Definition
DTG (Direct-to-Garment) is a digital apparel printing process that sprays water-based inks directly onto fabric using inkjet technology. It produces full-color photo-quality designs with no minimum order quantity, making it the standard for print-on-demand custom apparel. Works best on 100% cotton and high-cotton-content blends. Cost: $3-8 per print depending on shirt color and design complexity, plus the shirt blank cost. Standard file specs: 300 DPI sRGB PNG with transparent background.
How DTG printing actually works
DTG is essentially a specialized inkjet printer with a flat platen that holds a shirt under the print head. Step-by-step:
- Pretreatment — for dark shirts, a pretreatment liquid is sprayed and pressed into the fabric. This creates a white base layer the colored inks bind to. For white/light shirts, pretreatment is sometimes skipped.
- Shirt loading — the shirt is placed on a flat platen and aligned with the print zone.
- Printing — the DTG printer head moves back and forth, spraying water-based inks (typically CMYK + white for dark shirts) directly onto the fabric. The design is laid down in a single pass.
- Curing — the printed shirt is heat-pressed or run through a conveyor dryer at 320-340°F for 2-3 minutes. This cures the ink and bonds it to the fabric fibers.
- Quality check — operator inspects for missed areas, color accuracy, and registration.
Total per-shirt production time: 1-3 minutes for white-shirt DTG; 3-5 minutes for dark-shirt DTG (extra steps for pretreatment and white underbase).
DTG cost per print
Typical 2026 DTG costs for POD vendors:
| Shirt color | DTG cost per print | Shirt blank cost | Total POD cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| White / light | $3-5 | $4-8 | $7-13 |
| Black / dark | $4-7 | $5-10 | $9-17 |
| Color (red, navy, etc.) | $4-6 | $5-9 | $9-15 |
| Premium organic / tri-blend | $4-7 | $10-18 | $14-25 |
At $24.99 retail price for a custom-printed shirt, margin after POD costs is typically 45-60% depending on shirt blank tier and decoration complexity. Add design fees via your personalizer ($5-10 per side) to lift AOV without significantly increasing per-unit cost.
DTG file specs (exact)
Standard DTG print file specs every POD vendor enforces:
- Format: PNG with transparent background (alpha channel)
- Resolution: 300 DPI at actual print dimensions
- Print area dimensions:
- Standard front print: 12×16 inches = 3,600×4,800 pixels
- Standard back print: 12×16 inches = 3,600×4,800 pixels
- Pocket / left chest print: 4×4 inches = 1,200×1,200 pixels
- Sleeve print: 3×3 inches = 900×900 pixels
- Color profile: sRGB (DTG uses RGB workflow, NOT CMYK)
- Transparency: required — preserve the shirt color where the design doesn't print
- Bleed: 0.125 inches (3mm) for designs that extend to print zone edge
- Color limits: no specific color limit; DTG handles millions of colors with photo-quality gradients
Print It My Way's production tab generates files at these specs automatically when a customer places an order. Customily has the deepest pre-built POD templates with print zones already mapped to Printful/Printify specifications. Other personalizers vary — verify with sample orders before scaling.
DTG strengths and limits
What DTG does well
- No minimum order quantity — print one shirt, no setup fee, no batch requirement
- Full-color photo reproduction — photo prints, gradients, complex designs all work
- Fast turnaround — POD vendors typically ship DTG orders within 3-5 days
- Soft hand-feel — DTG ink soaks into the fabric, so the printed area feels similar to the surrounding shirt (no plasticky overlay)
- Best for cotton — 100% cotton or high-cotton blends produce best color and durability
- Custom per-order printing — every shirt can be different (the POD use case)
Where DTG falls short
- Cotton-dependent — works less well on polyester (DTF is better for polyester); athletic/performance fabrics challenging
- Dark-shirt cost premium — white-ink underbase adds time and ink cost on dark shirts
- Less durable than DTF or screen print — typical DTG lasts 30-40 washes vs DTF 50+ vs screen print 60+
- White-on-dark detail loss — fine white-on-dark details can blur slightly
- Cost at high volume — break-even with screen printing at 25-50 same-design shirts
- Color matching variance — slight color shifts between batches if not calibrated regularly
DTG vs DTF vs screen printing
| DTG | DTF | Screen print | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per print (low volume) | $3-8 | $5-9 | $10-30 + $25-100 setup |
| Cost per print (high volume, 50+ same design) | $3-8 | $5-9 | $1-3 (after setup amortized) |
| Fabric compatibility | Cotton best; cotton blends okay; poly limited | Cotton + poly + performance + blends | Cotton best; works on most fabrics |
| Hand feel | Soft (soaks into fabric) | Slight texture (sits on fabric) | Thick ink layer; firm feel |
| Durability (wash cycles before fading) | 30-40 | 50+ | 60+ |
| Setup fee | None | None | $25-100 per design |
| Minimum order | 1 | 1 | 25-50 typical |
| Photo reproduction | Excellent | Very good | Limited (color count) |
| Best for | POD apparel, custom one-offs | Performance fabrics, premium feel | High-volume same-design wholesale |
For POD stores: DTG is the default. For premium-feel or performance-fabric products, upgrade to DTF. Screen printing is only viable if you're producing 25+ same-design shirts for an event, team, or wholesale order.
POD vendors offering DTG
All major POD vendors offer DTG printing:
- Printful — in-house DTG fulfillment in US, EU, Mexico, Australia, Brazil. Premium quality, consistent across regions.
- Printify — DTG via marketplace of print providers. Quality varies by provider — sample-test before committing.
- Gelato — DTG via local-print network in 30+ countries. Fastest international fulfillment.
- Gooten — DTG-focused POD with strong apparel quality.
- Apliiq — US-based, sportswear and premium apparel focus.
- T-Pop (EU) — DTG with sustainability focus, plastic-free packaging.
- Inkthreadable (UK) — DTG with sports apparel specialization.
- India POD: Printrove (Bengaluru), Qikink (Chennai), Vendor (Mumbai/Delhi) all offer DTG.
Sample-order from 2-3 vendors before committing your catalog. DTG quality varies meaningfully — same digital file produces noticeably different prints across vendors.
DTG for your POD Shopify store
For a Shopify store using DTG-based POD fulfillment with customer personalization, the workflow is:
- Customer designs on your storefront via Print It My Way's live canvas (text, photo, font, color)
- Personalization saves as Shopify line item properties when added to cart
- Cart Transform applies fees ($5 per design side, premium font surcharge, etc.) as clean cart line items
- Order is placed; Print It My Way generates the 300 DPI sRGB PNG print file with transparency and bleed
- POD vendor reads the order via Shopify Order API, gets the print file from Print It My Way's storage, prints via DTG
- Shirt ships to customer typically within 3-5 business days
The standard PIMW print file specs match what every major POD vendor needs for DTG — no custom configuration required.
Set up DTG-ready personalization in 30 minutes
Print It My Way's free plan covers your first DTG-based product — live canvas, 300 DPI sRGB PNG output, transparent background, ready for Printful/Printify/Gelato/Gooten DTG production.
Install Print It My Way — Free Read the t-shirt designer tutorial →Frequently asked questions
What is DTG printing?
DTG (Direct-to-Garment) is a digital apparel printing process that uses inkjet technology to spray water-based inks directly onto fabric. It produces full-color photo-quality designs with no minimum order quantity, making it the standard for print-on-demand custom apparel. The process works similarly to a desktop inkjet printer but with apparel-specific inks and pretreatment chemistry. DTG works best on 100% cotton and high-cotton-content blends. It's slower per print than screen printing (~30-90 seconds per shirt) and costs more per unit at high volume, but unbeatable for one-off custom orders.
How much does DTG printing cost per shirt?
DTG cost per print varies by design complexity, shirt color, and POD vendor. Typical 2026 costs: $3-6 per single-side DTG print on a white shirt, $4-8 on a dark shirt (dark shirts require white-ink underbase which uses more ink and time). Add to that the shirt blank cost ($4-10 per shirt). Total POD cost per DTG-printed shirt: $7-18 all-in, before your markup. At $24.99 retail price, margin after POD costs is typically 45-60%.
What file specs does DTG need?
Standard DTG print file specs: PNG format with transparent background, 300 DPI at actual print dimensions (12×16 inches for a standard front print = 3,600×4,800 pixels), sRGB color profile (DTG uses RGB workflow, not CMYK), no embedded color profile or use the standard sRGB profile. For dark shirts, ensure your design has solid colors with no transparency edges that would create white halos. Save in PNG-24 for full color or PNG-32 if your design uses alpha-channel transparency.
What's the difference between DTG and DTF?
DTG (Direct-to-Garment) prints water-based inks directly onto fabric using inkjet technology. DTF (Direct-to-Film) prints onto a special film first, then heat-presses the film onto the garment. Differences: (1) Fabric compatibility — DTG works best on cotton; DTF works on cotton, polyester, blends, performance fabrics. (2) Hand feel — DTG soaks into the fabric (soft feel); DTF sits on top (slight texture, similar to vinyl). (3) Durability — DTF is more durable through washes (~50+ washes maintaining vibrancy vs DTG's ~30-40). (4) Cost — DTF slightly more expensive per print but covers more fabrics.
What's the difference between DTG and screen printing?
DTG (Direct-to-Garment) is digital — prints any design with no setup fees. Screen printing is analog — requires creating physical screens for each ink color, with $25-100 setup fee per design. DTG cost-effectiveness: cheaper at low quantities (1-20 shirts), more expensive at high quantities (50+ same-design shirts). For POD (each order is a different design), DTG is the only viable option because setup fees make screen printing impossible. For high-volume same-design wholesale orders (team uniforms, event shirts), screen printing wins on per-unit cost.
Which POD vendors offer DTG printing?
All major POD vendors offer DTG printing on their apparel catalogs. Printful uses in-house DTG fulfillment globally. Printify offers DTG through their print provider marketplace. Gelato offers DTG via their local-print network in 30+ countries. Gooten, Apliiq, T-Pop, Inkthreadable all offer DTG. India-based: Printrove, Qikink offer DTG on apparel. Pricing varies by vendor — Printful tends to be premium-priced, Printify cheapest via marketplace competition, Gelato fastest in local markets. Sample-order from 2-3 vendors before committing your catalog.