Ask any shop running DTF transfers and you will hear the same handful of questions — about ink consumption, white ink clogging, why colors look flat, and what temperature everything should run at. We sell DTF pigment ink, so our support team hears these questions daily. This article collects the ones that come up most, with the answers we give our own customers. If you run a DTF printer, at least a few of these will save you a support ticket.
The first thing new buyers ask is how DTF pigment ink relates to sublimation ink. They look similar from a distance: both inks end up on fabric through heat. That is where the similarity stops.
Pigment-based DTF ink (what we sell) has four things sublimation does not deal with:
- A dedicated white channel. DTF ink systems include a white ink, because most DTF printing happens on dark garments. Sublimation does not need white — it cannot print white at all.
- PET film as the medium. DTF ink prints onto PET transfer film. Sublimation ink prints onto sublimation paper.
- An extra powder and curing step. After printing on film, DTF requires hot melt powder and a drying/curing stage before pressing. Sublimation transfers go straight from printer to heat press.
- A wider fabric range. DTF pigment ink transfers onto nearly any fabric, including 100% cotton. Sublimation only bonds with polyester and poly-blend fabrics. Printing on cotton with sublimation requires special ink, special paper, and a mirrored/cutout process — which is why most cotton shops end up switching to DTF.
If your orders are mostly cotton t-shirts and custom apparel, pigment DTF ink is the practical choice. If you print polyester sportswear and all-over patterns, sublimation has its place — but it is a different tool.
The most common commercial question has a simple answer: it depends on coverage. But buyers want a number, so here is the number we use, measured on our own production machine at 70% color coverage with normal photo content:
| Item | Consumption (per square meter of printed film) |
|---|---|
| Color ink | ~18.5 g |
| White ink | ~40.7 g |
| Hot melt powder | ~41.5 g |
For context: ten A4 sheets of normal images at 70% coverage printed roughly 7.7 m² of film, consuming about 143 g of color ink, 314 g of white ink, and 320 g of powder.
Two things stand out. First, white ink consumption is roughly double the color inks — normal for DTF, since white underbase covers the full design area. Second, powder and white ink cost roughly the same per square meter. When you calculate per-print cost, include all three, not just the color ink.
"Does your ink clog?" is the second question every buyer asks, and the honest answer is that white ink from any brand has the same weak point. The main pigment in white ink is titanium dioxide, and titanium dioxide settles. That is physics, not a brand problem. What differs is how the ink is formulated and how the user handles it.
Practical rules we give customers:
- Do not overfill the tank. If your shop does not use much white ink, do not pour in a large batch at once. Refill as you use it, so ink does not sit in the tank and settle.
- Do not leave the machine idle for long stretches. White ink left completely static will fully crystallize in about three months. Stay under that window — run the printer regularly or agitate the ink.
- If it clogs anyway, act fast. A printhead blocked recently can usually be cleared with a strong cleaning solution — remove the head and flush it. Leave it for weeks and the dried pigment can harden permanently. Customers who bring us a clogged head early walk away with it working again; the ones who waited usually need a new head.
Settings are the third pillar of questions. These are the starting points we use on our equipment — your driver and machine model may need small adjustments.
Ink volume (ink limit) — L1800-class converted printers:
- White ink: 90–100%
- Color ink: 13–15%
Different drivers and machines handle ink limits differently, so treat these as a baseline, not a law.
Drying / curing:
- Oven: 105–110°C for about 3 minutes
- Powder shaker (with dryer): 105–145°C, depending on printhead speed — the faster the machine runs, the higher the temperature needs to be
Heat pressing:
- 160–165°C for 10–15 seconds
If you are troubleshooting wash failures or cracking, come back to these numbers first.
Two color complaints dominate support:
"The colors are not vivid enough." Before blaming the ink, check the film. If the customer is using a matte-finish PET film, the surface scatters light and colors will always look muted. Switching to a glossy film makes the same design noticeably more vivid. Ask for a photo of the film — you can usually tell the finish immediately.
"The print does not match the image on screen." This is an ICC profile problem, and the fix depends on the machine. For converted desktop printers (L1800, L1390, L805 class), we send customers the matching ICC profile directly. For large-format wide printers, different mainboards and printheads need different profiles, so we involve our engineering team to build the correct one rather than guessing.
When a finished transfer does not peel cleanly, scratches off easily, or cracks in wear, the root cause is almost always the same: the film was not fully cured before pressing.
The fix is a checklist:
- Increase drying temperature or time — test in small steps (for example, 105°C → 110°C, or extend the oven time).
- Verify the powder shaker is actually working — if the dryer element or conveyor is faulty, film leaves the shaker under-cured no matter what temperature you set.
- Press a fresh test print after each change before committing to a batch.
Under-curing is the single most common defect we see in photos customers send us, and it is also the most preventable.
New operators often load film upside down. It happens more than you would think. Two quick tests:
- The print side has an ink-absorbing coating; the back does not. Drop a little water-based ink on both sides — the side that absorbs it is the print side.
- Scrape gently with a fingernail. The coating on the print side can be scratched off; the back cannot.
- With roll film, the side facing outward (on top when unrolled) is the print side.
These answers come from FCOLOR's own production line and technical support team. We manufacture DTF printers, pigment DTF ink (including our high-coverage white ink for maximum opacity), PET transfer film, and hot melt powder at our facility in Dongguan, China — and we run the same consumables we sell, so the numbers above come from our own machines, not from a brochure.
If a DTF problem is not covered here, ask us directly — we answer every inquiry with the same support team that wrote these answers.
FCOLOR — DTF printers, ink, film and powder, factory direct.
