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 minimal setup time required, proving to be extremely efficient for bulk or 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.

With the increasing mindfulness of the environmental issues within printing products and creating waste, DTG is the way to go regarding sustainable printing. Since your print is made-to-order, there are less wasted products being produced.

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 that our products are printed to meet the highest standards of quality. We work with best-in-class manufacturers to implement a quality control process that upholds the integrity and detail of your original design 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 can be used to understand how to properly create designs for DTG and what can be expected in terms of output when using this technique. These documents feature digital test images with various design elements that can be used to visualize print results.

Designing for DTG printing

• Be careful with the vibrancy of colors on different fabrics. The colors can vary drastically depending on the fabric. Bright and vibrant colors tend to be muted, and we recommend you increase the saturation when printing on dark colors. White fabric that is 100% cotton provides the closest color match.
• Avoid using transparent images. When using transparent designs, the image might barely be visible depending on the opacity and can even be unrecognizable at 30% opacity or below. What happens is that the DTG printers are trying to place tiny droplets of ink on a white under base. We strongly recommend avoiding transparency, and if you still plan to use transparency, we recommend testing your design before going live with your product.
• Be mindful when using neon colors. Neon colors are typically not encompassed in the CMYK color space that most DTG equipment uses to print. In most cases, the DTG printers will do its best to color match, but it will not be 100% when it comes to neon colors.

What to expect with DTG prints | 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

What to expect with DTG prints | 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

What to expect with DTG prints | Sample 3

This digital image in this example features the usage of neon watercolors that blend multiple colors together. When printing with DTG, you should be mindful of using neon colors because DTG printers use the CMKY color space, which does not encompass neon colors. DTG printers will find the closest possible color, but it will not be a 100% match.

Printed samples using neon colors

What to expect with DTG prints | Sample 4

This digital image in this example features handwritten text in both white and black and utilizes a blend of multiple colors together using a watercolor texture. 

Printed samples using watercolors