There are many techniques for personalizing your promotional items or textiles. Besides embroidery, engraving, or embossing (creating your logo in relief on a flat object), there are still different methods of printing. Which will be most suitable for your needs, your object, or even your budget? How do they work, and what are their advantages or disadvantages? Let’s put some eyes on it.
Nowadays technologies are rapidly growing and so in the field of printing. There are plenty of methods are being used to print. The most used techniques are serigraphy, pad printing, sublimation, and transfer, also called "flocking" or "decal." Diffusion, we recommend, for textile articles, screen printing. This technique, created by the Chinese almost 1,000 years ago, passes ink through a frame in the shape of your logo. It is entirely manual work and extremely consistent. For a color pattern on a t-shirt, a screen printer can make 100 t-shirts an hour. On the textile, the paint is anchored through the mesh of your article, which allows a clean result, impregnated in the fabric, really durable and resistant to washing. Screen printing also applies to many objects. There is a screen printing machine for each form of an object: flat, circular, large formats, etc. However, some smaller objects, such as pens, do not lend themselves to this technique. For this type of object or other objects with "complicated" forms, the most suitable technique is pad printing. Indeed, this technique uses a silicone pad, which therefore adapts to all shapes. The stamp deposits your logo on the object of your choice. Transfer One of the most used methods is the transfer (photo opposite). Your logo is printed on a "transfer paper," then heat pressed on the object of your choice. We use the transfer on objects of complicated shapes, on certain materials on which it is not possible to apply the method of screen printing directly, or if your logo includes gradations of colors or four-color printing. However, on clothing, we strongly recommend screen printing, which, thanks to its ink impregnated in the fabric, will make your logo resist washing better than transfer. Even if the transfer gives a very good rendering on most of the other objects, on the clothes, the result will be much more aesthetic in serigraphy. Indeed, the transfer will give a "sticker" effect. It is only the layer of your logo that is printed in screen printing (instead of being digitally printed), but it will actually be printed on your transfer item. Digital techniques are recommended for total personalization of your object. For example, digital printing prints in four colors from a digital file. So you can print anything and everything on your object. Sublimation is another digital method, specific for textiles made from 100% white polyester. The ink permeates completely into the textile and allows an impeccable hold of your logo wash after wash.
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AuthorAt the Print Shop Glossary, we seek to define the different processes involved within the printing industry to help new members to the industry or those seeking to venture into new segments of the printing industry. |