What is Print on Demand?
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[terms]
POD “Print on Demand” “Produced on demand”
DTG Direct to garment
ScreenPrinting - the old school way of printing T-shirts, involves squeezing the ink through a screen into the shirt, using masks on the screen to build-up the colours so the end result is similar to the cartoon block-colour style of graphic seen here:
@UGMonk
What is new about DTG is this: Full colour, photo-real images. Screenprint is older and know’s what it is good at – solid, strong designs with a limited colour palette. DTG will get your favorite photo of your dog on a shirt. Screenprinting will get a cartoon style picture of it only. This doesn’t mean DTG is better than screenprinting!
Given that there are dozens of websites offering ‘upload and print‘ to dozens of products, why would you ask for help?
There are lots and lots of insider secrets in anything print related. From simple concepts, such as ‘anything on screen is always brighter than on the tshirt’, to obscure and stupidly difficult stuff like Gamma settings… no matter how much these sites promise you, I can hand-on-heart tell you that what you see is not necessarily what you get.
A site offering print services is obviously very much motivated to make their offerings appear attractive. However, I can tell you from my experience of being ‘on the net’ since the days there wasn’t even
a graphic interface (think ‘text only’) one refreshing thing with the POD/DTG industry, is that so far, suppliers are a shitload more honest about things than most other retailers.
A more practical example of the realities of printing, is that almost any image you view on a webpage will look like fuzzy blown-up, beer-goggles induced ugliness when put on a t-shirt.
before spending money on custom photo products
- You should consider asking for help if you want the best value for dollar.
- If you need an image improved, cropped, repaired, altered…. consider help from a reputable site or family friend. Or me
- Don’t take your photo to a shopping mall kiosk and ask “Can you print this?” instead consider asking “will this turn out too dark?” Ask them how long their colours last, what UV protection is available and what are the care instructions.
Remember this stuff is fun. You really can make your own brand! What’s the use in paying global brand for their sweatshop labor produced product when you can design your own?! You might have to pay for a few hours work by an artist but if you ask for the designs you keep them for life.
An iron-on transfer that costs $10.00 can still be worth a year of childhood birthday happiness.
Opinion - I’ve seen too many crappy faded photo’s on display at shopping mall ‘custom photo’ kiosks and booths to worry that there lack of care and attention (along with fairly high prices) means that that the public’s first experience with custom photo products is going to be a negative one.
Many online custom photo sites offer satisfaction guarantees. Ask your instore service if they do also. If not, why not?
Commercial clients have even more traps to look for. They can be charged expensive setup fees just for someone to load your image onto computer and check image quality. (Can you really blame them if they’re given shitty quality and they charge you for it?)
Hidden traps to look for with custom photo or artwork print suppliers.
Free. Free anything. How can they survive offering something for free? Where are they recovering the costs? There however some sites that offer freebies for dozens of products. VistaPrint are one of the better known
The opposite of free. High base prices but low add-on costs. The sucker-punch trick!
High shipping costs.
Mass volume suppliers who become a victim of their own success. Are you really prepared to wait 6 weeks for your order to arrive?
Yourself. How quickly did you pick the image you want to use? Is it cropped so that only the center of attention is included? Does it obey the rule of thirds? Do you need the ex-boyfriend removed first? Are you prepared to pay $60-$100hr for some graphic designer to do simple edits for you?
Yourself – are you really applying the same value decisions for this as you would other fashion? If print-on-demand gives you the opportunity to be your own brand are you really better off looking for the cheaper solution?
If any decent image service is given a good, high resolution image they can fix the most common problems in a few seconds with today’s software trickery. Don’t be fooled, the whole point of software like Photoshop is to turn images into something usable, as quickly as possible.
As with any industry there are so-called experts who can survive on very little actual expertise. Ask for samples, and ask for proof they are theirs! (Ask for a high resolution image with your name and current date overlayed as a ‘multiply layer with white text’ at 80% opacity) if they have no idea what that means look for someone else.
Supplier comments and reviews (A work in progress)
PrintingChoice’
Zazzle
Zazzle quality review by pointclickapparel.info
Comments on Zazzle Quality
“I have a T-Shirt from zazzle and made business cards for my mothers child dancing group. The T-Shirt is an organic Edun Live T-Shirt and its quality is good as well as the printing. The business cards are from excellent quality. The colors are as vibrant as they are in the original design.” [link]
“I bought some of my greetings cards – the print quality is excellent though the colour balance changed a bit, not a problem if you don’t see the original.
With greetings cards, just make sure the text inside is small enough otherwise it looks huge! Size 6 is plenty big enough in most fonts.” [link]
“I’ve purchased tees, mousepads, cards and mugs and every one of them has been excellent quality. The colors are very crisp and clear, exactly what I see on my monitor.” [link]
“Wearing one of my t-shirts as I write and it’s survived a dozen washes so far and still looks good. No color fade or shrinkage. Which is more then I can say for moi “[link]
“(I have quite a few and they are the best T’s I have ever owned!)”
I’ve also ordered other of my products:
Keychains (it’s a couple of years later and they are still holding up!)
Business Cards (pleased every time!)
Bookmarks (on skinny business cards – love them!)
Magnets (still in use!)
Poster (Beautiful!)
Mini Prints (created on invitation card – Beyond pleased!) [link]
“I’ve bought (or have seen products that others have bought from my store) postcards, cards, t-shirts and mugs and the quality was very high and very professional looking. Have also had good feedback from people that have bought hats, magnets, posters and invites. Very happy customers. “[link]
mysoti
Mysoti
review by pointclickapparel.info
MySoti is great! The quality of print is awesome. Definitely happy with the shirts that i have bought through them. Also, the large 12.5″ x 17.5″ print area was key for me posting my designs through them as well.
CafePress reviews
pointclickapparel.info review of two shirts printed by CafePress
TRoundup - the tshirt lovers blog
Good luck,
Robbie
OneArmedGraphics [