What Is DTF Printing? T-Shirt Printing Explained

If you're ordering custom or branded t-shirts, DTF (direct-to-film) is the method we use for all our garment printing. Here's what it is, how it works, and how it compares to the other methods you might come across while researching.

What is DTF printing?

DTF prints your design onto a special film, then heat-transfers it onto the garment. It handles full colour and fine detail well, works on a wide range of fabrics including cotton, polyester and blends, and the transfer sits slightly on top of the fabric rather than into it, giving a durable print that holds up to repeated washing.

Why we use DTF for every order

DTF has no large minimum order, so it works just as well for a single personalised shirt as it does for a bulk branded order, without the setup cost or long lead time that some other print methods need to be worthwhile. It also handles per-shirt personalisation well, a different name, number or design on each shirt in the same order, without extra cost, and it works across multiple garment types and fabrics, so the same method covers shirts, polos, hoodies and bags in one order rather than needing a different process for each.

How DTF compares to screen printing and DTG

Screen printing pushes ink through a mesh stencil, one screen per colour, so it only becomes cost-effective at very high quantities of the same simple design, and it struggles with photographic detail or per-item personalisation since each colour needs its own screen. DTG (direct-to-garment) prints directly onto the fabric using an inkjet-style printer, similar in principle to printing a photo, but it generally works best on cotton and cotton-blend fabrics and can be less durable on synthetics.

We don't offer screen printing or DTG. DTF covers the same full-colour, photographic and multi-fabric capability without either of those limitations, which is why it's the method we've settled on for all garment printing, whatever the quantity or fabric.

Colour matters too: DTF transfers hold their colour well through repeated washing compared to some direct-print methods on synthetic fabrics, since the design sits as a durable layer on top of the fabric rather than being absorbed into fibres that behave differently across cotton, polyester and blends.

Getting your design ready

A high-resolution, print-ready file makes the biggest difference to the finished result. If your logo only exists as a low-resolution image or a photo of a business card, it's worth having it redrawn as a vector file before printing, we can advise on this as part of our free design service.

Browse our t-shirt printing page, or contact us with your project.