UV, DTG & Shedding Some Light on UV & DTG Printing

In the direct to garment printing industry we normally don't hear anyone talk about this issue, but white ink DTG pretreatments have a serious side effect if the shirt is not washed prior to wearing – and kept out of direct sunlight until it is washed.

Typically, most white ink DTG pretreatments will yellow quickly when exposed to direct sunlight. Even on a cloudy day when it is overcast, a pretreated area – if not washed prior to UV exposure – will yellow, and quickly. This has been an on-going issue for DTG since the beginning. However, when pretreating darker colored shirts, this effect isn't as noticeable due to the fact that the shirt can “hide” this discoloration. On a lighter colored shirt, it is much more evident and easily seen.

Here at Image Armor we have been working diligently to improve the DTG printing process and make the entire printing process better. TITANIUM is our newest pretreatment we are releasing soon that will kick over white ink quickly, work with virtually every DTG printer on the market (except Kornit), and will generally not yellow when exposed directly to UV radiation prior to washing.

Our field tests have shown users have also experienced less staining on harder to print garments and there is virtually no odor associated with the pretreatment as compared to others currently on the market.

This is just another small step that we are striving to work towards every day at Image Armor – making DTG printing easier for our users to allow them to make better DTG prints.

You can check out our lastest video showing a 2 hour time lapse on athletic grey t-shirts – and how fast they will yellow in direct sunlight.