I want to start a printing mug and t-shirt business. What kind of equipment do it need?
You didn't give details about which type of t-shirt printing machine you want , so I am going to explain all three types of machine that you can buy.DTG (direct to garment): DTG is the new technology in the t-shirt printing business. Basically dtg printers are like a normal paper printing machine. You place a t-shirt and printer will print it. That's it. But their are some cons of using dtg machine. I will try to explain both pros and cons.PROS you can print whatever design you like. The print quality will be too good. It is fast.ConsThis types of Printers are costly. They normally start with a price tag of 8 lacs. (I am not including Chinese machine, coz they are not reliable)The inks are costly. A normal cartidge of 220 ml will cost you around 4500.The machine requires a high maintenance. And you need someone trained to handle this machines. 2. Screen printer: This is the traditional and probably the oldest technique used in t-shirt printing.PROS:One of the cheapest form of printing. Bigger the quantity cheaper the printing price. You can use different types of inks, like glossy or glow in dark ink.Inks are also cheap. CONS:It is preferable for one or two color type of printing. You need a skill full person to handle the machine Can not print complex design. 3.) Sublimation printing: Sublimation printing is used for polyster garment only. So if you want to print on polyester then this type of printing would be suitable for you.Sublimation printers are cheap, their inks are also cheap. Any one can use this type of machine. Sublimation printers cannot be used to print on cotton fabric that is his only disadvantage. For mug printing, sublimation printer are widely use. You just need a heat press machine for mug which will cost you around 8k. Apart from heat press machine you should have a sublimation printer. You can find their suppliers on Indiamart.
Is making a t-shirt for personal use that uses a copyrighted image legal?
As many others have already made clear, of course this would be illegal. You don’t own the rights to the band’s logo and imagery, so you can’t distribute them without their permission.Don’t even kid yourself with the “personal use” premise. It’s not. You’d have to submit that design to a t-shirt vendor and ask them to reproduce it; that’s distribution. And if you ever wear it in public, that’s distribution, too (which you don’t have the legal right to do). And even if you have your own t-shirt making equipment in your home and you’ll never wear it out in public, there’s still no exception in copyright law for personal use (it’s just that nobody will see or know about the infringement).But why not ASK the band’s promoter? Seriously, if you’re wanting t-shirts, surely you’re not the only one. You could identify a specific logo, image, or album cover you want to use and ask permission to make a t-shirt for yourself with that on it. And if they grant that permission, you don’t have to worry about copyright or trademark infringement.Who knows? It could turn out that they’ve wanted all along to have t-shirt merchandise made and they just didn’t have someone with the time or skills to coordinate getting that done. Perhaps they’ll appreciate the interest and partner with you to produce them. Or maybe they’ve already got shirts in the works. Or maybe they’ll say they have no plans to produce any, but you’re welcome to make one.Every which way I can think of, your situation is enhanced by seeking permission.
Printing fanart for personal use?
Basically, I have a poster I'd like to print for a friend for Christmas. It's Jack Harkness fist bumping The Doctor, and it's drawn in a manga style. The art is all mine, but obviously the characters aren't. Are there any print-on-demand services that would actually print this, or is my friend stuck with a digital copy?
Can I use Google images to print on t-shirt and then sell it online? If not then what is the solution.
Dipti’s answer is complete, i am just adding few points… pictures which are related with any production house like marvel,DC,manga,HBO etc will require copy write.As there may be individuals who have created their version of character which is part of production house’s series or movie, but to use these images/characters will still require permission from respective production houses.For motivational quotes and similar content you can use free images or put your creativity to design them.T-shirt business has grate potential in low cost but you have to be creative to compete with other players …best of luck… love to here your journey.
What is the best t-shirt printing machine to start with?
Hi All I'm from South Africa and I need some help... I've been thinking a lot about starting a work from home very small business where I can design my own t-shirt pictures or funny slogans or what ever I would like to put on a t-shirt on a program like photo shop, print it and then sell the t-shirts. Do you think there would be a market for this in South Africa? And what would the best place be to start? I have no idea how these machines work, I don't need something that can print 50 t-shirts at a time, I just want to print 1 or 2 shirts at a time, just for a start. Could someone please offer me some advice and insight in this. I have a place where I usually print t-shirts for my personal use, would it be better to just print t-shirts there and see how it goes before buying a machine, maybe I can build up the capital in that way to actually buy a machine, or would it be better to just buy a machine from the start? If I do buy a t-shirt printing machine, what am I looking for in a machine? What should I ask for If anyone could offer me some insight into this new world I'm trying to find, it would be greatly appreciated. Regards
Legality of using internet images for printing t-shirt designs?
Hello, My club and I need custom t-shirts for an upcoming competition where we need to wear the shirt to represent our school during the event, sort of like a team uniform/jersey. I've been tasked with coming up with the design image to print on t-shirts and to forward the image file to our treasurer so we can purchase the shirts from a local t-shirt printing seller. I'm using a combination of Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, and Microsoft Paint to finalize the image. I've obtained a few images from generic Google image searches that I really liked and to simplify the process since I'm in a bit of rush to get these t-shirts ordered. However, I'm just wondering about the legality of using online-obtained images to print on t-shirts and to order them and wear them that way. Is it illegal to use the images? Do I really need to contact each individual uploader of the image to print the image on t-shirts and buy them? The intent of the image is to be used for t-shirts which we will buy with our own funds, and not for our own profit or to be sold by us. If the t-shirts are for our personal use (like wearing them as team jerseys during the competition), is it ok for me to use the images that way? Thank you, I appreciate the responses!
Is it legal to print famous lyrics/quotes on t-shirts and sell them? I’ve read that they’re considered fan art and it is okay to use them, but I need a solid answer.
From the US perspective, no, this is not okay. The idea that something called fan art enjoys some sort of legal protection is a meme that floats around, but it is simply untrue.If the lyrics enjoy copyright protection, you cannot use them in almost any fashion without permission. (There are fair use exceptions that one can reasonably expect for a few narrow cases - criticism, parody, education and so on.)You will find that the music business is fairly aggressive about protecting their intellectual property. Because this is effectively their only asset, this makes sense. If you sell tee-shirts with copyrighted lyrics, and you manage to make enough money to be noticeable, you will get a letter from a lawyer, and if you are really unlucky, a summons.Quotes are a more interesting thing. The big question is whether the quote is copyrighted. Quotes that are more than 150 years old are all in the public domain and can be used freely for the most part, particularly in the US. More contemporary quotes might not be considered to be copyrighted, but this is a more complicated question. Search the Net and Quora for Are quotes copyrighted?-Mark
Is it illegal to use a college name on a shirt or sweatshirt and sell it?
Copyright of Logos and related financial interests of concerned Institutes and organizations is taken as a high priority issue by law enforcing agency in USA & most developed nations like European countries and Australia.So, what you can easily do for personal use is Totally Illegal for business purpose like selling.You can use the college name or team name for your personal Tshirt or a banner for cheering your team up.But when it comes to selling a Trademarked Logo printed on a shirt, t shirt or sweatshirt becomes a copyright issue.So, You need to take some special permission from the concerned college, institute, organization or league. Just visit their office or website and check whether they allow commercial printing of their logo.Many of the sports leagues, teams and colleges allow such third party printing at a one time or annual fees. So, you take the license before you even think of printing and selling such shirts or t shirts.For anyone else looking for buying such Trademarked Logo t-shirts belonging to college teams, state teams of national teams like NHL, NFL, MLB, NBA and NASCAR etc. , I have found an online store[1] offering logo t shirts at very reasonable prices. They seem to have a huge collection of such t-shirts ~50K with free shipping to most states of USA.Footnotes[1] Buylogotshirts.com