Question about broad areas of solid color.

[Frog]

Used to be that DTG was not the best decorating choice for broad areas of solid single colors. Is this still the case?
Think of an almost solid 8"-10" circle of cardinal ink on a black shirt.

[Dottonedan]

I really can't imagine why even in the past, the broad area of a solid color would be an issue with DTG.  Reason being, it's not like screen printing at all. No uneven pallets, no inconsistent pressure.  In fact, when I had mine, I used mine to print large areas of color often. It's all I had, so I printed all of my orders on that DTG. Now, that feel wasn't great, but I was able to do it with consistency and with no special prep. AM I an odd ball? I've never really heard of that particular subject being an issue with DTG myself. I could be mistaken.

[Frog]

I really can't imagine why even in the past, the broad area of a solid color would be an issue with DTG.  Reason being, it's not like screen printing at all. No uneven pallets, no inconsistent pressure.  In fact, when I had mine, I used mine to print large areas of color often. It's all I had, so I printed all of my orders on that DTG. Now, that feel wasn't great, but I was able to do it with consistency and with no special prep. AM I an odd ball? I've never really heard of that particular subject being an issue with DTG myself. I could be mistaken.

I base this on what I'd hear years ago. Perhaps it was the high cost of white ink, or the feel you alluded to. Of course, years ago, DTG often required more "spin" and caveats from the apologists for a number of shortcomings.
That said, today, we still all see some terrible examples of this process as all DTG is not created equal.

[mimosatexas]

issues that crop up for us with LARGE solid areas:
-cost
-minor banding is more obvious
-fibration where flecks of white base are visible through the top color are more obvious.

we still do it if the volume is low, but it isnt ever going to look as good as a screenprint

[Sbrem]

I've heard this and seen it as well, but on the other hand, the wife got me a shirt online that was indeed DTG, and a really nice print, slightly stiff, but we'll see how it launders. It was a simple two color, black and white on a medium gray shirt, broad areas of coverage, and no banding.

Steve

PS. Happy New Year everyone!

[mimosatexas]

in our experience, the washfastness is absolutely the biggest issue with DTG, and also hard to nail down.  I have seen (and we have printed) plenty of shirts that look incredible off the printer, or after curing, and they are garbage after a handful of washes.  the hardest part of DTG is tweaking the pretreatment step.  too much, and the print looks great and will fail immediately.  too little and you end up with a crappy looking print, that may also fail prematurely.  finding the sweat spot and repeating it isnt easy, and it varies with every shirt brand/style/color/country of origin/etc.

[Jepaul]

You (We) should walk around ISS with a flash drive that has a 13x18 design of solid squares with 15 spot colors. 

[Dottonedan]

in our experience, the washfastness is absolutely the biggest issue with DTG, and also hard to nail down.  I have seen (and we have printed) plenty of shirts that look incredible off the printer, or after curing, and they are garbage after a handful of washes.  the hardest part of DTG is tweaking the pretreatment step.  too much, and the print looks great and will fail immediately.  too little and you end up with a crappy looking print, that may also fail prematurely.  finding the sweat spot and repeating it isnt easy, and it varies with every shirt brand/style/color/country of origin/etc.

THat's been my experience also. "Hardest part of DTG".

[pwalsh]

Used to be that DTG was not the best decorating choice for broad areas of solid single colors. Is this still the case?
Think of an almost solid 8"-10" circle of cardinal ink on a black shirt.

Andy:  An inherent issue that DTG printers have when printing solid areas of "certain" spot colors has to do with the way the print-heads are arrayed in the printer.  DTG printers scan multiple passes in Bi-Directional mode to get the required lay-down across the print area. Now if you consider that the print-heads in the DTG might be arrayed in a Y, C,M,K configuration, then that is the order that the color is built, when printing in one direction. 

However when to printer reverses to print in the opposite direction the order that the colors are built is reversed, which can lead to banding. It's not an issue with all colors and tends to be more noticeable with colors that have a high percentage of Cyan or Magenta in them.  The problem can be almost eliminated by running the printer in Uni-Directional mode, but  that comes at a cost of lower production output.

[1964GN]

I know nothing about this but if you have multiple heads could they not be oriented opposite of each other to help solve that issue? Or are all of these units using just one print head?

[Dottonedan]

Used to be that DTG was not the best decorating choice for broad areas of solid single colors. Is this still the case?
Think of an almost solid 8"-10" circle of cardinal ink on a black shirt.

Andy:  An inherent issue that DTG printers have when printing solid areas of "certain" spot colors has to do with the way the print-heads are arrayed in the printer.  DTG printers scan multiple passes in Bi-Directional mode to get the required lay-down across the print area. Now if you consider that the print-heads in the DTG might be arrayed in a Y, C,M,K configuration, then that is the order that the color is built, when printing in one direction. 

However when to printer reverses to print in the opposite direction the order that the colors are built is reversed, which can lead to banding. It's not an issue with all colors and tends to be more noticeable with colors that have a high percentage of Cyan or Magenta in them.  The problem can be almost eliminated by running the printer in Uni-Directional mode, but  that comes at a cost of lower production output.

Great point of enlightenment on the detail aspects of the functioning of the machine.  I never realized that (or it didn't matter with just black in in an I-Image digital printer). This allows for a choice or an option to improve a print with solid color area at the sacrifice of fast production (if you so choose). You can take a little longer to run a job but it's more correct or without issues.  NICE!

[Dottonedan]

I know nothing about this but if you have multiple heads could they not be oriented opposite of each other to help solve that issue? Or are all of these units using just one print head?

Good point and question.  It could be programmed to do that upfront but they don't specifically make printer head and programming for print head output for one specific use. Therefore, making it harder or more "custom" to do so. As such, that would be more costly. How much, I don't know and don't know if that feature would be more beneficial or "worth" the extra cost. Does return justify the added cost to the machine?  Good question.


Keep in mind, these print heads are initially designed for one purpose (and applied later by individual companies) to do more unique things. So the programmers do so in advance, not knowing a companies specific needs. This problem is similar to dot gain control. Printer manufacturers don't know the end result, or (what you will be using the printer for), so they do not build in a pre determined ink laydown (ink droplet weight) or curve adjustments to compensate for how you will use this print head or printer. Same for print head manufactures and programers I would assume.


When it's used or installed into a machine for a more specific use, those companies will also only provide the standard or typical use it was designed for, but programming is done at the forefront. The installers will assure that it does what it was designed to do, like make a standard or "basic"dot gain adjustment curve, but then after you get the machine (any machine), it's up you and your shop to fine tune it to your specifications needs. This is why you have different businesses creating 3rd part RIPS for example, for specific uses that the Printer manufacture doesn't account for. Like AccuRip makes a RIP for Epson. Epson doesn't make one, because there are so many unique uses for a printer and so many different substrates and uses for the printers.