Three methods, heavily overlapping marketing claims, genuinely different physics. The decision is almost always made by the fabric, then by quantity.
What each one actually does
Sublimation turns dye into gas with heat so it bonds inside polyester fibres. Nothing sits on top of the fabric, so there is no hand at all and nothing to crack. Only works on polyester or poly-coated surfaces, and only pale ones, because it adds colour and cannot cover.
DTG inkjets water-based ink into the fabric surface, with a pretreat layer to hold white ink up. Excellent on cotton, unlimited colours, superb for photographic art. Needs pretreat on darks and struggles on high-polyester fabrics.
DTF prints onto film, powders it with adhesive, cures it, and heat-presses it onto the garment. Fabric-agnostic and strong on dark garments, but there is a transfer layer with a perceptible hand and edge.
The decision table
| Requirement | Sublimation | DTG | DTF |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cotton garments | No | Yes | Yes |
| Polyester garments | Yes, pale only | Poor | Yes |
| Dark garments | No | Yes, with pretreat | Yes |
| Photographic detail | Excellent | Excellent | Very good |
| No hand at all | Yes | Nearly | No |
| Quantity of one | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Large runs on cotton | No | Costly | Costly |
| Edge-to-edge, all-over | Yes, cut and sew | No | Limited |
| Stretch garments | Excellent | Good | Check the film |
| Setup cost | Minimal | None | None |
Where none of them wins
Large runs of a simple design on cotton. 500 two-colour tees is screen print work. All three of these methods have a roughly flat cost per garment, so at volume they cannot compete with a fixed setup spread thin. See how to price screen printing for the crossover arithmetic.
Anything needing genuine premium feel on a dark cotton garment. A well-executed screen print with a soft-hand ink or discharge still beats a transfer on hand.
Structured caps. Embroidery, or a specialist transfer, not these.
Pick a primary, add a secondary
Small shops do best with one main method and one that covers what it cannot. Common pairings:
- Screen print plus DTF. Volume plus small orders and awkward fabrics. The most common combination for good reason.
- DTG plus DTF. All quantities, all fabrics, no screens at all. Attractive for a shop with no space for a screen room.
- Sublimation plus anything. Sublimation is a specialism for sportswear and all-over work rather than a general-purpose method.
Quote them differently
These methods have different cost shapes, so a single price matrix bent across all of them will be wrong for at least two. Cost DTG per garment by colour and coverage, DTF by sheet area, sublimation by substrate and press cycle.
Printer's Friend prices each decoration method on its own model, with the pretreat, gang sheet and cure steps attached to the right jobs. See the DTG, DTF and sublimation pages, or look the terms up in the glossary.