Answer
Jun 14, 2019 - 03:25 PM
[posting on behalf of Qverb]
I'll chime in here as someone who works in the industry - I own both DTG (Direct-to-Garment) and screen print equipment and do both regularly. I also sell to and work with Printful at their East Coast location (though I am in no way officially affiliated with them).
By the way you can read about the difference between DTG and screen printing here:
https://www.printful.com/blog/dtg-vs-screen-printing/
Now let me answer your quality question: Your pics are not an apples-to-apples comparison at all. Two of your Printful examples are on dark shirts, and the other is a very light pink on white. The dark shirts require a printed under-base - your screen printed examples do not. Now, the DTG examples are not in perfect registration I admit, likely from improper head alignment
A quality and well setup DTG machine can produce stunning prints, and most people likely don't own or run one every day.
They each have their advantaged. For full color, low quantity runs DTG can be great - every bit the equal to a four-color process screen print with less ink thickness and softer feel.
Screen printing looks fantastic and is much better suited for larger quantities. There are various special effect inks and detail can be terrific. There are many different inks for different materials. There is considerable setup time and cost for screen printing, and cleanup takes a while as well.
A good DTG owner will know the limitations of the machine and will only print what they know will look great.
Printful prints whatever you send them, on whatever shirt you specify, and depending on the combination your results may certainly vary.
Other factors to consider here are the original artwork, whether this was a 2-pass print or not, shirt type, etc. Both methods can look fantastic, but we don't have all the information here...
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