I tested Printful with three T-shirts

The project

I'm creating a fantasy world, with a manga on the way. Its heroes are seven guardians, and I've already created six of them. I also want to put this world on premium T-shirts, sold in a very simple shop I'm building myself with Astro. Shopify is a huge platform and it's worth the price. But I'm just getting started, my brand is unknown, and I expect only a few orders. I just want people to be able to buy easily. I don't need to bring out the big guns at €36 a month.

I'm not just selling a drawing on a T-shirt. I'm selling a world.

Before opening the shop, I wanted to see how my visuals look on real fabric. I tested Printful, a print-on-demand service, with a single guardian. It's Hélior, the solar lion.

The test order

I placed a sample order. Printful gives a 20% discount on samples, up to three items a month. So I took three T-shirts, all navy blue and all size L.

All three have the same design with the same settings. The logo is on the front. On the back, a large illustrated arch shows the guardian in his setting, with no text.

Model	Fabric	Front	Back
Stanley/Stella Creator 2.0	Cotton, about 180 g/m², medium fit	DTF	DTF
Comfort Colors 1717	Heavy garment-dyed cotton, about 205 g/m², slightly vintage look	Embroidered logo	DTG
Bella+Canvas 3001	Light cotton, about 140 g/m²	Embroidered logo	DTG

Oct 3 I order the three samples.
Oct 13 The T-shirts arrive.
Oct 14 I report a placement gap on two of them to Printful.

Three techniques

DTG, or direct-to-garment. The ink soaks into the fibers. The shirt stays soft and breathable, but colors are less vivid on dark fabric.
DTF, which Printful calls DTFlex. The design is printed on a film, then transferred to the shirt with a heat press. Colors are vivid and edges are sharp. A thin layer stays on the surface, like a patch.
Embroidery. The logo is embroidered on the chest. At Printful, the area is limited to 10 × 10 cm (4 × 4 inches).

The back of the Creator 2.0, printed in DTF, with Hélior, the solar lion, in his illustrated arch

The embroidered chest logo, a golden sun above the name Hélior

My verdict

The result is very good. My favorite is the Creator 2.0, neither too heavy nor too light. The lighter Bella+Canvas and the heavier Comfort Colors work for me too.

I'm dropping DTG. It breathes better, but DTF looks much nicer and the patch effect barely bothers me.

Two T-shirts laid side by side, back up, with the DTF Creator 2.0 on the left and a DTG shirt on the right

I've made my choice. It will be a Creator 2.0 with the logo embroidered over the heart and the illustration in DTF on the back. I'd like to keep the same embroidered logo across several guardians.

It won't be a €20 or €40 T-shirt. The Creator 2.0 is made of certified organic cotton, with embroidery on the front and an illustration on the back. I haven't set the price yet, but it will be well above that.

A placement gap

On the Creator 2.0, the arch measures about 35.8 × 29.1 cm and starts 8 cm below the collar. That's exactly what I wanted. On the two DTG shirts, with the same settings, it came out smaller, around 34 × 28 cm, and closer to the collar, between 5.5 and 6 cm. I reported the gap to Printful.

The discussion with Printful is still ongoing.

The missing combo

There's a catch. Printful doesn't let you combine embroidery and DTF on the same product. Only embroidery with DTG is available.

Support confirmed it and pointed me to a public feature request, "Combine DTF printing with Embroidery." It has been open for several months and has hardly any votes. I'm not ruling Printful out for good. Only this specific combo is missing today.

What's next

I asked a workshop in Lyon for a quote. It can do embroidery and DTF even for a single piece, and it's an official Stanley/Stella reseller. If I go with it, my T-shirts will be embroidered and printed in France. Its answer just came in. I'll tell you what it offers in a future note.