Do you need to brand some t-shirts for personal use, to gift to someone, for a group, organization or for your department in school. Or do you need it for your political organization, NGO, for your staff at work. They're many methods of printing and you will be glad to learn about them here.
I will talk about the ones I can do and also add others for your knowledge, because in truth no body will want to do all of them, because it is capital intensive and some machines can do what another method can so no need of buying or owing everything.

(Please note: 'T-shirts as used here refers to round neck shirts)

With that said, let's dive in and learn a few:

1. SCREEN PRINTING
This to me is the first maybe because I started with this, learning it by myself and finally becoming a pro @ it. Well screen printing is where you show you have the skills because it requires maximal skills. With screen printing, mesh and inks are used. It is less expensive to start, that was why I was able to start with as low as 8k around 2017. Screen printing is also used in printing on many different surfaces like cartons, plastic surfaces, nylons etc. And of course uses different inks suitable for each surfaces. For me, I started with plastisol ink for t-shirts and have stuck with it because it is the best.

Pros
1. Screen printing is cheap: the inks used and the mesh used are cheap and you can set up a table for use at the very cheap rate.
2. 1 Mesh prepared for a design can be reused many times after, and the ink (especially plastisol can be used for months without it spoiling)
3. It can be very effective and fast when printing 100s or thousands of t-shirts.

Cons
1.Screen printing is not suitable for some t-shirts (especially when some colors are involved and you are using plastisol ink).
2. Screen printing is not suitable for caps as the inks do not deliver quality prints.
3. Screen printing can be very messy. If you are not careful, you drop stains on the t-shirts you re printing and end up spoiling them.

2. VINYL PRINTING
New entrants into the t-shirt branding business are only used to this method of printing because it does not require the cumbersome and technical processes that screen printing is known for. And yes screen printing can be messy. Vinyls include materials like FLEX, FLOC, GLITTERS, ETC. Every job including screen printing starts with a design on the computer, after which it is sent in the case of vinyl printing to the PLOTTER for cutting and then what is called weeding is done. After which the designs are placed on the HEAT PRESS MACHINE and pressed. Like screen printing, colors are printed separately. It is what is used to print nearly all political campaign caps.

Pros
1. It is faster to get done and the processes is not cumbersome.
2. Suitable for nearly all fabric types.
3. Best for face cap printing.

Cons
1. Expensive in some cases as compared to screen printing
2. Usually very difficult to weed out tiny designs before printing
3. Some materials that are not too good do peel off fast.

3 HEAT TRANSFER
'Heat transfer' as many people know it is when an image or design is printed out and then printed on a t-shirt or polo shirt. They are a few transfer material popular around here. 1 known as Opaque paper comes with a white background that can be trimmed off, the other often called transparency does not have background and more suitable for white shirts. Next I will talk about another method that still requires heat transfer but far better than Opaque paper and transparency.


Pros
1. Faster to print
2. Full image quality is possible

Cons
1. Images especially with opaque tend to wash out fast
2. peels fast especially when properly pressed
3. Opaque paper material is expensive compared to the next one.

4. PRINTABLE FLEX
Printable flex material also requires heat transfer machine. (All I have mentioned about requires it, except you are not using plastisol ink for screen printing). But the beauty of this one is that the material can print full color and is printed with a large format printer so the ink stays longer, the size is big and can print larger designs as compared to opaque paper that is A4 size. The most beautiful part is even that you can do print and cut on whatever image that was printed on the printer using a contour plotter. This makes the job sharper and neater, and last longer. SO MANY ADVANTAGES. It is also cheaper than opaque paper.

Pros
1. Delivers better printing of full color image or design
2. Cheaper than opaque
3. Can be cut with contour plotter
4. Lasts longer than opaque
5. Can print big size designs

Cons
1 I am still looking out for this

5. SUBLIMATION
Sublimation requires a sublimation printer and sublimation paper, and of course heat press. It is also used for sublimation on mugs. Best for white and light color fabrics, and must be POLYESTER MATERIAL. It does not work on cotton. It is what is used for printing large images on tshirts. Can print as big as the size could be since large format machines are also used for it.

Pros
1. Sublimation is what you need when large images that sink in with the tshirt is needed.
2. It lasts the longest.
3. fast to deliver if you have all needed.

Cons
1. Does not work with cotton
2. Does not work with dark color fabrics


I will talk about DTF, DTG and monogramming soonest.
Will like to get some questions and very importantly interact with other printers. Will love to learn from those into monogramming and DTF.
Pictures of jobs done with these methods will be uploaded subsequently.

T-shirts printed with printable flex

Personally, I've dabbled in screen printing and found it rewarding but messy at times. The vinyl printing method seems like a convenient alternative, especially for intricate designs. As for heat transfer, it's fascinating how technology has evolved to allow for sharper, more durable prints with printable flex. Sublimation also sounds intriguing, although the restriction to polyester fabrics is something to consider. Looking forward to hearing more about DTF, DTG, and monogramming! By the way, have you ever come across LED tshirt? It's a cool new concept in clothing technology that adds an extra element of fun and creativity to personalized apparel.

rolinox:
Personally, I've dabbled in screen printing and found it rewarding but messy at times. The vinyl printing method seems like a convenient alternative, especially for intricate designs. As for heat transfer, it's fascinating how technology has evolved to allow for sharper, more durable prints with printable flex. Sublimation also sounds intriguing, although the restriction to polyester fabrics is something to consider. Looking forward to hearing more about DTF, DTG, and monogramming! By the way, have you ever come across LED tshirt? It's a cool new concept in clothing technology that adds an extra element of fun and creativity to personalized apparel.

Thanks for your input. No I've not heard of LED. Must be an awesome invention.