What’s the difference between screen printing and embroidery? How about debossing and embossing? And what’s the best fabric for laser appliqué?
If you’re not so sure about your answers, this information should help.
Even though decoration is a challenging concept, you still need to grasp certain basics. “You have to look at the product, the application, the logo and the use of the product to determine which method suits it best,” says Andy Shuman, general manager at Rockland Embroidery.
Here we list and detail 12 apparel decoration terms, complete with info on what they mean, how they’re used, and what fabrics they best match up with.
Cut-Vinyl Decorating
For a printing-free option, try cut-vinyl decorating. The process takes a vector image and runs it through a vinyl cutter, which cuts the outline onto various options of vinyl material. Excess vinyl is removed, and the image is pressed onto the garment.
Artwork is an important consideration with cut-vinyl decorating. If the image is too detailed or the lines in the art are too thin, it won’t be a good candidate for this type of decoration. Luckily, the material itself can make up for any flair lost – this process works well with glitter, glow-in-the-dark or other spunky vinyl options.
Debossing
This type of decoration is popular in leather apparel. It works by pressing a cut dye into the surface of a material to create an imprint of the design. The process is similar to embossing, except with embossing, the image is raised on the fabric – with debossing, it’s depressed into the fabric.
Debossing can also be done in conjunction with other types of decoration. A garment can be screen printed, and then that image debossed. Or, the design could be foil-stamped onto the fabric, and then debossed. Overall, it’s not as complicated as embossing, and can create a completely unique and colorful effect.
Direct-to-Garment (DTG)
DTG printing uses inkjet technology to print a design right onto the garment, with high resolution (about 1,440 dpi) and no halftone dot or image quality lost. Decoration expert Scott Fresener, director of T-Biz Network International, brought the first commercial DTG printer to the market in 2004, and he also developed the first white ink for the process.
“I have a small brick-and-mortar print shop as one of my side businesses, and frankly, we use DTG every day,” he says. “We have a number of customers who want high-quality photorealistic images that they can buy in quantities of a few dozen, and DTG is the only way to do this. You simply can’t beat the quality. DTG has matured, and I don’t think a screen printer can live without it.”
Marshall Atkinson, owner of decorated apparel-focused Atkinson Consulting, prefers DTG printing as well, specifically on T-shirts. “I’m a design guy, and I like the fact that you can print an unlimited number of colors without any halftones,” he says. “This opens up so many more creative ways to decorate a shirt than just breaking down images into two or three colors only. For the right circumstance, this type of design and print work can really make a lot of sense.”
Dye Sublimation
This decoration style is limited in use, as it can generally only be done on 100% polyester garments. It’s a type of printing that uses heat-sensitive inks – under high temperatures, the ink turns to gas and bonds with the fabric, becoming part of the physical structure of the garment. Lizabeth Hathaway, creative manager at Penn Emblem Company (asi/77120), says that dye sublimation is quickly becoming one of her favorite decorating processes.
“It is a durable, digital print method that won’t bleed, run, fade or crack over time,” she says. “With dye sublimation, there is no time wasted on drying, as there is with screen printing. A dye-sublimation graphic print can capture photographic quality in clean, crisp, clear details with millions of colors, in a way that conventional screen printing cannot.”
Embroidery
Though now modernized with high-speed, multi-head computerized embroidery machines, this decoration style has its roots as far back as ancient Egypt, when it was all done by hand. Essentially, embroidery is decorative stitching (though typically without letters) used to create a raised, ornamental design on a garment with different types and colors of thread.
As early as the Middle Ages, professional embroiderers associations and guilds were taking members in Europe. Even before that, people were drilling holes through shells and animal hides to stitch with elaborate embroidery that told of wealth and status in local communities.
Heat Transfer
Like dye sublimation, heat-transfer decorating is achieved with high temperatures pressing onto a garment – though with this process, the printing is done on a transfer material that has heat-activated adhesive on one side. Once the design is printed, it goes into a heat press with the garment, and the high temperature activates the adhesive.
Laser Appliqué
With speed, flexibility and precision, laser cutting is able to create design-specific appliqués in a short period of time. All you’ll need is a digital design file, which will communicate to the laser cutter like it’s a printer. Then, a laser will do a controlled burn of the fabric, searing the edges where the material should be cut. As a bonus, if you’re cutting multiple appliqués at once, they can be organized to waste as little fabric as possible.
Fabric choice can be important here – twill is among the best because it won’t burn or discolor, but anything with cotton batting in it might catch fire from the heat. Otherwise, both natural and synthetic materials can be used, including leather.
Screen Printing
With screen printing, an image is separated into a series of single-color designs. A mesh screen is placed over the fabric, and one color of ink is pulled down across the screen, allowing the ink to seep through onto the material in locations dictated by the design. Each color gets a new screen and the process is repeated. Screen printing can be a challenge for multicolor designs – it’s imperative that all the screens are lined up at the right spot, otherwise one layer will be in the wrong place and the whole image will be ruined.
Screen printing is another decorating style with a long history. The earliest recognizable form of it appeared during the Song Dynasty in China, from 960 to 1279 AD. From there, the technique made its way to Japan, and eventually to Europe in the 1700s, though it didn’t become widely popular until 1907. That’s when Englishman Samuel Simon patented the technique for use on wallpaper, silk and linen sold to the upper crust of society.
Tackle Twill
A popular style for sports jerseys, tackle twill is a type of decoration where designs are cut from twill fabric and stuck to the surface of another fabric with adhesive as an appliqué. A zigzag stitch around the design edge keeps it in place. This is a good alternative for traditional embroidery because of the low stitch count.
Source: Advantages Magazine