This is, by far, one of our most asked questions! When you come to Wescan to get printing done, it is sometimes overwhelming as we offer so many types of printing. To name a few, we might have asked if you wanted:

• Digital Printing
  • can be one of the follow types of digital printing: Thermal Printing, DTG (Direct To Garment), Sublimation
• Screen Printing

We will compare the two options based on the following categories:

• Minimum Quantities and Pricing
• Color Vibrancy
• Washability
• Color Blending (Gradients) 
• Details
• Comfort and Feel
• Popularity

Minimum Quantities and Pricing

Digital Printing is cheaper and faster at lower quantities; especially if it is a colorful artwork. However, if your artwork only has a handful of colors, an you are in need of a minimum of 24 shirts, then screen printing is going to be the cheapest!

Winner: Depends on your quantities and artwork! If either option are available to you for your artwork and quantities, then read further for some other differences between the two printing options.

Color Vibrancy

When you want the print with ink that stands out the most, you will want screen printing. The colours on screen printing inks are very vibrant and we can even match your corporate colors down to the Pantone shade if necessary.

Digital printing colors can also be very vibrant. It will often depend on your exact artwork and your garment that is being printed on. Tighter knit garments often hold ink from Digital Printing better, resulting in a better print. Pantone color matching is not available for digital printing – but colours are still excellent! If you can print your artwork on a home printer and get good enough colors, then Digital Printing will definitely be suffice!

Washability

A well-done Digital Print job can get dozens of washes before it starts fading a little bit. But fade it will, eventually – this is the same no matter which company prints your shirts. Don’t be fooled by sales and marketing tactics. Even your shirts you buy from the luxury stores eventually fade!

Screen printing doesn’t have this durability problem if it’s done right. Sure, if the ink is not applied correctly or not cured properly, even Plastisol can start to fade or deteriorate. But we have customers that come back to us year after year, wearing the same shirt we printed for them a long time ago!

Color Blending (Gradients)

When doing gradients, Digital Printing is a clear winner. While it is possible with screen printing, digital printing is simply more reliable. 

You can think of Digital Printing as a inkjet printer, but for fabric!

Details

While very small details are possible with an experienced printer, Digital Printing easily wins this category as it is near effortless to capture all the detail in your artwork.

Comfort and Feel

Screen Printing will feel like a layer of ink deposit on top of the shirt. Some customers love this! Others prefer not to feel anything at all. We leave this decision up to you!

For Digital Printing, it’s best to explain the comfort and feel by splitting up the different types of printing.

• Thermal Printing
  • This will feel like a thin layer of plastic sitting on top of the shirt. Again, some customers will prefer this feel! Others do not like it, especially if the print is a large print across the center of a shirt. Thermal Printing is much like a standard Heat Transfer.
• DTG (Direct To Garment)
  • If DTG’ing onto a light-coloured garment, you almost wont feel a thing!
  • If DTG’ing onto a dark-coloured garment, you will feel a very thin layer of ink on top of the shirt. It will not be as thick as Thermal Printing, or Screen Printing, though! You will also feel a eco-friendly spray that we use on the shirt to protect the image. This washes right off on your first wash, and you wont need to worry about it again! (But the protection will stay on the shirt!)
  • Sublimation
    • You won’t feel a thing!

Popularity

Due to the price and color vibrancy, Screen Printing is often the most popular choice However, with the minimum quantities required for Screen Printing, and sometimes artwork limitations, sometimes Digital Printing is the clear winner for your project.