How digital garment printing behaves on cotton, and where it earns its cost
The process has four stages, and understanding them explains almost every question a corporate buyer asks about digital apparel. The garment is pre-treated, which means a thin chemical solution is sprayed or padded across the print zone to stop the wet ink bleeding into the surrounding fibres. The image is then printed as a controlled layer of white and colour pigment ink, laid into the weave rather than sitting on top of it. The garment is heat-cured in a conveyor tunnel or on a heated platen, which fixes the pigment and lets the surface be washed. A final rinse removes any loose pre-treatment residue, and the piece is folded and packed. Because the ink cures into the fibre, the finished mark has a soft hand-feel and no plastisol film, which is the reason digital apparel usually wears better than heavy screen-printed cotton after the twentieth wash.
The substrate question comes first, because it decides both the result and the price. DTG is a cotton process. A 180 gsm ringspun jersey with a high thread count gives the sharpest detail and the most even ink absorption; a 140 gsm carded cotton is acceptable but the weave texture shows through fine line work; a mid-weight 200 to 240 gsm jersey is the standard for a corporate tee that will be worn weekly rather than once. Cotton-rich blends such as 60/40 cotton-poly work because the cotton fraction still accepts the ink. Polyester and performance blends are the exception: the fibre repels water-based ink, the pretreatment has little to bond to, and colour bleed on a dark technical fabric is common. For full-polyester garments, a cut-and-sew transfer film is usually the better route, while cotton-rich blends stay with digital printing. Fleece hoodies and sweatshirts can be printed but the surface pile changes the look, so heavier coverage artwork performs better than hairline typography on a brushed back.
Colour behaviour is the second area where expectations need calibrating before the sample is made, not after. Digital printers work in an RGB workflow driven by calibrated profiles, and the output is a physical approximation rather than a press-accurate match. On a white or light heather garment, a clean gradient and a photographic image reproduce well. On a dark garment, an opaque white underbase is printed first to lift the midtones, and the colour layer sits on top of it; this is why a photographic design on a navy tee costs more and looks marginally flatter than the same design on white. Wide-area coverage — a full back print edge to edge — is limited by platen size and by how flat the garment can be held, and the printable area on a standard adult tee is roughly a square of 40 by 50 cm, not an all-over wrap. Highly saturated corporate reds and blues are the colours that drift most between the proof on screen and the mark on fabric, which is exactly why a physical pre-production sample should be approved before the run starts.
The economic argument is the one most buyers get wrong. Digital printing has no screen setup, so the minimum order quantity genuinely starts low, commonly at 30 units per design, and the marginal cost of units 31 through 300 is identical to the cost of unit 1. Screen printing inverts that curve: the setup is expensive but the per-unit cost collapses. The practical crossover in the Armenian market sits somewhere between 150 and 300 units for a single-colour chest logo, and moves higher when the design is photographic, full-colour or full-front. Below the crossover, digital wins on flexibility; above it, screen printing wins on unit economics. A mixed programme often makes sense, with the digital route covering sample sizes, new starters and last-minute additions, and screen printing covering the bulk.
Two operational points decide whether a run lands on time. First, blanks: stocked jersey colours are usually available in the common shades, but an unusual colourway — a specific marigold, a particular slate, a matching heather — may need to be dyed to order and can add one to three weeks before a single garment is printed. Second, sampling: a pre-production sample is produced on the exact garment, through the exact process, and is photographed under neutral light before approval. For Yerevan buyers the sample is collected in person; for marz buyers it is couriered. Approving on screen alone is the single most common cause of a rejected delivery, because fabric absorbs pigment differently from any screen representation of it.
Finally, durability. A well-pre-treated, correctly cured digital print passes a normal domestic wash cycle without visible cracking or peeling, and it will soften with wear rather than harden. Buyers replacing screen-printed garments every two years should note that digital prints usually still look acceptable at year three, which changes the replacement budget more than the unit price does. Care instructions should ask for washing inside out at thirty degrees and no tumble drying on high heat, since excessive dryer heat is the main cause of ink deterioration on any decorated garment. Care labelling can be printed on the neck tape or transferred onto a sewn-in label at a negligible unit cost during the same production pass.
- Substrates
- 100% cotton jersey 140–240 gsm, ringspun and carded, cotton-rich blends 60/40, brushed fleece hoodies; full polyester requires a transfer film route
- Minimum order
- 30 units per design and colourway; 10-unit samples, mixed sizes accepted in one run
- Decoration methods
- Direct-to-garment water-based pigment print, white underbase for dark garments, cut-and-sew transfer film on technical fabrics, neck-label and care-tag printing
- Lead time
- 7–12 working days from approved sample on stocked blanks; 15–25 working days on dyed-to-order colourways
- Packaging
- Individual poly-bag with size and care tag, size-ratio carton, flat-folded master carton, recycled kraft gift sleeve on request