Four ways to put a design on a shirt. None of them is best; each one is right for a particular job. Here’s how to choose, from someone who sells one of them and would rather you picked the right one.
The short version
| DTF | Screen print | HTV (vinyl) | Sublimation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | None | Usually 12–24+ | None | None |
| Colours | Unlimited | Each colour is a screen | One per layer | Unlimited |
| Dark garments | Yes | Yes, with underbase | Yes | No |
| Cotton | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Hand feel | Thin, slight rubber | Softest (water-based) | Heavier, plastic | None — it’s in the fibre |
| Fine detail / photos | Yes | Limited | No | Yes |
| Setup cost | None | High per design | Cutter + weeding time | Printer + paper |
| Best at | Short runs, full colour, any fabric | Long runs of one design | Names, numbers, single colours | All-over prints on white poly |
Screen printing
Ink pushed through a stencilled mesh screen, one screen per colour. The setup — burning screens, mixing ink, registering colours — is the same whether you print ten shirts or a thousand, which is why shops set minimums and why the price per shirt drops hard at volume. The result, with water-based or discharge ink, is the softest print there is: the ink becomes part of the fabric.
Choose it when: you’re printing 100+ of one design in one to three colours, and hand feel matters. A band’s tour shirt. A school’s spirit tee by the thousand.
Don’t when: the run is small, the design has many colours or gradients, or you need it tomorrow.
Heat transfer vinyl
Sheets of coloured vinyl cut into a shape by a plotter, weeded by hand, pressed on. One colour per layer; a two-colour design is two layers, aligned by eye. Extremely durable, and it’s how every jersey number in the world gets made. The hand is heavy — a big vinyl design feels like a patch.
Choose it when: it’s a name, a number, or a simple one-colour shape, and you own a cutter. Personalised team jerseys. Glitter or metallic finishes, which vinyl does better than anything.
Don’t when: the design has fine detail (weeding it takes an hour), more than two colours, or any gradient.
Sublimation
Dye printed on paper, turned to gas under heat, absorbed into polyester fibre. There’s nothing on the surface at all — the shirt is dyed. Unlimited colour, zero hand feel, will never crack. The catch is the chemistry: it only bonds to polyester, and it’s transparent, so it only works on white or very light fabric.
Choose it when: the garment is white or light poly and you want an all-over or photographic print. Performance jerseys. Mugs, mousepads, coated hard goods.
Don’t when: the shirt is cotton, or dark, or any colour the dye can’t show against. Which is most shirts.
DTF
Full colour printed to film with a white underbase, powdered with adhesive, pressed on. No screens, no weeding, no fabric restriction, no minimum. The hand is a thin rubbery layer — softer than vinyl, not as soft as a water-based screen print. Detail and gradients are free.
Choose it when: the run is short, the design is complex or multi-colour, the garments are mixed colours or fabrics, or you need it this week. Most small-shop, boutique, team and event work.
Don’t when: it’s a thousand of the same one-colour design (screen print will be cheaper and softer), or the design is a huge solid block (it’ll feel heavy), or you need fluorescent colours (there’s no fluorescent DTF ink).
How shops actually mix them
Most working print shops use two or three. Screen print for the big single-design runs. DTF for everything under a hundred, anything full colour, and anything urgent. Vinyl for names and numbers on top of either. The mistake is trying to force one process onto every job — a shop that DTFs a 500-shirt one-colour order is leaving money on the table; a shop that screen-prints a 12-shirt full-colour order is losing it.
If your next job is in the DTF column: upload a sheet and it prints today.
