DTG vs DTF vs screen printing: how the artwork needs differ

Three shirts, one design. The first is printed direct to garment, the second with a DTF transfer, the third screen printed. They can look surprisingly different, and the reason is rarely the printer's skill. Each method puts ink on fabric in a different way, so each one wants something different from your file.

If you know what those differences are, you can choose the right method for a design, or adjust the design for the method you're stuck with.

The three methods in one paragraph each

DTG (direct to garment) works like an inkjet printer for shirts. Water-based ink is sprayed straight into the fabric. It handles unlimited colors and photos, feels soft, and suits small runs on cotton.

DTF (direct to film) prints the design onto a film, coats it with adhesive powder, and heat-presses it onto the garment. It works on cotton, polyester and blends, holds bright colors on dark fabric, and is good for small and medium runs.

Screen printing pushes ink through a separate mesh screen for each color. It has setup costs, but it's the most durable and the cheapest per shirt on large runs, with the most vivid solid colors.

File type

• DTG: transparent PNG at 300 PPI at the final print size
• DTF: transparent PNG at 300 PPI at the final print size
• Screen printing: vector artwork (AI, EPS, PDF or SVG) wherever possible, so each color can be separated cleanly

A raster file can be screen printed, but someone has to separate it first, and a low resolution JPG makes that slow and expensive.

Number of colors

For DTG and DTF, color count doesn't matter. Two colors or two million cost the same.

For screen printing, every color is another screen, another setup and another pass on the press. A design with six colors costs noticeably more than the same design simplified to three. Auto-traced or compressed logos are a hidden cost here: what looks like one red may be fifteen slightly different reds in the file, and all of that has to be cleaned up before separation.

Gradients, shadows and photos

• DTG reproduces gradients and photos naturally. Soft fades into the shirt color work well, especially on light garments.
• DTF handles gradients inside the design, but not soft fades to nothing. More on that below.
• Screen printing has no true gradients. Tones are created with halftones, patterns of tiny dots. They can look great, but they have to be planned, and very subtle fades often get lost.

Fine lines and small text

Every method has a minimum, and they're not the same.

• DTG: very fine detail is possible, though thin light-colored lines on dark shirts can look weak because they sit on a white underbase.
• DTF: thin lines and small isolated dots are the weak point. The adhesive needs enough area to grip. As a working rule, keep lines at 1 pt or thicker and avoid tiny floating specks.
• Screen printing: lines thinner than about 1 pt and text below roughly 8 pt can fill in or drop out, depending on the mesh and ink.

If your design has a delicate script font or hairline details, test it at print size before you commit.

Transparency and soft edges

This is where the same file behaves most differently.

On a DTG print, a soft glow or a faded edge blends into the fabric. On a DTF transfer, every printed pixel gets adhesive and a white layer behind it. Semi-transparent pixels turn into a cloudy, pale halo, or a rough edge that peels. For DTF, edges should be crisp: a pixel is either fully there or fully gone.

The same goes for leftover background. A faint haze around a design that nobody notices on screen becomes a visible box on a DTF transfer.

Dark garments

All three methods need white ink under the colors on a dark shirt.

• DTG and DTF generate the white layer automatically from your file's transparency. Clean transparency gives a clean white layer.
• Screen printing needs a separate underbase screen, slightly smaller than the colors on top so no white peeks out.

In every case, a design made for a white shirt usually needs adjusting for a black one. Black areas of the art may be left unprinted so the shirt shows through, and dark colors may need lightening.

Quick guide: which method suits which design

• Full-color photo or painting, small run, cotton: DTG
• Bright multi-color design on polyester, hats or bags: DTF
• One to four solid colors, 50 shirts or more: screen printing
• Soft watercolor fades on a light shirt: DTG
• Bold logo for team uniforms in mixed fabrics: DTF or screen printing
• Vintage, distressed look: screen printing, with the texture built into the art

One design, three files

If you sell the same design through different channels, expect to keep more than one version:

1. A transparent PNG with crisp edges for DTF
2. A transparent PNG, with soft effects if you want them, for DTG
3. A vector version with a limited number of flat colors for screen printing

It's the same artwork, prepared three ways.

The short version

DTG is forgiving about color and soft edges. DTF wants crisp edges and no thin lines. Screen printing wants few, flat, separable colors in a vector file. Most print problems come from sending a file prepared for one method to a shop using another.

If you have a design that needs to be made ready for a specific method, or cleaned up so it works for all three, we can do that. See our T-shirt design cleanup service.