Bring Your Designs to Life with T-Shirt Printing Services in Singapore

What we offer

We are a custom t-shirt printing company that offers a multitude of t-shirt printing services.

Our t-shirt printing services include the use of silk screen printing, embroidery services, heat transfer printing services, direct to garment printing services, and dye sublimation printing.

So, which t-shirt printing services should you choose? Let’s look at all the different printing methods available.

What is Silkscreen printing?

Silkscreen printing is generally known as the most popular and cheapest type of printing method.

It goes through a process of pressing ink through a stencilled mesh screen, creating a custom t-shirt printing design. As it is a popular printing method used in a whole range of different industries, it’s likely you have worn or used a silkscreen t-shirt at some point without realizing it.

Silkscreen printing can sometimes be called serigraphy or screen printing.

What is the silkscreen printing process?

There are various printing methods of silkscreen printing but they all involve the same basic technique.

Step 1 – Creating the design

The printer begins by taking the design that wants to be printed on the t-shirts and prints it onto a transparent acetate film to create the stencil.

Step 2 – Preparing the screen

The printer will select a mesh screen that suits the design and texture of the fabric it is printed on. It is coated with a layer of light-reactive emulsion which will harden when developed under bright light.

Step 3 – Exposing the emulsion

The sheet that features the design is laid onto the emulsion-coated screen and is then exposed to very bright light. The lights harden the emulsion and leave parts of the screen covered by the design to remain in liquid form.

If the final design includes more than one colour, a separate screen is used to apply each layer of ink.

In order to create multi-coloured t-shirts, the printer must use their skills to design each stencil and line them up perfectly to ensure the final design is seamless.

Step 4 – Emulsion is washed off to create the stencil

The areas of the screen that are uncovered by the design will turn hard and the unhardened emulsion is carefully rinsed away. This will allow the ink to pass through.

Once the screen is thoroughly dried, the printer will make any necessary touch-ups or corrections to make the imprint as accurate as possible to the original design.

The stencil can now be used for t-shirt printing.

Step 5 – The t-shirt is ready for printing

The screen is placed on the printing press and the t-shirt that is being printed is laid down flat on the printing board, underneath the screen.

There are a number of different printing techniques, including manual and automatic styles, depending on the in-house production capabilities.

Most modern commercial printers will use an automatic rotary carousel printer as this allows several different screens to work at once which makes it suitable for cost efficiency, and bulk order while ensuring a hassle-free production.

Step 6 – Pressing the ink through the screen onto the t-shirt

The screen is lowered down onto the printing board and the ink is added to the top end of the screen. Then a squeegee is used to pull the ink along the full length of the screen. This presses the ink through the open areas of the stencil, imprinting the design on the t-shirt underneath.

If the printer is creating multiple t-shirts, the screen is raised and a new t-shirt is placed onto the printing board. The process is then repeated.

Once all the t-shirts have been printed and the stencil has served its purpose, the emulsion is removed using a special washing fluid so the mesh can be reused to create new stencils.

Step 7 – The custom t-shirt is dried, checked, and delivered

The custom t-shirts are then passed through a dryer, which ‘cures’ the ink and creates a smooth, colourfast finish. The final t-shirt design will be checked and washed thoroughly to remove any residue, before being passed on to its new owner.

Conclusion

Screen printing is an effective technique for creating bold canvases, posters, and artwork, but the method can also be used to print fabrics and textiles, so it’s great for creating all sorts of custom t-shirts with more affordable pricing.

Embroidery usually refers to a t-shirt or apparel that has a pattern or logo stitched into its fabric.

It is best used for creating logos on thicker garments such as polo-styled corporate t-shirts, jumpers, or jackets.

Embroidery services have a more expensive cost but it is much more durable than print t-shirts due to their long-lasting and durable nature.

We recommend opting for embroidery instead of printing services for quality t-shirts when the design is used for printing logos and the design is meant for corporate gifts or class tees printing.

For best results, it is best to avoid heavy gradients and complicated colour palettes in the design of the t-shirt.

Why should you choose embroidery?

1) Better Durability

This method is much more durable than any t-shirt printing method as it will generally outlast the t-shirt itself.

This is a good option for class t-shirts, especially school uniforms where students tend to replace them once a year.

2) Has a professional finish

Embroidered logos especially on corporate t-shirts give the ultimate professional image which is why they are used mostly in the corporate world.

Embroidery gives you a high-quality finish on garments like class t-shirts and t-shirts for corporate gifts that can give a much more professional look.

 3) You can use multiple colours for the same cost

The embroidery machine can have up to 20 different colours at one time. So this suits class t-shirts with colourful logo designs without the additional costs to embroider onto the t-shirt.

When you shouldn’t use embroidery?

1) Pricier than other t-shirt printing methods

If you have budget constraints, it is not suitable for the t-shirt printing service you require.

2) Unsuitable for small intricate designs

As it used thread, it can cause smaller elements to clam up on the t-shirt during the embroidery process.

 3) Unsuitable for gradient designs

Threads and stitches are not able to fade into colours that go from light to dark. Shirt printing will be much more suitable for this effect.

4) Limited design size

Embroidery doesn’t work well on large t-shirt designs. A large design on the t-shirt will look better using other printing methods.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a more expensive t-shirt look and logo printing, the embroidery method is a much better option for you.

Heat Transfer Printing is a custom t-shirt printing service that makes use of a heat transfer medium and high heat to get the job done.

It is cost-effective and suitable for event t-shirts and customized t-shirts such as jerseys and party t-shirts that do not need to be worn often and have highly creative designs.

There are two main mediums for t-shirt heat transfer:

1) Inkjet Transfer Paper

This is the best t-shirt printing method to print almost any design, and if the resolution of the artwork is very high, the printed Digital Print on the t-shirt will have close to photo-like quality.

How does it work?

Also known as digital transfer, the desired print is printed on the film side of the heat transfer paper using the inkjet printer.

The light heat transfer paper yields vibrant colours when used on white or light-coloured t-shirts while the dark heat transfer paper is used for black or dark-coloured t-shirts and this prevents the fabric colour from showing through the ink.

The printed design is placed face down onto the fabric and a heat press machine is used to apply heat and pressure which ends up transferring the image onto the t-shirt.

2) Vinyl Printing

This printing method requires the fabric to be placed down and a heat press machine is used to apply heat and pressure, thereby transferring the image onto the custom t-shirt.

It is suitable for custom-made apparel, canvas bags and personalised 1 colour prints such as individual names or texts and number printing services.

However, the colour of the print depends on the vinyl material available for vinyl transfer in that particular colour.

Conclusion

This shirt printing service is suitable for t-shirts that do not need to be washed often and have unique design traits.

This is a relatively new t-shirt printing style whereby its technology only emerged in the 90s. It only became commercially available in 2005 and is only offered by a handful of t-shirt printers.

This t-shirt printing is unique as it uses ink to print directly onto the fabric of the t-shirt which goes straight into the fibres of the fabric.

This means that you will not feel the design or ink on the t-shirt when you touch it.

Why should you choose DTG printing?

DTG printing allows you to use a large range of colours and detailed and broad designs in your t-shirt design.

It is also available for both mass production and short production runs.

It is a custom t-shirt printing method that offers accurate reproduction and better quality control which produces higher quality products.

It is also water-based and eco-friendly.

There are some disadvantages to DTG printing services

It has a longer standard printing lead time.

It is limited to cotton garments and white-coloured garments.

To print an unlimited number of t-shirts is not cost-effective.

It is impossible to use in creating custom t-shirts as there is a limited design placement.

Conclusion

Although it can only be used on cotton garments, it can also be used for tote bags or any other apparel printing with cotton fabric. Cotton is also hypoallergenic and doesn’t cause allergic reactions and there are more cotton fabrics available in the market than any other fabric type.

This printing method can be used for short production runs especially in creating test runs for various t-shirt designs before going into mass production and opting for other shirt printing services such as silk screen printing.

The t-shirts are suitable for corporate gifts printing as it requires a smaller minimum order quantity. This will result in much more affordable prices.

Dye sublimation is a digital heat transfer printing service that is often referred to as digital sublimation. It is a printing style that uses digital heat transfer to apply ink onto t-shirts one line at a time.

It is known as a process that is commonly used for decorating apparel, signs, and banners as well as other items with sublimation-friendly surfaces.

Dye-sublimation printing features the following two-part process:

Print graphics onto special transfer paper using a sublimation printer and inks

The use of a heat press to transfer the ink-on-paper to the substrate

How does it work?

 Step 1

We start by transferring unique sublimation dyes to sheets of “transfer” paper via liquid gel ink.

The ink is deposited on these high-release inkjet papers to be used in the next step.

Step 2

As the printed transfer sheets are transferred through heat, it gets converted from solid dye into a gaseous form without going through a liquid form.

The heat coupled with pressure causes the dye to penetrate the interior of the substrate, creating a colour bond that becomes permanent.

Once the heat is removed, the dye returns to a solid form and the process is complete.

As colours are embedded in the substrate or fabric, rather than printed on the surface, images on fabric and custom printed tees won’t fade or crack even after going through the wash multiple times.

Why should you choose dye sublimation?

T-shirt printing that uses dye sublimation is usually seen as a better option than inkjet printing.

This is because it creates a finished product that is noticeably more durable than t-shirt printing services using a heat transfer or silkscreen printing method.

It is also visually more appealing and it involves more continuous tone output in printing. This creates smoother and brighter colour transitions and variations compared to silkscreen printing.

When you shouldn’t choose dye sublimation?

There are actually very few disadvantages to dye sublimation printing fabrics.

The biggest issue that arises is that it is much slower than using silk screen printing.

As there are more steps in dye sublimation, and it requires additional labour, this can cause the price to be a bit higher than other t-shirt printing processes.

If using an older printer, it can also cause the printed t-shirt to become creased or wrinkled as it is pulled through the rollers, effectively ruining both the t-shirt and the transfer print.

Newer printer models have eliminated this issue by having the paper and t-shirt inline, with the printers continuing to print on the t-shirt as the piece is drawn into the rollers.

Conclusion

This is the best shirt printing if you are looking for good quality and long-lasting t-shirts.