Printing and decoration for apparel.
Five ways to put your graphic on a garment, matched to your artwork, your fabric and your order size. DTG, DTF, sublimation and embroidery run in house. Screen printing runs through vetted partner units, managed by our QA team.
Decoration is where a blank becomes your product. The method you choose changes how the graphic reads, how it feels under a hand, how many washes it survives and what it adds to your unit cost. There is no single best method. There is the right one for your artwork, your fabric and your quantity.
We run direct-to-garment, direct-to-film, sublimation and embroidery in house, alongside puff, HD, appliqué, patches, woven labels, garment dye and washes. Screen printing runs through vetted partner units, managed by our QA team, so the specification and the inspection standard stay ours.
Most brands end up using two or three methods across a range. A heavyweight hoodie might carry a puff front and an embroidered sleeve. A tee drop might run screen printed for the core colourway and DTF for the small sizes. We will tell you which combination costs you least for the result you want.
How we inspect decoration →// At a glance
Five routes, one accountable factory
Each method has a job it does better than the others. Open the one that fits your artwork.
Screen Printing
Ink pushed through a mesh stencil, one screen per colour. Best for large runs of flat, simple-colour graphics. Setup is paid once, so the cost per piece falls sharply as the run grows. Runs through vetted partner units under our QA.
Screen printing →DTG Printing
Water-based pigment ink printed straight onto the garment. Photographic detail, unlimited colours, no screen setup. Best on cotton, softest hand of any printed method. In house.
DTG printing →DTF Printing
Artwork printed to film with a white layer, then heat pressed onto the garment. Strong opaque colour on dark grounds, works on polyester and blends where DTG will not. In house.
DTF printing →Sublimation
Dye bonded into polyester fibre, so there is no film and no hand-feel at all. All-over graphics that run across seams. Polyester only. Ideal for jerseys and sportswear. In house.
Sublimation →Embroidery
Stitched thread from a digitised file. Logos, 3D puff, appliqué, patches and woven labels. The most durable decoration there is, and the one that reads most premium on heavy fleece. In house, with digitising done inside the group.
Embroidery →Finishes and trims
Garment dye, enzyme and pigment washes, puff and HD effects, rubber and metal badges, custom drawcords and woven labels. These sit alongside print rather than replacing it.
All capabilities →When each method wins
Five decisions decide the method. Read down the column that matters most to your order.
Order size
Fabric type
Design complexity
Durability
Cost per unit
Hand-feel
Every figure above describes how the technique behaves, not a quoted price. Decoration cost sits inside your unit cost and moves with artwork size, colour count, placement count and quantity.
Match the method to the garment
Fabric decides more than artwork does. A 400 GSM brushed fleece hoodie takes puff, screen and embroidery well, but its pile will swallow fine DTG detail without heavy pre-treatment. A smooth 240 GSM cotton jersey tee is the friendliest surface for every printed method. French terry sits between the two.
Polyester and high-polyester blends are the dividing line. They reject water-based pigment ink, which rules out DTG, but they are the only fabrics sublimation will bond to. DTF crosses both worlds, which is why it carries most mixed-fabric programmes.
- Hoodies and crews: embroidery, puff, screen, DTF. See hoodie manufacturing and sweatshirts.
- Tees and oversized tees: screen for volume, DTG for detail. See t-shirts and oversized tees.
- Polos and corporate kit: embroidery at the chest, woven labels. See polo shirts.
- Joggers, leggings and performance: DTF or sublimation, never heavy screen on stretch panels. See joggers and leggings.
Decoration: common questions
DTG on cotton, DTF on blends or dark polyester. Both skip screen setup, so a short run does not carry a setup cost spread over too few pieces. If the graphic is one or two flat colours and you are ordering several hundred, screen printing overtakes them.
No. Screen printing runs through vetted partner units, managed by our QA team. We lock the specification, approve the strike-off, inspect to the same AQL 2.5 standard we apply to our own lines, and you deal with us alone. Full detail on the screen printing page.
Yes, and most premium pieces do. A common build is an embroidered left chest, a printed back graphic and a woven label at the hem. Each added placement adds a handling step, so it moves the unit cost and the lead time.
From 50 pieces per style per colour. Sizes split freely within a colour, so a 50 piece colourway can run across your whole size curve.
Yes. We approve decoration on the actual bulk fabric before the main run starts, because the same ink reads differently on jersey, terry and fleece. Sample lead time is 10 to 22 days depending on the product. Request a sample.
Vector files for screen printing and embroidery, high resolution raster with a transparent background for DTG and DTF, full-bleed panel layouts for sublimation. Each method page lists exactly what it needs. Send files with your quote request.
Tell us the artwork. We will tell you the method.
Send your graphic and your quantity, and we will come back with the route that costs you least for the finish you want.