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Dropshipping - Designing for DTG printing
Compared to printing on white paper there are many challenges related to printing on garments, and whilst the basic principle of CMYK inkjet applies, that is where the similarities end.
Garments come in many colours, a variety of natural and synthetic fibres and have been died and treated in a variety of ways. There is no 'standard' substrate that we print onto like there is with paper, therefore designs can often look different when printed on different colours and products. On non-white garments, we print a white layer before adding the colour.
Why is artwork required in RGB?
Our printers print in CMYKRG+White, this allows the range of printable colours to be much wider than standard CMYK. The software which interprets the design file for printing in the CMYKRG+White format, therefore, requires the file to be in the RGB format, as a CMYK formatted image will limit the colour range. Artwork for Dropship DTG printing with GoCustom must always be submitted in RGB.
Colour profiles
Currently, there are no standard colour profiles for Direct To Garment printing.
What you see is not necessarily what you get!
A common mistake with printing is to expect that what you see on your screen is what you will get when it's printed. With the challenges highlighted above, you are unlikely to get an exact match. This image is an example of what you may expect vs what the print process can actually produce.
Can you match my colours exactly?
It's important to be aware that there will always be variations in the colours due to the issues mentioned above. If you are looking to print an exact Pantone reference, it's likely that the DTG printer will not match it exactly.
If you are looking to find the right colours to use in your design, it's worth having a sample printed of the colour swatch you wish to work with, along with lots of variations of each colour. When you receive that test garment you can decide which of the colours to actually use in your design, though note the colours can still vary between different products.
Digital printers cannot print certain colours, for example, neon colours, gold, silver etc. If you include these colours in your design, the printer will produce the closest match, but it will not represent your design very well. This is why we also always recommend you print a test of all new designs that you create.
If you are looking to produce very specific Spot colours or 100% guarantee your design is printed exactly the same every time on all products, it's likely that screen printing will be better for you. We cannot offer screen printing for dropshipping, though we do offer screen printing as a bulk ordering service.
Despite some unavoidable colour variation, the pros of direct-to-garment printing for dropshipping remain immense compared with other printing methods.