DIRECT TO GARMENT

SCREEN PRINTING

EMBROIDERY

DIRECT TO GARMENT, also known as DTG printing; digital apparel printing, and inkjet to garment printing, is a process of printing on textiles and garments using specialized or modified inkjet technology. The two key requirements of a DTG printer are a transport mechanism for the garment and specialty inks (inkjet textile inks) that are applied to the textile directly and are absorbed by the fibers.
Direct to garment (DTG) printing is most commonly implemented on garments that are made of cotton or cotton blends and polyester. However, when done right, the results are absolutely beautiful.
The point here is, use the direct to garment print method only if you have a design with very fine details, usually comprising of several colors; and if you just few garments. A primary advantage of DTG printing is the lack of set-up costs and instant turnaround time not associated with traditional garment printing methods such as screen printing.

SCREEN PRINTING; - \skren' print-ing\ 
The process used to permanently print a colored image onto a garment. There are several steps involved in custom screen printing. First, your artwork is color separated and each color is printed out in black on  film or vellum. A screen is then burned or exposed with an ultra violet light using a professional exposure unit. There is a screen for every color and every image that we are screen-printing on each t-shirt. Once the image appears on the screen, it is then washed out with water and left to dry. 
After drying, the screen is then taped and loaded onto the screen printing press. Once each color is set-up and registered (or lined up to each other), your custom screen printed tee shirt is ready to run. After running your order on the press, the screen printed apparel will run down a long drying conveyor belt to ensure that the ink is cured (will not wash off) to the garment. The imprint is literally baked onto the apparel. After inspection for the perfect screen printed garment, your order is ready to be packaged and shipped to your door! 

EMBROIDERY; - \em-broi'-de-re\ The act of sewing an image onto a fabric with needles and thread. 
Before embroidery can take place, there are a few steps that must be completed.  
First, your logo has to be created in some sort of art format. 
Once the custom logo is designed, the clean image is set to be digitized. Digitizing really means re-drawing your logo in stitches. This can sometimes be a difficult and time consuming task. The more detail there is in your logo, the tougher it may be to create in a stitches format. 
Once it is digitized, the thread colors can be selected. 
After color selection is made, your garment is ready to be loaded onto the embroidery machine. 
The graphic is then stitched to your chosen apparel. 
Finally, all extra thread is trimmed away for perfection. Your custom embroidered apparel is then inspected and ready. 

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Questions About T-shirts

• What kind of shirts do you have?
• We sell 100% cotton, Heavyweight 5.6 oz., Preshrunk T-shirts, unless the customer requests a more expensive and/or heavier weight t-shirt. Prices listed on our website are for good, quality 100% cotton t-shirts. You can get 50/50 t-shirts if that is what you want, however the price for 50/50's are the same as 100% cotton t-shirts, but imprint is 10 cents more.
• Do your T-shirt prices listed include shipping? If not, how much will it cost to ship shirts to me? 
• Costs per shirt listed on our T-shirt pricing tables do not include shipping. Shipping cost for t-shirts is based on the quantity of t-shirts (the weight), and your zip-code (the distance the shirts must travel to your location). For a shipping cost quote please e-mail us your postal zip code and a range of quantities of shirts you may be interested in getting. We will provide an accurate shipping cost for you to consider. 
• What are screen/setup charges? 

We use silk screens to print images onto shirts. A screen is needed for each color of the image of the design for each side. We can print up to 6 colors per side. 
Screen set ups are $25.00 each, which include film positive. Screen setups are one time charges per design. If you were to reorder shirts with the same design in the future without changes to the artwork, then there would be NO screen setup charges. 

• I want to get white shirts with red ink on the front AND the back. How many colors would that be? 

We would have to print one color (red) on the front of the shirt first and then print one color on the back (red), so that would make it a two color job, even if both the front and back are white.

• Can I mix or match sizes and quantities of shirts? Do they have to be in even dozens of color and size, or can I get what I think I need? 

Yes you can mix or match sizes and quantities of shirts. They do NOT have to be in even dozens either. If you need 7 small, 9 medium 14 large and 45 XL, that is no problem. You can also mix colors of shirts in the same T-shirt color categories that we offer, if the ink colors you choose will work with different colored shirts.
It is not possible to mix white shirts and dark shirts within in an order without occurring ink color change charges (if it's possible to do in the first place). We charge $10.00 per ink color to change the color of ink in the middle of a shirt job (if it can be done). 

• Can you e-mail me a picture of the shirt colors so I can decide what I want? 

Yes we can e-mail you a jpeg of shirt color swatches to give you a good idea of what colors look like. The jpeg is NOT EXACT (due mainly to differences in computer monitors), but you will be able to see the difference in the color names. Just request a T-shirt color chart and we will e-mail it to you promptly info@copylion.com

• What is the minimum quantity of shirts I can get? 

24 shirts is our minimum. If you wanted only 12 shirts, the price per shirt for 12 would add up the same as if you got 24 shirts. That is because it takes the same amount of time and labor to prepare the artwork for screen printing, produce the film, coat and burn the screens, and set up the press for 12 shirts or 24 shirts, or even 100 shirts. Once we actually start printing the shirts, it doesn't take that much more time to print 12 or 24 shirts, etc...

• How big of an image can you print on a shirt? How big can I make my artwork? 

Our maximum print area is 12 inches by 13 inches per side for t-shirts. Most t-shirt images are 10" to 11" across the chest, however it's up to you to decide how big you want your graphics to be, and your artwork should be created to that size. It's all a matter of your taste.

• Still have a question about shirts? Use our handy Question Form.

Accepted file formats

1. The original artwork, image or photograph, mail this to our address
2. Digital vector artwork saved from CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, all versions. Please Convert all text to paths/outlines to eliminate the need for the fonts to be present when we open your file. Paths also make logos more stable and less likely for spacing to change between letters or words. PLEASE INCLUDE ALL FONTS AND IMAGES IF YOU USE THEM. DO NOT EMBED IMPORTED IMAGES. LINK ALL IMPORTED IMAGES TO THE FILE.

3. Digital artwork saved as a TIFF, PSD, or JPEG file from Adobe Photoshop or any similar pixel based graphics program. These images MUST be created at 300 DPI resolution at the final size you want your image to print. This is for printing cards, stickers, posters, and other stationary, (i.e. if you're printing 4" x 6" postcards, the artwork should be created at that size at 300 DPI aka 900 x 1800 pixels). If you save a file as a JPEG, DO NOT compress it below a 9/high quality. The more you compress a JPEG the worse it will look when printed. Avoid JPEG's if you can. DO NOT TAKE ARTWORK FROM THE WEB. It is usually saved at 72 DPI, which will print HORRIBLY (and may also be illegal if the image does not belong to you)! Do not re-size/blow up an image from 72 DPI to 300 DPI as it will still print badly (a low resolution pixel image will look even more pixelated when blown up). If you are sending Black & White art with gradients, make sure to change it to Grayscale Mode before saving. If the artwork is solid Black & White change it to Bitmap mode. Doing these things will reduce your file size enabling you to email the file to us easily.
4. We can accept digital artwork via CD and Flash-drives. Let us know that you are sending artwork to us so we will know to expect it.