Industrial sourcing · China to Europe

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Buyer guide · Printing & signage

DTG printer from China

A DTG printer puts ink straight onto the shirt, so its results depend on the pretreatment, the curing and the cotton as much as on the printer, and marketplace titles mix DTG with film printers so freely that a buyer can pay for the wrong process.

Ask about this machine ↗Where the numbers come from

Written and listings checked 1 October 2026. Every figure on this page names its source.

What you are actually comparing.

Two quotes, one machine name

What hides inside the price

Is it really direct to garment

Many titles add DTG to a film, UV or sublimation printer. A true DTG machine holds the garment on a platen under the heads. If the offer mentions film, powder or transfer paper, it is another process.

Pretreatment in or out of scope

Dark garments need a pretreatment liquid sprayed and pressed before printing, or the white ink sinks into the fibre. Ask whether a sprayer is included, and which pretreat liquid the colour profiles were made with.

Platens and stations

Single-station printers stop while you load the next shirt; dual-station units load one platen while the other prints. Ask which platen sizes ship and which cost extra.

Curing equipment

The print must be cured by a heat press or a tunnel dryer. Neither is part of most printer quotes. Price the curing before you compare two printers.

Ink and its textile certificate

Garment ink touches skin and goes into the wash. Ask for the safety data sheet and whether the ink holds a textile chemical certificate, and which one.

Before you ask for a price.

Send these with the enquiry. Without them, any number a factory gives you is a guess dressed as a quotation.

Share of your orders on dark garments, which decides how much white ink and pretreat you use.
Garment types: T-shirts, hoodies, sleeves, children's sizes, tote bags.
Fibre content of your usual blanks. DTG works best on high-cotton fabric.
Whether you want one or two stations, and how many heads.
Your curing plan: an existing heat press, a new one, or a tunnel dryer.

Turn the claim into a demonstration.

Require this	A pass looks like
Print your design on your own dark cotton blank, pretreated and cured as the factory recommends, on live video.	White underbase fully opaque, no pretreat stain marks visible around the print after curing.
Wash the printed garment five times at the temperature your customers use.	No cracking, no visible fading against an unwashed print from the same run, photographed side by side.
Time ten shirts from loading to unloading, with the stations you are buying.	The measured shirts per hour match the figure stated in the offer for that print mode.

The documents that must arrive with it.

EU Declaration of Conformity citing Low Voltage 2014/35/EU and EMC 2014/30/EU, with the machinery law in force on the delivery date where the unit is machinery.
Safety data sheets for ink, pretreat and cleaning fluid in your language, in REACH format.
Manual with the white ink maintenance routine and the parts list for heads, dampers and capping.

The one people forget. The pretreatment liquid safety data sheet. Pretreat often ships from a second supplier, and without the sheet your spraying risk assessment is incomplete.

When this is the wrong machine.

Buy something else if

Named, not hedged

Most of your garments are polyester sportswear.

A DTF printer, whose transfers bond to polyester, or a sublimation printer for white polyester.

You print hundreds of the same design each week.

An automatic screen printing press, where cost per piece falls with run length.

Where the numbers come from.

We name the kind of source, how many and when, and never the factory. Listed prices are asking prices, not landed cost. Where we do not hold a fact we say so: that is a GAP, not an estimate.

Listings · 7Seven marketplace listings described as direct-to-garment printers, checked October 2026, asked US$5,099 to US$13,849 per unit. Four-head dual-station units asked US$9,000 to US$13,849; one stated a 40 x 50 cm platen. Asking prices, not landed cost.
Listings · 12Of twelve listings returned for DTG printer on one marketplace, checked October 2026, at least five were titled as film, UV, banner or sublimation machines.
ArithmeticA 40 x 50 cm platen gives 0.4 x 0.5 = 0.2 m2 of print area per load.
GAPGAP - no supplier quotations logged for this machine yet. Three to five quotations for one configuration would give a real price spread.

Related machines.

DTF printer. Choose a DTF printer if you print on mixed fabrics and prefer to press transfers rather than print on the garment.
Automatic screen printing press. Choose an automatic screen printing press when long runs of one design make setup cost per piece small.

Every machine we source in this area is on the Printing & signage page. How a project runs, stage by stage, is on how it works, and what it costs is on pricing.

Straight answers

Questions buyers ask about this machine.

Chinese vs European DTG printer: what is the real difference?+

The European price usually includes pretreat recipes, colour profiles, training and a local technician for head work. Buying direct means you build that knowledge yourself.

What is on a DTG printer inspection checklist?+

Platen type and count, head serial photos, a full nozzle check, a timed run and a wash test on your blanks, and the curing used in the demo.

What CE documentation does a DTG printer need?+

A Declaration of Conformity for the exact model, a CE mark on the machine, a manual in your language and safety data sheets for every liquid.

Who is the EU importer of a DTG printer?+

If you buy direct, you are. You check the documents, add your name and address to the machine or papers, and keep the declaration.

Contact

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