Best direct to garment printing

By joey on Apr. 28, 2006
Forums: 
Direct-to-Garment Printing

HI, im joey an i run a small monogram and printing shop in new zealand. i juat started my second bisnuess and was thinking about buying a direct to garment printer. i was wondering which which printer is best. I dont need the best printer but one that reliable and cheap.

Location: 
United States
Submitted by msamemat on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 17:17

Sorry if this was repeated, but Anna Jet has introduced its "spirit" version direct to garment printer which they claim is capable printing on all sorts of fabrics: cotton, nylon, poly and blends. With this in mind, can you guys help me if there are other machines capable of printing in all fabric materials? and if so, is there anyway you could recommend the best?
thank you all.

Submitted by Saniyah9810 on Mon, 11/25/2019 - 11:12

Brother GTX for sale with the stand almost new.Not many prints.also it’s not even a year old.Works perfectly great.Can see running in person or I can send video.

Submitted by MantisMB on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 15:58

In my experience with DTG printers, most of them weigh a ton. Few of these printers weigh less than 100 lbs. Plus, if you look at the companies that use DTG printers, the most successful ones use the most versatile DTG printers.

The AnaJet I use has beat out my friends, just because his print head broke and he has to spend 4K on new parts. Mine fell off my truck, and I spent $800 fixing the head and housing.

sirslickenstein's picture
Submitted by sirslickenstein on Sun, 02/14/2010 - 05:09

jspecjoe wrote:
I have a t jet t1 refurbished with the bulk ink for white on black shirts. Waited 3 days to use it and now its toast. The place I got it from says they will make me an offer to buy it back. HA HA HA I spent 7k so far and now need another 600.00 to fix it this time. When it works its great when its broke jobs stack up and people think you suck. And as far as support forget it they always want to call you back, and seldom do. DONT BUY FROM EQUIPMENT ZONE THEY SUCK.

What do you mean you waited 3 days? Did you have ink primed and didn't run it for 3 days? I have a t jet 2 and I am worried about the printer head clogging.

Achtung Bill
achtungtshirt.com and blog

Submitted by 931-DS_Mart on Wed, 10/20/2010 - 18:38

Hello Joey,

Im currently working with the Kornit 931-DS, This Printer is pretty fast. I really prefer that compared to a DTG-Digital like the Xpress model with 12 pallets. The Kornit pre-treatement system is genious and so useful. Also the air and fluid systems are really well made for production usage. The white ink result is perfect for a lot of materials. I think, Kornit are or will be the leader in bubble jet textile decoration. The new 951 presented in the SGIA show on Vegas have 13 printing heads 8 CMYK and 5 WHITE to gain 25% in speed.
OK its not a cheap printer but With that You are in business.
Thanks for your comments.

TSHIRTPRINTINGSHOP.COM's picture
Submitted by TSHIRTPRINTINGS... on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 11:58

vongamben wrote:
Hi:exists any machine for print in black shirts?

Thanks
Von Gamben

Anajet, Fast T-Jet and DTG printers all print on dark shirts. They all put down a layer of white ink first, then on the second pass put color down on the white ink.

We have a Kiosk 2, it does a very good job, has little maintenance and keeps on printing.

Do your research for your area, find who supports their product locally, look into replacement part costs and availability... there is more to it that buying the printer...

Our research put the Kiosk 2 on top, for economy and quality...

Todd Wilson
http://www.tshirtprintingshop.com
406-756-2211
Submitted by direct-to-garme... on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 10:50

We have been using our DTG viper printer for a while now, and we are very happy with the results, including our ability to print on dark garments. There is more information here:

direct-to-garment printing

but in a nutshell, you can print on just about anything these days. We've been successful printing on towels, shirts, boxers, canvas, golf balls, etc.

Also...you may want to check out t-shirtforums.com for updated information. This thread is very old.

dmfelder

Submitted by anbin on Tue, 05/21/2019 - 11:54

LGEP wrote:
how do you make money with these machines? How do you market them? I have a small embroidery business in Northern Ontario wondering if it's feasable

DTG is not cheap but its perfect if most of your customer's orders come in 1, 10, 20, 50. If you are doing embroidery business, chances are you are already doing quite some uniform business. You can easily upsell event/promo shirts for them.

If u are thinking of using DTG to produce t-shirts at quantity of 100 or more. You may not be able to compete with silk screening price.

YoPrint - Get Streamlined. All-in-one management software for your print shop. Print More, Sell More.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 04/29/2006 - 01:46

Hmmm... I don't think you can have a reliable printer that's cheap :D I have a Fast T-Jet2 printer that I am very happy with. I looked at Kornit 931D, Brother GT-541, and DTG Digital Kiosk before deciding to got with Fast T-Jet2. As I said on my previous post on the T-jet feedback thread, digital garment printers / direct-to-garment printers or DTG's has a long way to go before becoming truly reliable. What I mean by that is that DTG's are still quite far from being as reliable as traditional manual/auto presses, if ever. They're great for small orders though :)

Submitted by LipChip on Thu, 06/01/2006 - 21:03

Hello Joey,
With you being from New Zealand, I would suggest you contact Steve Richardson at DTG Digital DTGDigital.com through the website. They are in Australia, and are the direct manufacturer of the DTG machines. For service, and many other reasons, you may want to deal direct with them or get a distributor through them in your area. As a dealer here for the technology in the U.S., I can assure you that DTG Digital will always work to solve any problems with the machines, inks, and technology to work as smooth as possible for your operation. Tell Steve, and DTG Digital /Australia that LipChip sent you to them.

David L. Vernon
Lip Chip Solutions, Inc.
LipChip.com
818-363-8132

Submitted by lovetoprint on Sun, 04/06/2008 - 17:50

Hi
Just found this forum
We have Brother and it will not let you down should you choose to buy one.
We love ours, it is plug and play as a lot of people say and it does a great job.
never had a mechanical problem (knock on wood)

Good luck

Submitted by Tagger on Mon, 04/07/2008 - 19:19

I have only see good things written about the Brother. Unfortunately, it does not print white ink. 85% of the jobs we've done were on dark shirts and needed white ink.

Submitted by Dov Meyers on Thu, 04/17/2008 - 14:49

Genrally from our experience The Kiosk II gives very good consistant prints with little maintenance. The white is very good. The D1 works very well, just requires religious maintenance procedures. Anajet needs about 3 passes to get the same white deposit. While one pass of 3 channels on the Kiosk II or one pass on the D1 with 8 channels of white comes up pretty close, but here speed is far better.

Submitted by Dov Meyers on Wed, 04/23/2008 - 13:03

All the DTG machines can print on Black garments, just make sure that they are 100% cottorn for best results, or at least a high blend of cotton blend with low polyester %. The white inks are very good today and require less maintenance than in the past.

Submitted by Syderoonys on Sat, 04/26/2008 - 18:42

I have a Brother GT541 and LOVE it! We've been able to work around the white ink limitation once customers see that the ink isn't think on top of the shirt! It's a much softer print and our customers really like it!

Submitted by lordpyro on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 10:20

when I looked on the Brother site, in the FAQs it says it can't print onto black shirts because there is no white ink...how do you set it up to print on Balck cotton garments/ Is there white ink designed fo rit?

Submitted by jspecjoe on Wed, 06/04/2008 - 01:54

I have a t jet t1 refurbished with the bulk ink for white on black shirts. Waited 3 days to use it and now its toast. The place I got it from says they will make me an offer to buy it back. HA HA HA I spent 7k so far and now need another 600.00 to fix it this time. When it works its great when its broke jobs stack up and people think you suck. And as far as support forget it they always want to call you back, and seldom do. DONT BUY FROM EQUIPMENT ZONE THEY SUCK.

Submitted by ai_file on Wed, 06/04/2008 - 02:32

whatever you decide on, make sure the after sales service of the company is excellent if not great. These machines tend to become behavioral at times so it's best to have a technician a call away. sometimes paying extra is worth it.

Screen printing tutorials, tips, and diy guides at screenprintingdog.com

Mark Stephenson's picture
Submitted by Mark Stephenson on Mon, 08/05/2013 - 13:28

There have been lots of changes in direct to garment printing, dtg printers, etc since the last post in this thread and so the "best dtg printer" changes all the time! I'm prejudiced, but think that right now the DTG M2 is the best t-shirt printing machine for under $30K. The platen system that comes with the M2, allowing for printing 2+shirts in a production run, just makes the "interface time" much less than the others on the market .. and that leads to more profits.

http://www.slideshare.net/ColDesi/dtg-printer-machine-comparison-under-30k

Mark Stephenson
Marketing for
Avancé Professional Embroidery Machines
ColDesi
ProSpangle.com
RhinestoneCAMSMachines.com
DTGPrinterMachine.com

Submitted by LGEP on Wed, 04/30/2014 - 08:21

how do you make money with these machines? How do you market them? I have a small embroidery business in Northern Ontario wondering if it's feasable

LG Embroidery Plus
29 Harvey Dr.
Kirkland Lake,ON
lgembroideryplus.ca

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