DTG, Screen Print or Embroidery: Which Does What

The decoration method is chosen per design, not per brand. Each of the three is clearly better than the others at something, and clearly worse at something else.

Direct-to-garment (DTG)

What it is: an inkjet printer for fabric. Water-based pigment is jetted directly onto the garment, then heat-cured to bond it to the fibres.

Good at:

• Photographic detail, gradients and unlimited colours at no extra cost
• One-off production — there is no setup, so a run of one costs the same per unit as a run of a hundred
• Fine line work and small type, which screen printing struggles to hold

Bad at:

• Opacity on dark garments. A white underbase must be printed first, which adds thickness and slightly dulls the colours above it
• Very large solid blocks, which can feel heavy and are the first thing to crack if abused in a dryer
• Neon and metallic, which are outside the ink set entirely

How it feels: the print sits level with the fabric. Run a finger across it and the texture change is slight. On a dark shirt you can usually feel the underbase as a faint film.

Durability: good with cold washing and no tumble drying. Poor if ignored. See the care guide.

Screen printing

What it is: ink pushed through a fine mesh stencil with a squeegee, one screen per colour, cured with heat. The oldest of the three and still the industry default for volume.

Good at:

• Bold, flat, saturated colour — nothing beats it for a solid block
• Opacity on dark fabric without the DTG compromise
• Speciality inks: metallic, fluorescent, puff, discharge
• Cost at volume, where the per-unit price collapses

Bad at:

• Setup cost. Each colour needs its own screen, so a four-colour design is four setups — fine across five hundred units, absurd across one
• Colour count. Every additional colour adds cost and registration risk
• Photographic images, which need halftone screens and rarely look as clean as DTG

How it feels: a distinct layer sitting on top of the fabric, with a perceptible edge. A heavy screen print has real thickness.

Durability: excellent. A well-cured screen print is the most robust of the three and will typically outlast the garment.

Embroidery

What it is: the design stitched into the fabric with thread on a multi-needle machine, from a digitised stitch file.

Good at:

• Perceived quality. Stitching reads as more considered than print, and it always has
• Longevity — there is no ink to crack, only thread to wear
• Textured, structured garments: caps, polos, heavyweight fleece, outerwear
• Small marks. A chest logo or a sleeve mark is where embroidery is strongest

Bad at:

• Fine detail. Below roughly 4mm, letterforms fill in and become illegible
• Gradients and photographic imagery — possible, rarely good
• Large coverage. A big embroidered area is heavy, stiff, expensive, and can distort a lightweight knit
• Colour count, which is limited by thread colours rather than being continuous

How it feels: raised, textured, with a visible stitch direction. The reverse shows a backing stabiliser.

Durability: the best of the three, provided the garment can carry the weight.

How we choose

• Detailed artwork, tonal work, small runs → DTG. This covers most of what we make, and it is what print-on-demand is built around.
• Bold flat graphics in quantity → screen printing, when a run justifies the setup.
• Small marks on structured garments → embroidery. Caps and heavyweight fleece, chest-sized, simple forms.

The Ọdụm mark was drawn with this in mind. It is three shapes and one colour, so it embroiders cleanly at chest size, screen prints in a single screen, and still reads at sixteen pixels as a favicon. A mark that only works as a gradient is a mark that can only ever be printed.

Telling them apart on a garment you already own

1. Look at the reverse. Embroidery shows stitching and usually a backing. Neither print does.
2. Run a finger over it. Screen print has a raised edge you can feel. DTG is nearly level with the fabric.
3. Look closely at a colour transition. A smooth gradient is DTG. Visible dot patterns are a screen-printed halftone.
4. Stretch it gently. A screen print resists and may show slight cracking across the fibres. A DTG print moves with the fabric.

None of the three is the premium option in general. The premium option is the one that suits the artwork.