Direct-to-Garment (DTG) Quality Expectations

• Why use Direct-to-Garment (DTG) Printing?
• How do we ensure high-quality products at Gooten?
• Designing for DTG printing
  • What to expect with DTG prints | Sample 1
  • What to expect with DTG prints | Sample 2
  • What to expect with DTG prints | Sample 3
  • What to expect with DTG prints | Sample 4

Why use Direct-to-Garment (DTG) Printing?

DTG is the Industry Standard.

Direct-to-Garment is the industry standard printing method for print-on-demand businesses.

With DTG printing, there is almost no setup time required, making it highly efficient for both bulk and one-off orders. When printing with DTG, you may create highly detailed or intricate designs on your product. DTG uses an extensive color palette that allows you to capture vivid details in your designs, whereas other printing methods are limited in this regard.

With growing awareness of environmental issues in printing products and the creation of waste, DTG is the way to go for sustainable printing. Since your print is made to order, fewer products are wasted.

How do we ensure high-quality products at Gooten?

Gooten is at the forefront of utilizing DTG printing

Our team has developed specific practices and policies to ensure our products are printed to the highest quality standards. We work with best-in-class manufacturers to implement a quality control process that upholds the integrity and detail of your original design as it is printed on our products.

Gooten strives to support partners by providing detailed information regarding how different designs will look when printed using the DTG process. Our intuitive image editor makes it easy to design DTG products.

We have reference documents that explain how to create DTG designs properly and what to expect from the output when using this technique. These documents include digital test images with various design elements to visualize print results.

Designing for DTG printing

• Be careful with color vibrancy on different fabrics. The colors can vary drastically depending on the fabric. Bright, vibrant colors tend to be muted when printed on dark backgrounds, so we recommend increasing the saturation when printing on dark backgrounds. White 100% cotton fabric provides the closest color match.
• Please don't use transparent images. When using transparent designs, the image might be barely visible, depending on the opacity, and can even be unrecognizable at 30% or below. What happens is that DTG printers try to place tiny droplets of ink onto a white underbase. We strongly recommend avoiding transparency, and if you still plan to use transparency, we recommend testing your design before going live with your product.
• Please be careful when using neon colors. Neon colors are typically not included in the CMYK color space most DTG equipment uses for printing. In most cases, DTG printers will do their best to color-match, but it will not be 100% accurate with neon colors.

DTG print expectations - Sample #1

This digital image in this example features design elements with photography (in full color and black and white), vibrant color swatches, flesh tones, transparent images, and black/white text on black or white garments.

Printed samples on various garments

DTG print expectations - Sample #2

Printed samples with different textures and gradients

Black, Bella + Canvas 3001, 100% Cotton	Black, Independent SS4500, 80/20 Blend Fleece
White, Bella + Canvas 3001, 100% Cotton	White, Independent SS4500, 80/20 Blend Fleece

DTG print expectations - Sample #3

This digital image in this example features neon watercolors that blend multiple colors. When you print with DTG, please be careful with neon colors, as DTG printers use the CMYK color space, which does not include them. DTG printers will find the closest possible color, but it will not be a 100% match.

Printed samples using neon colors

DTG print expectations - Sample #4

This digital image in this example features handwritten text in both white and black and blends multiple colors with a watercolor texture. 

Printed samples using watercolors