Screen Printing
When most people think of putting a design onto a T-shirt they are thinking of screen printing. It involves the creation of a screen, which holds the design and through which ink is pushed to create the design on the actual shirt. The process hasn’t fundamentally changed since last century. Although we now have ‘Autos’ which allow us to print several 100 garments an hour.
Screen printing is great for creating long-lasting, bold, cost-effective designs on almost any garments. When it comes to casual wear like T-shirts, hoodies and most workwear it is the go-to process.
Best For:
- Printing larger runs of the same design, as the more you print the cheaper the cost per print becomes. Ideal numbers for screen printing:
- 20+ garments for simple 1 and 2 colour designs
- 50+ garments for designs with between 3 and 4
- 100+ garments for designs of 4 to 8 colours
- Bold simple graphic on a garment
- Special effects, such as puff print, metallic inks and glitters
- Long-lasting and hard-wearing prints.
Digital Transfers (DTF)
Often referred to as DTF in the industry, digital transfers are great for decorating garments with multi-colour designs or for short runs. To create a digital transfer we have a special printer that prints onto transfer film to be heat pressed onto the garment.
Digital transfers (DTF) are great for creating long-lasting, bold, designs on almost any garment. For larger runs it is a slightly more expensive process than screen printing but is great at printing photographs or gradient colour prints on clothing and headwear.
Best for:
- Printing smaller runs of less than 50 garments
- Our go to process if we are printing less than 10 garments
- Individual names or different designs to go on different garments
- Printing photographs or multi-colour gradient prints
- For printing on wet-weather gear and jackets
- Long-lasting and hard-wearing prints.
Embroidery
Modern embroidery machines use computer technology and special coloured threads to be able to recreate almost any logo onto a garment. Embroidery creates a hard-wearing long-lasting solution to decorate almost any garment.
Best for:
- Hats, beanies, bags and pile fleece garments
- Corporate uniforms to give a business shirts and polos a professional look
- Modern embroidery machines allow runs from as little as 4 garments or hats to 1000s
- Long-lasting and hard-wearing.
Sublimation Printing
The ultimate control in printing with no design limitation. You can print ‘over seams’, you can print as many colours as you want, your design can be complex, you can have different numbers on every garment.
Sublimation is most widely recognised as the process used to print sports team apparel, but has a wide range of uses, including business polos. The process takes 4-6 weeks as the design is printed onto material and then the garments are stitched together after printing.
The great thing with sublimation is garments are hard-wearing, fully customisable and won’t fade.
Best for:
- Larger runs. Depending on the garment, minimum order quantities (MOQ) range from 10 to 100 garments
- Sports teams, Corporate workwear
- Stretch fabrics where designs cracking can be a problem
- Individual names or designs to go on different garments
- Printing photographs or multi-colour gradient prints.
Heat Pressed Vinyl
Was the go to method for doing names and numbers on sports team uniforms, but these days we mainly use it for creating simple designs using specialty metalic foils and vinyls.
Best for:
- Applying gold foils or reflective materials to garments
Promotional Products
If you need to build your brand with quality merchandise, Diffuse has a number of amazing suppliers that can brand just about anything. Whether you are wanting merch for giveaways at a conference or quality environmentally friendly products that enhance your brand, get in contact.
Design
If you have a concept or an idea for anything we might print, but you are not sure how to design it, come talk to us. We have qualified designers on the team who can make your dream a reality.