DTG printers may vary, but the necessity for preparation should never be overlooked. Failure to prepare really is preparing to fail! www.xpres.co.uk Using a pre-treat machine ensures consistent results Regular maintenance is a key part of DTG prep work