Pre-Treatment
A liquid solution sprayed onto garments before DTG printing to help ink bond with fabric fibers. DTF printing does not require pre-treatment, which is a significant advantage in production speed and consistency over DTG.
Related Terms
A printing method where ink is applied directly onto the fabric using an inkjet printer. Unlike DTF, DTG requires pre-treatment of garments and works best on 100% cotton.
DTF (Direct to Film) printing is a digital heat transfer method where full-color designs are printed onto PET (polyethylene terephthalate) film using CMYK and white pigment inks, coated with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) adhesive powder, cured, and then heat-pressed onto fabric at 300–325°F for 10–15 seconds. DTF does not require pre-treatment, weeding, or color separation, and works on cotton, polyester, blends, nylon, and other materials. DTF transfers typically last 50–80 washes and support photographic full-color designs with no per-color cost increase.