Two printing methods cover nearly every bandana. They are not better and worse; they are suited to different artwork and different quantities.

Screen printing

Ink is pushed through a mesh, one screen per colour. That gives a dense, saturated colour that digital struggles to match, and the cost per piece falls sharply with quantity because the screens are the fixed cost.

The limits are colour count and detail. Every colour needs its own screen, so beyond about six the economics stop working, and very fine gradients are not available at all.

Digital printing

The design is printed directly, so colour count is irrelevant and photographic detail and gradients are all possible. Setup is minimal, which makes it the better choice at small quantities.

Colour reads slightly softer than screen on cotton. On most designs nobody notices; on a design built around one saturated brand colour, some people do.

Dye sublimation, for the technical squares

Cooling bandanas are a synthetic knit, so they are dye sublimated: the colour bonds inside the fibre, edge to edge, with unlimited colours and no hand feel at all. It is the best print in the range and it only works on synthetics.

How to decide

Flat-colour design and a big run: screen. Photographic or many-coloured artwork, or a small run: digital. Technical fabric: sublimation.

Send us the artwork and the quantity and we will tell you which, including when the answer is the cheaper one.