Types of Shirt Printing: A Complete Guide

Personalised clothing is a direct reflection of your brand identity. To make sure roll-outs across multiple departments go smoothly, procurers need to have the answers to several essential questions: 

• Will the print stand up to wear and wash cycles without losing quality? 

• Can our corporate Pantone colours be accurately replicated across hundreds of garments (and matched on future orders?)

• Is the chosen branding technique actually compatible with our required fabric? 

The right type of shirt printing for your order is influenced by the artwork itself, the fabric of the garment, order volume and how the uniform will be used day-to-day. To learn more about shirt printing, read along with Red Oak Corporate Wear. 

1. Screen printing

If you’re ordering high-volume, branded clothing, we recommend screen printing. 

The process pushes ink through a prepared mesh screen to transfer artwork (like logos and images) onto the garment. It’s better suited to large-scale graphics where you want bright results that resist gradual fading.

Screen printing also offers excellent value for money if you’re ordering larger quantities of personalised workwear (as it can deliver consistent results across repeat runs). 

At Red Oak, all of our screen printing is carried out at our Essex facility, where the team manages the process end-to-end, from artwork setup to the finished garment. 

We can also Pantone-match colours for brand consistency (essential if you plan to place future orders). 

2. Digital transfer printing

In digital transfer printing, we first produce your design as a transfer before applying it directly to the garment using high heat and pressure. A key distinction from screen printing is the ability to handle detail. 

Where other methods might struggle with fine gradients or multi-colour shading, digital transfer easily reproduces high-resolution images with fidelity. It doesn’t require the same extensive screen setups, so this method can be cheaper for short runs.

We specifically recommend digital transfer for artwork on cotton, polyester and poly-cotton garments, including T-shirts, hoodies and sportswear (as well as technical and synthetic fabrics, subject to the garment construction/finish). 

3. Vinyl transfer printing

Vinyl transfer printing isn't intended for highly detailed imagery. It’s best used when your artwork consists of simple shapes, solid colours, custom lettering, names, or numbers. 

When you select this method, we precision-cut your designs or lettering from coloured vinyl and heat-apply them directly to the garment. 

If you want to add individual names and numbers to your garments, vinyl transfer printing is a great option. It’s resilient, so it makes an excellent choice for team apparel (when the transfer is matched to the fabric and expected wash conditions). 

4. Sublimation printing

Sublimation printing uses high heat and pressure to permanently dye a material. Our team will print your digital design onto a special transfer paper using specialised sublimation inks, then place the paper face down. 

Once in position, we apply a heavy heat press, which causes the solid ink to turn into a gas and opens up the pores of the material. 

However, procurers should keep in mind that there’s a key fabric limitation: sublimation is suited to polyester fabrics and compatible polymer-coated substrates because the sublimation dyes bond better with polyester-based materials. 

Sublimation printing is often the go-to choice for all-over, full-colour designs on polyester fabrics.  

Embroidery: an alternative to shirt printing

No guide to branded workwear is complete without embroidery.

While not part of the printing process, embroidery is another way to create personalised garments - branding is stitched directly into the fabric, delivering a raised, textured finish. It’s especially suitable for smaller chest logos and staff names. 

If you’re wondering how we manage this process as one of the UK’s leading suppliers of branded workwear, all embroidery happens in-house at our facility. 

Our team digitises your bespoke artwork and supplies a visual proof for approval before production begins - this is to double-check you’re happy with the branding and that it’s accurate to your vision. 

Ready to get started? Place an order online by selecting your garments and uploading your branding directly to the product page. You can also submit an enquiry to request a personalised quote.