Custom T-Shirt Printing Methods: Screen Printing vs DTG vs Embroidery

Pick the wrong print method and you find out about it three months later, when the first customer emails a photo of a cracked logo. Screen printing, DTG, embroidery and heat transfer all put your design on a t-shirt. They do not behave the same after twenty washes, they do not cost the same at 100 pieces as at 2,000, and they will not all accept the artwork you have sitting in a folder.

This is written from the production side. We run digital printing, white-ink heat transfer and embroidery in our own secondary processing factories in Dongguan, and we quote screen printing through partners we have worked with for years. The trade-offs below are the ones we argue about with buyers every week. If you only want the answer, jump to the comparison table or the quantity table further down. If you want to understand why a factory quotes what it quotes, keep reading.

Custom T-Shirt Printing Methods at a Glance

Five t shirt printing methods cover almost every custom t-shirt order that reaches a factory. Where each one sits:

Method	Best For	Setup Cost	Practical Minimum	Wash Life
Screen printing	Large runs, bold logos, up to about four solid colours	One screen per colour	50–100 pcs	50+ washes
DTG (direct to garment)	Small runs, photos, gradients, unlimited colours	None	1 pc	20–30 washes
Embroidery	Logos on polos, hoodies, jackets and caps	One-off digitising file	20–50 pcs	Outlasts the garment
Heat transfer vinyl	Names, numbers, single-piece personalisation	Cutting file only	1 pc	20–30 washes
Sublimation	Edge-to-edge all-over prints on synthetic fabric	None	20–50 pcs	Excellent: the ink sits inside the fibre

Which Printing Method Should You Choose?

Short answer, before the detail. Choose screen printing when you need 200 pieces or more of one design in a handful of solid colours, because nothing else gets close on unit cost or durability. Choose DTG when you are testing designs, need photographic artwork, or cannot commit to a minimum. Choose embroidery when the design is a logo rather than an illustration. Choose heat transfer for names and numbers, or for five pieces. Choose sublimation only when the fabric is polyester and you want the print to cover the whole panel.

A mixed order is completely normal. Printed back, embroidered left chest, woven label inside the collar. We build orders like that most weeks, and it usually costs less than buyers expect because the embroidery file is a one-time cost.

Send the artwork and the quantity you have in mind and we will tell you which method lands cheapest per piece. Custom t shirt printing is a cost decision as much as a design one, so we quote two methods side by side whenever the answer is close. Request a printing quote here, and there is no minimum to ask.

How Does Screen Printing Work?

A mesh screen is stretched over a frame and the areas you do not want printed are blocked out with emulsion. Ink is pushed through the open mesh with a squeegee, one screen per colour, one pass per screen. The garment then travels through a tunnel dryer at roughly 160°C to cure the ink.

The economics are entirely about screens. Each colour needs its own screen, and each screen carries a fixed cost whether you print 50 shirts or 5,000. That is why screen printing is expensive per unit at 50 pieces and very cheap per unit at 2,000. It is also why a five-colour design costs noticeably more than a two-colour design at the same quantity.

What it does best: solid, saturated blocks of colour on cotton, printed thick enough to feel. A well-cured plastisol print on a 100% cotton tee will outlast the shirt. What it does badly: gradients, fine photographic detail, and anything with more than about six colours.

How Does DTG Printing Work?

DTG works like a large inkjet printer that prints directly onto fabric. The shirt is loaded onto a platen, pre-treated with a liquid that stops the ink bleeding into the cotton, and printed. White ink needs a base layer under it, which is why white DTG prints feel slightly thicker than dark-on-light prints.

No screens, no plates, no setup charge. The file goes in, the shirt comes out. That single fact is why DTG became the default for small runs and print-on-demand. If you change one word in a design, you change the file and print again. With screen printing you would be burning a new screen.

Two limits matter. First, DTG wants 100% cotton; on polyester blends the print sits on top of the fibre and washes out faster. Second, per-piece cost barely falls with volume, so at 500 pieces screen printing will usually undercut it. If you are ordering 30 samples for a trade show, DTG. If you are ordering 500 for a season, compare both.

How Does Embroidery Work?

Your logo is converted into a stitch file (digitised) that tells the machine where to lay each thread. A multi-head machine then stitches the same logo onto several garments at once. Digitising is a one-time cost that stays with the design, so a repeat order skips it entirely.

Embroidery is the only method here that adds a physical layer to the garment rather than ink. That matters commercially: on a polo, a hoodie or a cap, stitched branding reads as more premium than a flat print, and buyers notice. It also survives industrial laundering, which is why uniforms and workwear almost always go this route.

What it cannot do is fine detail. Very small text, thin outlines and gradients turn into a blob of thread. The usual fix is to simplify the mark for stitching: drop the tagline, thicken the strokes. A good digitising team will send you a stitch preview before anything runs, and you should always approve it. If your logo is a detailed illustration, print it; see our bow embroidered t-shirt for the kind of line work that stitches cleanly.

Heat Transfer and Sublimation: When They Beat the Big Three

Heat transfer vinyl covers two different processes that get lumped together. Cut vinyl is exactly what it sounds like: a sheet is cut to the shape of your design and pressed on with heat. It is the standard for names, numbers and one-off pieces, and it is the only method where a quantity of one is genuinely economic.

White-ink heat transfer printing is the more interesting one for brands. A design is printed onto transfer paper, including a white ink layer, then pressed onto the garment. It handles full-colour artwork with photographic detail, works on dark fabrics, and sits somewhere between DTG and screen printing on cost. We run it in-house precisely because it fills the gap between a 30-piece test and a 500-piece run.

Sublimation is a different animal. The ink is printed onto paper and then heated until it turns to gas and bonds into the polyester fibre itself. You cannot feel it, it does not crack, and it can cover an entire panel. The catch is that it only works on polyester or high-polyester blends. On cotton the ink has nothing to bond to. For all-over prints on performance wear, nothing else comes close.

How Order Quantity Changes the Best Method

This is the part buyers underestimate. The right method at 50 pieces is often the wrong method at 1,000, and the crossover point is not where most people guess. The table below shows the pattern, with typical relative cost per piece for a one-colour chest print on a cotton tee.

Buyers running wholesale printed t shirts programmes tend to move to screen printing earlier than they expect, because a design that sells across three colours in a 2,000-piece run rarely comes back to DTG.

Order Size	Cheapest Method	Why	Watch Out For
1–20 pcs	Heat transfer vinyl	No setup at all; anything else wastes money on screens or digitising	Not viable for detailed multi-colour artwork
20–100 pcs	DTG or white-ink heat transfer	No setup to absorb, full-colour artwork accepted	Higher per-piece cost than screen at the top of this band
100–500 pcs	Depends on colour count	One or two colours: screen wins. Four or more: transfer or DTG still competes	Quote both before you commit
500+ pcs	Screen printing	Screen cost is now spread thin, and the print is the most durable option	Lock the artwork before screens are burned, because changes are expensive
Any size, logo on polo/hoodie	Embroidery	Perceived quality plus wash durability, and the digitising cost is one-time	Detail loss on small or thin artwork

One thing the table cannot show: timing. If your order sits behind a large screen-printing run, a 200-piece job can wait longer than a 2,000-piece DTG job, because the two use different lines. Our guide to custom clothing manufacturing lead time explains how to plan around that.

What Artwork Files Do You Need?

For any of these methods, send vector artwork if it exists: AI, EPS, PDF or SVG. Vector files scale without losing edges, which is what a screen, a cutter and a digitising team all need. If all you have is a JPG or PNG, send the largest version you have and tell us the physical size it needs to print at. A 300-pixel logo will not become a 30 cm chest print.

For embroidery specifically, the artwork matters less than the simplification. Send the logo and tell us the finished stitch width in centimetres. We will come back with a stitch count and a preview. If the logo has a strapline under it, expect us to suggest dropping it.

Two things to decide before artwork is finalised: the Pantone reference for each colour, and where exactly the print sits. Chest placement is measured from the shoulder seam and the centre line, not eyeballed. Getting those two settled in writing avoids the most common dispute in custom apparel.

Five Problems That Ruin a Print Run

Problem	What Causes It	How to Prevent It
Print cracks after a few washes	Under-cured ink, or a heavy print on a thin fabric	Ask for a wash test on the pre-production sample
Colour does not match the Pantone	Ink mixed by eye, or a print on a coloured garment	Approve a physical print strike-off, not a screen photo
Embroidery puckers the fabric	Too many stitches on a light knit without backing	Specify a cut-away backing on thin jersey
Placement drifts across the run	No fixed placement template on the line	Agree measurements in centimetres from the seam
Ghosting or smudging on dark shirts	Insufficient white base layer under the colour	Specify a white base for DTG and transfer on dark fabric

None of these are exotic. They are the five that show up on inspection reports, and every one of them is cheaper to prevent at the sampling stage than to fix after 2,000 pieces have shipped. The questions to ask a private label clothing manufacturer before ordering cover this ground in more detail.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best printing method for custom t shirts?

For 500 pieces or more in two or three solid colours, screen printing. For anything under 100 pieces, or artwork with photos and gradients, DTG. For a logo on a polo, hoodie or cap, embroidery. If you are not sure, send the artwork and the quantity and we will quote two methods side by side so you can compare the real numbers.

Screen printing vs DTG vs embroidery: which should a new brand start with?

Start with the method that matches the artwork, not the one with the lowest quoted price. A detailed illustration cannot be embroidered well, and a 30-piece run cannot justify the screen setup. Most first orders land on DTG or white-ink heat transfer, then move to screen printing once a design proves itself at volume.

Screen printing vs embroidery: which lasts longer?

Embroidery. Thread is not a coating, so there is nothing to crack or peel, and a stitched logo usually outlives the garment. Screen printing is the longest-lasting print method, but it is still a layer sitting on the fabric, and a badly cured print will fail long before a stitch line does.

Is screen printing or DTG better for a small order?

DTG, almost always. Screen printing carries a setup cost per colour that has to be spread across the run, so at 30 pieces the screens dominate the price. Below about 100 pieces, DTG or white-ink heat transfer will be cheaper and faster. Above 500 pieces in a few solid colours, screen printing takes over.

Can you combine printing and embroidery on the same garment?

Yes, and it is common on hoodies and polos. A typical build is an embroidered left-chest logo with a screen-printed or transfer-printed design across the back. The only constraint is placement: the two processes need to stay clear of each other, and the embroidery should be stitched before the back print so the garment is not compressed twice.

Which print method lasts longest?

Embroidery, because thread is not a coating that can crack or peel. Among the print methods, properly cured screen printing on 100% cotton lasts longest, typically 50 or more washes. DTG and heat transfer generally hold up for 20 to 30 washes, less if the garment is washed hot or tumble dried.

Does printing change the minimum order quantity?

It can. A plain garment may have a minimum of 100 pieces per style per colour, but adding a print or embroidery usually does not raise it, because the secondary processing runs on its own line. What changes is the price per piece and the lead time. If your quantity is below the garment minimum, the usual route is to accept stock fabric and a stock colour to bring it down.

Do you print on polyester?

Yes. Polyester and high-poly blends go to sublimation or to a low-temperature transfer, both of which bond properly to synthetic fibre. Standard DTG does not work well on polyester, and screen printing on polyester needs a low-cure ink to avoid dye migration from the fabric into the print.

Next Step: Get a Method Recommendation

The method should follow the artwork and the quantity, not the other way round. Send us three things: the design file, the target quantity, and the garment you have in mind. We will come back with the method that gives the best price per piece and the reasons behind it.

As a custom t shirt printing manufacturer, we handle printing and embroidery through our own secondary processing factories, alongside fabric sourcing and cut-and-sew under one roof, which is why a mixed order rarely causes a scheduling problem. Buyers comparing a custom t shirt manufacturer China-based or closer to home should ask one question first: does the factory run the print itself, or send it out? Read more about the custom apparel production process, or look at what we manufacture in custom t-shirts and hoodies and sweatshirts.

Request a quote with your artwork attached and we will reply with a method recommendation, a price per piece and a lead time. If the file is not ready, send a rough sketch. That is enough to start the conversation.