Before You Buy a Direct to Garment Printer
Buying a garment printer is not just about pricing and specifications. These are important factors, but there are important questions you need to have answered before you make a decision. The following is a list of questions that we recommend you review before you decide to purchase from a specific vendor
1. What is the ink chemistry being used by the printer, is it a dyed-based ink or a pigment based ink system?
The DirectAdvantage Printer uses the NaturaLink™ dye-based ink chemistry from Sawgrass Technologies. Once an image is printed directly on a garment, it must be cured using a traditional heat transfer press for 25 seconds. The heat and pressure create a chemical bond between the cotton molecules and the dye based ink. This is why garments produced with NaturaLink™ ink start off brighter and stay brighter longer than the pigment based ink systems on the market. Pigment based systems use a bonding agent to glue a pigment to the surface of the garment. NaturaLink™, dyes the ink into the cotton molecule as opposed to gluing ink onto the surface of the cotton. The chemical reaction produced from the NaturaLink ink chemistry accounts for the better brightness and wash fastness.
2. How does the loading of the garment on the printer affect my work flow?
Every manufacturer uses a different system to load the garment on the printer’s platen. Each DirectAdvantage printer includes a unique platen system for loading garments. The system is similar to an embroidery hooping system. The shirt is placed over a platen. A metal framed hoop is placed over the shirt and platen to secure the garment to the platen and remove any wrinkles. This eliminates the need to remove wrinkles using a heat transfer press prior to printing. Any loose material can be tucked under the platen. The printer has a laser positioning system that automatically raises or lowers the printer assembly to adjust to materials of different thicknesses. The entire platen assembly moves under the print heads to complete the printing of the image. It is a very quick and simple loading system. Additional platens are available for various garment sizes including youth garments. Flat items such as tote bags or towels do not require the metal framed hoop. Each printer manufacturer uses different methods to measure production speed. The key is not the published production speed, but the real-time speed in a production environment. With a simple and effective loading system, the DirectAdvantage is one of the most efficient printing systems on the market. In addition, the DirectAdvantage printer based on an Epson 4800 wide format printer, is nearly twice as fast as printers based on the Epson 2000 series desktop printers.
3. What is the warranty of the printer and will the manufacturer replace a broken printer?
The DirectAdvantage printer is covered by a manufacturers warranty for all systems. The standard warranty is 1 year for all parts excluding the print heads. The print head warranty is 6 months. The standard warranty requires the printer to be shipped to a depot repair center. Onsite and extended warranties are available through a third party service company
4. Which software application am I going to use to output my images and how will the software interface with the printer?
The DirectAdvantage printer includes the PowerDriver software from Sawgrass. This enhanced printer driver includes special functions to enable the highest quality output from the printer. PowerDriver gives end customers an easy to use interface that allows you to control the exact output of all your garments. It also allows you to set the setting that best fit your garments and ensures that your colors match what your customers are looking for with the use of the Color Sure palette. The DirectAdvantage printer does not require the purchase of a RIP software. Images can be output directly from the print function in popular Windows graphics programs including CorelDRAW, Illustrator, Freehand or PhotoShop. Smart Designer users can take full advantage of interactive Smart Templates and design automation features in CorelDRAW.
5. What am I going to do about artwork, am I going to create my own, or use production-ready clip art?
It is one thing to output simple text and photos; it is an entirely different thing to create cool graphics that sell on garments. Cheap desktop publishing clip art is not well suited for garment printing. These images were not designed for printing on garments and often do not produce the professional appearance of graphics you see sold in retail stores. With production-ready clip art from Digital Art Solutions, anyone can create killer graphics. DAS is the recognized industry leading producer of production-ready clip art, design templates and product templates. These artwork tools are a key component of garment printer package sold by DAS. We are not just “tossing in” some cheap clip art to add value to a package. Each garment printer package we sell is customized with the right artwork for your market focus and budget. The new Digital Graphics Collection is the industry’s premier graphics package for direct to garment printing. This product is a collaboration between Digital Art Solutions and Great Dane Graphics and provides a turn-key solution for high impact editable templates for direct to garment printing.
6. Is the company selling me the printer going to provide me with the level of support and training needed for me to be successful?
Digital Art Solutions has been providing the highest level of post-sale training and support for its customers for the last 16 years. DAS products include interactive multi-media tutorials as well as user-friendly training manuals written in “real people” language, not “tech talk”. Last year DAS hosted over 30 training seminars including Art Camps in Tempe and specialized training seminars in conjunction with industry trade shows. DAS customers also enjoy state of the art web training tools and personalized web training sessions. No company in the industry is more committed to supporting its customers through innovative training solutions.
7. What is the support policy of the company selling me the printer, do they support both the machine and the software or are they reselling someone else’s software and equipment?
DAS was a software company and clip art content provider long before offering garment printing systems. As the creator of the software and art content, DAS supports every aspect of the system including the printer, software, consumables and art content. Our industry expertise is at the disposal of every DirectAdvantage owner. DAS customers will be dealing directly with DAS on every aspect of technical support.
8. Is the software and machine bundle the best solution for my needs, or am I just buying a price point or the novelty of a white ink?
Before we sell you a garment printing system, our sales staff will conduct a Needs Analysis to determine the exact system that best fits your unique needs and budget. If you are looking for the cheapest package on the market, we are probably not the company for you. However, if you are looking for the best solution and value, we are the perfect fit. At this time, Digital Art Solutions and Sawgrass have chosen to focus on the business opportunity with high production white and light colored garments. White ink requires a great deal of art preparation, pre-treatment of the garment, multiple passes of a white under-base, plus typically a multi-pass process print on top of the white. It is our position that printing white ink on a traditional ink jet printer is not a viable production solution at this time due to difficult art preparation, slow print times (8 shirts per hour or less) and quality issues. White ink will be available from Sawgrass in the future, but not until the current production speed and image quality issues can be improved and properly tested. If white ink is a big concern, it would be advisable to wait for this technology to mature before jumping in.
9. Does the machine and software package allow me to grow my business as I become more experienced and obtain more customers?
Because we provide solutions for other industries and production processes, we have built our system to expand as your business grows. You are not going to be pigeon holed into an inflexible system that only does one thing. Our customers can easily migrate into other imprinting processes including Sign Making, CAD Cutting, Screen Printing, Laser Engraving, Embroidery and Digital Printing. We are not trying to get our foot in the door with some basic package with simply a printer and ink. We offer a total garment printing solution customized for your individual business and marketing strategy.
10. What is the track record in the industry of the company selling me the package?
Digital Art Solutions has been servicing the imprinting industries for the last 16 years. In addition to being the industries leading supplier or design/production software and production-ready art content, we also bundle our art system with the imprinting equipment on the planet. No other company in the industry is better equipped to provide you with a reliable user-friendly garment printing system that will enable you to set up a successful profit center in your business.