DIRECT-TO-GARMENT Still a relatively new technology, the advantages of direct-to-garment printing make it ideal for today's on-demand environment. By Terry Combs Contributing Writer F rom the early days of converted desktop inkjet printers to today's purpose-built direct-to-garment (DTG) machines, many things have changed with this digital application. However, the process has remained virtually the same: 100% cotton shirts still are the best substrate. Water-based ink still is printed through an inkjet print head. And pretreatment solution still gets applied to shirts prior to printing white ink. Some of the key changes and developments include: * Better pretreatment solutions and application methods * Improved printhead technology * Better ink chemistry Training on a DTG machine is fairly simple because the process is the same with each garment being printed. All photos courtesy of Equipment Zone. P.16 I M P R E S S I O N S M A G . C O M SEPTEMBER 2020 16-19_IMP_0920_DigitalDecorating_DTG-Combs.indd 16 8/19/20 9:11 AMhttp://www.IMPRESSIONSMAG.COM