T-shirt Printing Blog

Online Screen Printing Sites

If you have done any screen printing research, you definitely have come into contact with customink.com, zazzle.com, or spreadshirt.com. They are synonymous as the discount online printers. They definitely offer low prices and an easy-to-use online design program. For most users though, they are not the best pick. If you truly want the best printed t-shirts at the best value then this article is for you!The websites mentioned above with be referred to as the stock sites. Yes they offer customized printed t-shirts, but they are more of a cookie-cutter type of company. Just like it is often not a good idea to use a website template for your website, it is also usually not the most creative and unique option to use these stock sites.

While this article is going to be a negative one against these sites, it is reccommended that you use these stock sites if:

• You can not meet the minimum order of your local printer
• You would like a nice place for the individuals in your group to order and pay for their own shirts (zazzle.com, spreadshirt.com)
• You need the shirts VERY fast and can’t get placed into your local printers schedule, but only after you check with the local guy first

You may wonder why I called these sites “cookie cutters”. If you have ever used them, you know what I’m talking about. They all use a similar piece of software that lets you “design” your own shirts. The designs are simply adding their clipart together with your words to make the shirts.  For those wanting unique and creative shirts, this is NOT the option for you.  It is very difficult to use these online design tools to get a shirt that will even come close to what a true graphic artist can do for you. Also, because of their tool, it is a very good probability that your shirts will NOT be unique.

On the other hand, if you are desiring a unique, creative, high quality t-shirt, then shopping with a more traditional screen printing company may be best for you. Do not get confused. Many traditional printers do have websites, PW Apparel for instance has a website where their customers can easily request a quote for the project. The business style and design services are much better than the cookie cutters. For example, when you put a t-shirt printing quote request in at PW Apparel, the information will be sent to us and we will send you the pricing back through email. We will also either create a design for you based on the information you gave us during the quote request, or enhance your art to be printed on a shirt. Not so for the cookie cutter websites. They will rarely have a human actually look at the t-shirt design to make sure that it is going to look best on the shirt, they simply rely on their customers (usually amateur designers) to know what they are doing to print the shirt.

With a more traditional printer you will be more than just a number. I realize that may seem cliche, but just as their own sites put it, they sold over 4.5 million shirts last year. With a 12 hour work day and working 365 days a year, that is still over 1,000 shirt a day printed by these companies. Do you think they have the time to confirm with each of their customers what they wanted or needed? They rely on your use of their online tool to confirm what you need, and only after they are printed will you find something that needs to be changed! Too late, sorry. At PW Apparel, we will confirm your order with you and make sure you know what you are getting each step of the way. Being humans and not a computer, we can also make our own personal reccommendations, ideas which may come in handy since we have been in the business for over four years!

Traditional printer wills also be able to assure a high quality. Most printers will print manually which means they control the printing. They will be able to check on the spot and misprinted shirts, and fix your order on the spot. Also for most printers the shirts are also folded by hand, giving your printer another chance to make sure your shirt passes quality expectations. The cookie cutter sites can’t do this. More than likely they use  a machine that folds and bags your shirts automatically (yes these machines exist and yes, they’re really cool! ) this means that they miss the human interaction which will find problems with your shirts.

Use a traditional printer if you want:

• Personal attention for your order
• Customized, unique, professional designs
• High quality, hand inspected, printed t-shirts
• Specific ideas on how to save money on your t-shirt order

While PW Apparel was used as the example for this article, we do not simply want to plug our own company. While we would love to give you the opportunity to let us give you a quote and let you take advantage of our frequently running FREE Shipping promotion, we also must let you know that their are probably great screen printers in your own local community. Once you let us give you a quote, check out your yellows pages to find someone in your town that may be able to help you out.

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Tags: cheap screen printing, graphic design, lower your bill, printed t-shirts, professional design, screen printing, t-shirt printing quote