Choosing the wrong print method can quietly kill your margins or your print quality. Here's how the three most common apparel printing techniques compare.
Screen Printing
Screen printing pushes ink through a mesh stencil, one colour at a time, directly onto fabric. It's the industry standard for bulk orders with bold, solid-colour designs.
Best for: Large quantities, simple to moderate colour designs, maximum cost-efficiency at scale. Limitation: Becomes expensive per additional colour, and isn't ideal for complex photographic designs.
DTG (Direct-to-Garment)
DTG prints digitally, directly onto the fabric, similar to an inkjet printer. It handles unlimited colours and photo-quality detail with no setup cost per design.
Best for: Small batches, one-off designs, photo-realistic or highly detailed artwork, print-on-demand models. Limitation: Slower per-unit production speed and generally higher cost per piece at large volumes compared to screen printing.
Dye Sublimation
Sublimation transfers dye into the fabric fibres themselves using heat, rather than sitting ink on top of the fabric. This allows for true all-over prints (AOP) covering the entire garment, and works best on polyester or poly-blend fabrics.
Best for: All-over prints, activewear, sportswear, vibrant full-colour designs that need to survive heavy washing without cracking or fading. Limitation: Works best on light-coloured or white polyester-based fabrics — doesn't perform well on 100% cotton or dark base colours.
Quick Comparison Table
Screen Print — Bulk, bold designs — High volume — Low–Moderate
DTG — Detailed, small batch — Low volume — Unlimited
Sublimation — All-over, sportswear — Medium–High — Unlimited
How to Decide
Ask yourself three questions: How many pieces am I printing? How many colours or how much detail is in my design? And what fabric am I printing on? Those three answers almost always point you to the right method.
OSD Apparels offers all three techniques, plus embroidery, heat transfer, foil, and rubber/HD printing — matched to your design and fabric during the quoting process.
Not sure which print method fits your design? Send us your artwork and we'll recommend the best technique and get you a quote.