Custom Profiles for DTF Printing

When you have a covering and stable ink and have chosen the right film for your DTF projects, it’s time to create your own color profile.

Why?

To achieve optimal results in DTF printing, it is crucial to create a custom printing profile for each combination of ink and film. This process ensures that color shades are accurately reproducible, which is especially important for complex customer color requirements.

Why do we need individual profiles for ink and film?

Each combination of ink and film has its unique properties, such as saturation, transparency, and adhesion, which affect the final appearance of the print. Differences in texture and chemical composition between films, as well as the specific properties of each ink (e.g., saturation and pigmentation), mean that the same profile is not usable for all combinations. Without the appropriate profile, shades may deviate from desired values, leading to customer dissatisfaction and additional costs for reprinting.

The process of profile preparation

Preparing a printing profile for DTF requires precise setup and calibration of the printer for each combination of ink and film. The process includes:

1. Testing shades and saturation: each combination of ink and film is tested with different intensities to achieve the best color values.
2. Temperature and pressure settings: during profile preparation, temperature, time, and transfer pressure are also adjusted, as these factors affect the final shade.
3. Calibration of optical reading: using a color spectrophotometer, the accuracy of color shades on each film is checked, then printer settings are adjusted.

Advantages of using individual profiles

By creating specific profiles for each combination of film and ink, we ensure that:

• Shades match expectations: we achieve the desired color accuracy, which is essential for high-quality projects.
• We improve printing consistency: profiled printing results are consistent, regardless of material or color.
• We reduce the number of repetitions: by reducing the need for reprinting due to incorrect shades, we save time and costs.

Conclusion

In DTF printing, preparing individual profiles for each combination of ink and film is fundamental to achieving high-quality results. Precise profiling allows control over all shades and ensures that the final print meets customer expectations, while optimizing the efficiency of the entire printing process.

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