Determine Your Needs

The first and most important aspect in finding a printer is to clearly define and prioritize your exact needs. If all you ever plan to produce are simple one color lines of text that deride some relative for visiting some exorbitant resort and stiffing you with a cheap garment, then your choices are pretty wide open. Heck, you could print that type of shirt in your basement, if you had the time. Following that there are many progressively complex levels of sophistication. For a more in depth explanation of the general techniques see the section on separation techniques. It will greatly aid you in your search for a printer if you speak a bit of the vernacular, especially if you already have an idea of what techniques will be necessary to produce the images you have in mind. Chances are you will be treated more seriously if you know what you are talking about. You might even get a bit of a price break because the salesman won't peg you for a sucker and will know that a lot less of his or her time will have to be spent explaining all of the tedious, gory details of how difficult it is to print a 12 color iridescent puff image of the Mona Lisa on a mesh hockey jersey.