Knowledge Base

One of the options available to you via our website is the option to upload your own design to be printed. If you’re not a professional graphic designer and need a little extra support in making sure your artwork is set up perfectly, this guide is for you. Alternatively you can download all our templates using the link below.

Successful clothes printing is about the expertise of the printer however choosing the correct process and equipment can be confusing, fortunately, we have the equipment, technology and skill base to guide you through the best process.

Direct to Film Digital Printing

DTF  is a relatively new technology but is very versatile and enables us to decorate lots of different garments regardless of colour and material.

The process uses a latex-based ink which we print onto a roll of carrier paper using a high-quality fine art printer, the carrier paper is then transferred into a temperature-controlled powder unit where an even coating of adhesive is applied and then cured in a tunnel drier.

The final process is to then heat press the image onto the garment of choice, the results are flawless, the colours are vibrant and the final print has a super soft feel.

DTF is our preferred method of printing onto clothing due to its low set-up cost and flexibility.

Pros of Direct to Film Printing (DTF)

• No machine set up fees or minimum order quantity
• Can print full colour on a wide range of products so perfect for photographs and designs with many different colours.
• Clothing can be produced on demand
• Suitable for both light and dark garments
• Suitable for most fabric types

Cons of Direct to Film Printing (DTF)

• Extra care is required with washing at high temperatures
• Not cost-effective for larger run lengths (500 plus)
• Special colours and metallic effects cannot be achieved

Direct to Garment Digital Printing (DTG)

Direct to Garment Printing, or digital printing as it’s sometimes known, is the process of printing full-colour images onto garments. DTG printing can be used on both light and dark coloured garments. unlike screen printing which has higher set-up fees, this process is perfect for shorter runs up to 100.

Pros of Direct to Garment Printing

• No machine set up fees or minimum order quantity
• Can print full colour on a wide range of products so perfect for photographs and designs with many different colours.
• Clothing can be produced on demand
• Suitable for both light and dark garments

Cons of Direct to Garment Printing

• Garments need to have a high cotton content above 85% ideally 100% cotton
• Dark clothing required a pre-treatment/under base layer for the ink to sit on top
• Extra care is required with washing
• Polyester garments cannot be printed using this method.

Screen Printing

Screen Printing is one of the most popular T-shirt printing techniques available in the Personalised Clothing industry. It’s a process that applies ink directly onto clothing and fabric using mesh screens. It is a great option for companies who need to produce promotional merchandise or personalised workwear with their exact brand colours.

Various techniques and inks are used in screen printing onto clothing these include:

Water-based screen printing (Eco-Friendly option), Discharge Screen Printing, Metallic Inks, Foil Ink, Puff INK, Glow in the dark Ink, Reflective Ink.

Pros of Screen Printing

• Produces designs with multiple spot colours
• High quality and long-lasting durability
• Professional finish
• Competitive prices on larger volumes
• Pantone and exact colour matching.
• Suitable for different fabrics.

Cons of Screen Printing

• Initial set up costs including screen costs
• Higher minimum order quantity over 25
• Precise artwork preparation is required artwork needs to be vector or raster graphics (convert all strokes to paths or outlines and convert all text to outlines before supplying artwork)
• A longer lead time is required.
• Not suitable for colour photos.

Sublimation Printing

Sublimation printing is a process where the ink is printed onto a transfer paper, then with the use of heat and pressure, the ink is turned to gas and absorbed into the fibres of the fabric. Like DTG there is no minimum order quantity however the print can only be applied to 100% white polyester garments.

Cons of Die Sublimation Printing

• Potential White Crease marks in the print: Due to the printing process for dye sublimation, it is normal that the print leaves white marks and imperfections where there are creases. These white marks are commonly found around the armpit area. The garment must be made of white polyester for standard dye sublimation.
• True black cannot be achieved with dye sublimation as the T-Shirts can only absorb a certain amount of ink. Therefore, black can often not be as saturated as some other colours and may appear off-black.
• Printed garments are more sensitive and need extra attention when it comes to washing. To preserve the print and the garment, it is recommended that you wash it inside out on a cold wash.
• Do not use a tumble-dryer and do not iron over the print

Embroidery

Embroidery is the perfect way to personalise your clothing and ensure that your brand name and logo is represented perfectly and remains durable.

The low cost of embroidery makes it ideal for start-up companies and organisations with a larger workforce. Polo shirts, sweatshirts, hooded tops and jackets are the most common items that we embroider.  If your company involves staff working outside, in harsher conditions then you can customise a wide range of different winter work clothing and accessories including hats, jackets and trousers – you name it we can embroider onto it.

Pros of Embroidery

• There is an extensive range of coloured threads available and we can match to most Pantone colours.
• Stitching is very durable and will often outlast the garment.
• High-quality finish
• Looks stylish and sophisticated.

Cons of Embroidery

• Artwork needs to be converted to a digitized (stitch file) so has a setup cost.
• Different thread required for each colour process colour (photograph) is not possible

Hot Vinyl Transfer (HVT)

Hot vinyl transfer is often referred to as cut vinyl printing. The different types of vinyl allow for a different specialist effect. Your designs can be made from or vinyl could be added to certain elements of your design to make it stand out from the rest.

Pros of CAD Cut Vinyl Printing

Printed Hot Vinyl Transfer

Printed hot vinyl transfer is a similar process to HVT although we print the white vinyl before cutting. This allows us to produce multicolour and full-colour designs.

For many years gold foil has been used as a way to enhance printed products and add that extra little bit of luxury, fortunately the range of foils has expanded to include a wide range of metallic colours including, silvers, coppers and golds in both a gloss and a matt finish. There are also a range of transparent, bright, pearlescent, holographic, neon and pigments.

Foil can be used on its own or in addition to our other printing processes and decorative finishing options to create something truly unique.

Stamping foil, also known as blocking foil, is a method in which foils are transferred to a substrate.

When you want to add that extra bit of bespoke luxury, foil is a great way to enhance business cards, brochure covers, letterheads, swing tags, wedding and general invites and packaging boxes. For advice and samples of our range of foils please contact one of our print advisers and we will guide you through the benefits of hot foil.

Embossing and debossing can add that extra bit of bespoke luxury and is a great way to enhance business cards, brochure covers, letterheads, swing tags, wedding and general invites and packaging boxes. For advice and samples of please contact one of our print advisers and we will guide you through the benefits of embossing and debossing.

Do you feel like you need a degree in Origami when it comes to the best fold option for your printed leaflets?

Don’t worry our handy guide will help distinguish the difference between:

Half-fold – a single fold down the centre of your leaflet, so it opens a bit like a greetings card.

Z-fold– your leaflet is folded twice to create a ‘Z’ shape, ideal for sales or information brochures.

C-fold – folded twice to create three panels in a ‘C’ shape, perfect for takeaway menus.

Roll fold– created by folding down one section, then another in the same direction until the desired number of panels are created.

Cross fold– folded in half and in half again, ideal for maps and guides.

PDF

This is an industry-standard format that ensures that all information, layout, fonts and colours are reproduced exactly as you intend them. Most leading publishing and office software has a PDF creation tool included. If you do not have the ability to create a PDF, there are low-cost and even free tools available.

Indesign

Adobe InDesign is the software we use at Fingerprints and as such is a good option for creating your artwork. It has an in-built option to ‘package’ all the necessary files required to send it to us so takes a lot of the hassle out of the process. Additionally, it makes the creative process much easier than other less well-suited programs. As there is the option to export your file as a PDF this would be the better option than packaging your file.

Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is primarily an illustration program but later versions have added the option to create multi-page layouts. However, you would have to include fonts and images with your file if you chose this option. PDF creation is standard.

Photoshop

Although Adobe Photoshop is a program that may be more familiar to people, we recommend not using it to create any artwork that includes text. Apart from making text uneditable it also reproduces it poorly and in some cases it is illegible.

Pages

If you have an Apple system then you may well be familiar with Pages. There is the ability to export to PDF, which is much more preferable but if you must send it as a Pages file then ensure you send it along with fonts, any image files and a hard copy.

Word

Microsoft Word can cause many problems when opened on our systems. In many cases fonts will not display correctly or may be missing, colours may not reproduce as they appear on your screen and the layout may shift around depending on the version of Word you are using.

If you must send artwork in Word format then please send us the Word document itself, all the individual images used and all the fonts used in your document. In addition, please include a good quality, printed copy of the file so that we can see how you intend it to look.

When it comes to paper the choices are almost endless, the choice of paper, colour, texture and thickness can make such a difference to your final printed product. We encourage you to visit our office to see and feel our range of papers but understand that this is not always possible, so we have created this portfolio to give you an idea of the variety and diversity of papers we have to offer.