Screen printing · DTF · Embroidery · Sublimation · Laser engraving
A ninety-minute session to understand when to use each printing technique, what tolerances to expect, what unit costs to manage and what typical use cases benefit from each. Built for marketing, communications and procurement teams evaluating a merch programme and wanting to land the technical decision before requesting quotes.
By the end of the session, attendees can identify the right technique for each project — short runs, long runs, premium pieces, technical pieces — and can read a quote using technical judgment. Attendees receive a twenty-page guide with tolerances, typical unit costs and acceptance criteria per technique. The session is recorded and delivered to registrants who cannot attend live.
The session is capped at forty attendees to keep the conversational format. Questions are answered live during the session. When a question needs extended handling we address it by email after the webinar. Supporting material — guide, templates, examples — is delivered within forty-eight business hours of the session.
Screen printing is the queen technique for runs of one hundred or more pieces with one to three flat colours. Plastisol or water-based, exact registration, per-piece cost that drops with volume. Suits t-shirts, polos, sweatshirts, tote bags. The frame is included on runs of more than one hundred pieces. For small runs, screen printing loses ground to DTF because of the frame's fixed cost.
Screen printing tolerances are tight: registration between colours of up to half a millimetre, reproducible colour within ΔE ≤ 2.5 tolerance against the approved standard, mark position within five millimetre tolerance against the agreed position. Wash durability depends on cure — 160 °C for fifteen seconds for water-based, 180 °C for twenty seconds for plastisol — and on ink quality. OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certifications apply to inks and fabric.
DTF — Direct to Film — is the technique for medium runs — fifty to five hundred pieces — with full-colour, gradient or photographic art. We print on PET film, apply hot-melt adhesive and transfer with heat at 160 °C for fifteen seconds. Fine detail, no colour limit. The finished piece has a slightly plastic touch that softens with washing.
Sublimation applies to pieces with polyester or sublimation coating. Art is printed on transfer paper with sublimation ink and transferred with heat at 200 °C for thirty seconds. The finished piece has a soft touch because the ink integrates with the polyester. Limited to light colours because the ink sublimes over the garment colour.
Computerised embroidery is the technique for pieces requiring careful presentation — polos, jackets, sweatshirts, caps, backpacks. 40 wt polyester thread with two-hundred colour chart. Standard left chest position eight by five cm. Backings — tear-away, cut-away and adhesive — per the garment. Embroidery lifts the uniform's perception.
Embroidery tolerances differ from screen printing: the embroidered area has natural variation of up to two millimetres between pieces, thread colour is affected by light, embroidery lifts the garment and gives it volume. Durability is high — embroidery tolerates industrial wash cycles. Unit cost stays steady regardless of volume because of the machine programming complexity.
60W CO₂ laser engraving is the technique for rigid pieces — acrylic, wood, leather, anodised metal, certain plastics. Adjustable depth, no contact, high precision. The engraving tone depends on material — dark on light wood, white on dark acrylic, variable contrast on leather. Limited to one or two colours because the material defines the tone.
Hot-stamping applies metallic foil — gold, silver, copper, holographic — on smooth surfaces. The piece is pressed with heat and the foil transfers to the marked area. Durability is high for premium pieces. Limited to flat areas and to pieces that tolerate pressing temperature. Combinable with laser engraving when the customer requires toned and untoned marking on the same piece.
The technical decision depends on four variables. Piece count — small runs with DTF, large runs with screen printing or embroidery. Art complexity — one to three colours with screen printing, full colour with DTF or sublimation. Garment material — cotton with screen printing, polyester with sublimation, rigid with engraving. Expected presentation — premium with embroidery or hot-stamping, functional with screen printing.
For IMMEX manufacturer operational uniforms — large count, functional presentation — the winning combination is screen printing for white pieces and embroidery for coloured pieces. For university admission kits — medium count, careful presentation — the winning combination is DTF for t-shirts and embroidery for caps. For product events — small count, premium presentation — the winning combination is DTF or sublimation for textile pieces and laser engraving for premium pieces.
The webinar runs twice a year — in March and September — capped at forty attendees. Registration opens four weeks ahead and closes one week before the date. The session lasts ninety minutes with a ten-minute break at the midpoint. Language is Spanish with material in Spanish and English. The recording is delivered within forty-eight business hours.
For corporates with larger teams — more than five attendees — we run private sessions on a custom calendar. The private session lasts two hours with space for the customer's team questions and with examples specific to the customer's sector. The registration fee is negotiated against number of attendees and session duration.
If your team wants to understand printing techniques and make technical decisions with judgment, register for the webinar. Capped at forty attendees. Next session: March 2026 and September 2026.
The webinar is an information session and does not constitute personalised technical consulting. Technical recommendations for a specific project are delivered during a discovery session with the workshop team. Corp-Merch.MX is a Mexican workshop for corporate merch; we operate independently.