DTF – Direct To Film Printing Introduction

An introduction to DTF (Direct To Film) by Creative Imaginings

DTF Printing vs DTF Printing

Firstly, some creation is confused when learning DTF Printing in that it can refer to two different processes.

The most common definition, the one that we are talking about in this article, is Direct To Film (DTF) printing. The “other” DTF is Direct To Fabric printing where the fabric is run through a printer and the design is printed directly onto the fabric.

Direct To Film, hereafter referred to as DTF, comprises several steps to produces a finished product. One is a manual process and the other is automated (a bit more). The two following pictograms produced by ColDesi (accessed from their website at https://coldesi.com/what-is-direct-to-film-dtf-printing/) illustrate both versions very well as a starting point.

So why is DTF printing so popular? Because you can use it on almost any apparel/fabric you can think of.

But sublimation prints can be put onto apparel/fabric I hear you ask. Sublimation prints require a minimum of 50% polyester content AND, without complicating things, the background pretty much has to be white.

DTF doesn’t have these restrictions as there is a white ink channel added to the printer that places a ‘backing’ on the printed image for use on darker coloured fabrics.

It is more expensive to get into than Sublimation printing, as an example. You could probably get started at around AUD$4500.00 but this is a very basic manual entry type starting point.

Another thing to remember is that a lot of printing processes are complementary to one another as they can all cover slightly different niches eg sublimation shines when transferring images to hard surfaces, and DTF shines when it comes to the range of fabrics you can transfer to.

The main things to consider:

• Cost is your main consideration, what can you afford
• The cheaper printers are often slower at printing
• DTF requires reasonable maintenance schedules to prevent ink blockages etc
• Most DTF machines (if not all) use Epson print heads so that part of the decision process is more about what print head suits you (this is a big part of the cost factor)
• Space, you can achieve a relatively cheap, manual type system for a small desktop but then print speed, image size are restricted – the better, and, larger the system the faster it goes but also takes up a lot more room

But DTF does give you a great print!