Pretreatment is an important part of the DTG process, especially when working with an underbase procedure. The treatment itself consist of applying a clear liquid to a garment and this agent helps the ink adhere to the fibers to produce a vivid high-quality print.

The application can depend on the machinery involved, typically, the pretreatment or fixation (Kornit) is applied through a spray system onto the garment. After pretreatment is sprayed then it has to cure at a specific temperature and time before it gets sent to printing.

NOTE: When printing on Kornit these printers has an integrated treatment system that sprays fixation onto the garment and then prints using a wet on wet technique. Thus not requiring a cure process in-between stages.

At Awkward Styles we thoroughly and frequently product test our garments for the required settings in pretreatment and other print processes. Here is a visual graphic to help get an idea of why pretreatment is necessary for DTG printing.