HOW IT'S DONE?

We use 2 printing processes for the purpose of low volume printing. Low volume generally means items under 25 units. Or where prints are not exactly the same on each garment and or printing on both front and back is required, such as stag or hen party t-shirts.

There are other processes available today such as screen print, but you wouldn't get involved in this process for low volume quantities as the setup costs can be horrendous.

Your average 1 off to 25 units will only be produced using vinyl or our second process dye sublimation.

Vinyl Cut

Our main process is called Vinyl Cut.

From creating your idea on the PC or to us preparing your own artwork for printing, then cutting the vinyl material, weeding it and pressing it onto the garment is a precision 10 to 15 minute job for each item which leaves no room for error.

Vinyl is a strong no peel no fade no crack ultra thin flexible matt material that is machine washable and can be tumble dried. The material comes in a multitude of colours including solid, fluorescents, metallic and patterned. For single coloured text or imagery this is the perfect solution. More colours can be applied as separate colours such as text linage or simple logos and vector type imagery.

This process is the commercial industries favourite print media due to it's hard wearing properties. Almost all the single colour low quantity work wear or stag & hen party t-shirts you see today will have been printed with textile vinyl, employing the same process that you will witness us using in front of you at our shop.

Demo: Courtney Vince AKA "Vince"

Dye Sublimation

For low to high quantity full multi colour digital printing we use a process called Dye Sublimation.

The only downside to this process is that it's only possible to produce full colour printing on specially made white poly/cotton garments.

Once you have gotten over this somewhat limited concept, the world is your oyster.

This process is very popular for customers wanting photo's, CD, DVD or Album covers and own hi-resolution artwork produced with Photoshop or other professional image editing software on a t-shirt. There is also the hen & stag party groups as well as many charity organisations that favour this print process.

So, how's it done?

We employ a top end A3 inkjet printer fitted with inks that are specifically developed for this print process.

The printable image is sent to the printer using a paper that enables the ink to sit on top and not disperse into it like standard print paper sheets.

The image is cut out of the sheet and placed face down onto a special poly/cotton garment which has a fine film of polyester bedded into it.

A heat press at very high temperature then presses both paper and garment allowing the polyester within the garment to melt and distribute the ink vapour into the melted plastic.

When cool, the result is a vivid high colour image embedded into the garment. There is no hand feel like a transfer, it can be stretched as wide as possible without cracking the print, and it is possibly the only type of printed garment that is capable of being ironed directly over time and time again without damage. Print colours remain good throughout the garments entire natural lifetime with minimal fading.

When you consider that screen print would potentially not provide every variation of colour within a digital image and it's wear ability limitations, then we are sure you would agree this is a great process for 1 off's to 100+ quantities where non transfer full multi colour digital printing is required.

Demo: Marlon Otterwell AKA "Marmite"