Looking To Hire A Good Printing Company For Personalized Apparel? Here Are Some Tips!
Choosing a printing company to create custom apparel for you or your business can seem like a daunting task, but don’t let that scare you off! Regardless of what event you need it for, custom apparel is a brilliant way to commemorate a special occasion or make your marketing material stand out from the crowd. The options may seem overwhelming at first, but if you know what basic qualities to look for, it can be easy to find the perfect printing company for your needs. Here are some things to look for that will help you choose the right printing company for your custom gear.
Availability of Printing Options: A wide selection of printing options is a sign of a top-quality printing company. There are many ways to put ink on cloth, and a good company will work with you to find the best choice for your design, timeline, and budget. Here are the types of apparel-printing methods most commonly used worldwide:
Screen Printing: Traditional screen printing is known for its quality, adaptability, and speed. The process can easily be tailored to fit your needs with a vast array of ink colors, simple application on all kinds of cloth-based garments and gear, and a quick turnaround time. While it is possible to have as many different colors in a screen-printed design as you can imagine, the best use of this technique is mass-producing one or two-color designs that end up looking and feeling great.
Direct To Garment (DTG): If you're looking for full-colored prints, DTG is the answer. Think a high-end computer printer that is designed to print on cloth instead of paper. Complex, multi-color designs are no problem for a DTG printer, meaning any digital photo you have in your archive can be recreated down to the pixel. It’s not the fastest printing option available, but this versatility makes DTG printing perfect for smaller print runs for one-off events.
Sublimation Printing: If you can imagine it, sublimation printing can create it. A cutting-edge technique that actually fuses the ink to the cloth, a design made with sublimation will never fade. It can transform any digital file into a gorgeous print that can cover any amount of the garment that you want it to, from just a piece to literally every inch. The only potential downside to this technique is that it can only be done on cloth that contains polyester, meaning that while the color options are endless, the garment options are not. Sublimation is what you’re looking for if you want to create a truly striking, one-of-a-kind item that will blow everyone away.
CAD Cut Vinyl Printing: To be fair, this technique isn’t truly printing in that it doesn’t require ink. Vinyl printing uses a CAD cutter to precisely shape a piece of vinyl that is then heat-pressed onto a garment. But since the material of the design is solid, unlike ink, your choices for texture and sheen are greatly increased with options like shiny, matte, or even glitter available. Vinyl printing is the quickest solution for small runs of simple designs that you want to really pop off their garments. Plus, you can also expand beyond cloth and make vinyl stickers, perfect for cars, laptops, and beyond!
Transfer Paper: An ink transfer is essentially a premade screen print that is transferred via heat press from paper to cloth. It functions as a nice option between simple screen printing and the more sophisticated methods already listed. Since there is only one application of ink with transfer paper, we can create more complicated, multi-colored designs that would be difficult to achieve with normal screen printing while maintaining that traditional feel and quality.
Trust: Of course, you don’t want to trust your important business or personal designs with just anyone. You will want to work with a printing company that is reliable. Meeting with a representative is a great starting point, but it is always worth the extra time to do extensive research on any potential business partner.
An Exceptional Portfolio: Like any business where original artwork and designs are involved, a good portfolio is essential for a company. A good printer not only delivers on client's requests but also exceeds their expectations. Printing solutions are all about portraying and conveying your message and even a minor error can ruin the whole idea. Make sure a company can provide examples of their past work that prove they have the ability to do make your vision come to life.
Great Customer Service: Communication is key! The ability to easily keep in touch with a printer during the course of a project can be the difference between success and stress. Having all your questions and concerns addressed in a timely fashion is essential to any cooperative process, so make sure that your printer is going to be available when you need them to be.
Portland Ink is a one-stop shop for all of your marketing and visual communication needs. Screen printing, promotional gear, signs and banners, sublimation printing, embroidery and finishing solutions, stickers and more, all at competitive prices. They are a technology-driven printing company that always keeps an eye toward the future and specializes in turning your wildest ideas into reality. So, if you’re looking for anything from a customized fanny pack to a clothing line all your own, you can’t go wrong with Portland Ink.