Add Digital or Die?!

“TRADITIONAL SCREEN printing is dead.” That shocking and breaking news shook the industry what…two decades or more ago? Nothing new to be alarmed about. Yet, this issue has been the topic of conversation for many years. The burning question? Will digital decorating ever take over traditional screen printing?

Print shop owners of all sizes, industry consultants and educators, media content providers such as Screen Printing magazine, influential industry figures…there’s so many people who factor in as to whether this ominous prediction ever will come true. Of course, as traditional ink lovers, we hope not. And think not.

I’ve been listening to these conversations for decades since digital apparel decorating such as DTG, heat-transfer technology advancements, and now the burgeoning DTF market have been expanding at light speed. And throughout all of those years of conversations, the consensus hasn’t seemed to change.

Will we ever go all-digital? From what I’ve always heard — and keep hearing — right now, that’s a hard no. There’s room for everyone in a diverse but converging industry. Screen-printing equipment manufacturers continue to develop press advancements; new dryer technology is speeding up the curing process; and ink companies remain committed to developing formulations that deliver exceptional results for printing.

But for smaller orders, one-offs, sampling, etc., technologies such as DTG, DTF, advanced heat-applied transfers, and sublimation printing are the better option. But here’s another news flash: If you don’t diversify, you’ll get left behind. Today’s climate is too competitive to stay stagnant and do what you’ve always done. Even well-established, high-volume printers can benefit from getting into larger digital decorating options such as ganged high-production run DTF transfers, or long-run DTG jobs on one of the higher production machines.

So we can run but none of us can hide. It’s a good thing to keep up with the a converging and advancing industry. We all need to embrace our changing market as we always have done. Don’t let digital scare you or think it’s taking you away from your shop’s initial vision to be a tried-and-true screen printer. It’s just that times, they are a’changin’.