Printing · pressed in-house
T shirt printing in Auckland
Custom printing for shirts, hoodies and hi-vis, pressed in-house on our own heat press in Glenfield. We use DTF transfers and heat transfer film printed for us by a trusted partner, then press the printed apparel here. No minimum order, and we courier anywhere in New Zealand.
Pressed in Glenfield, couriered NZ-wide — Mon–Fri 8:30am–5:30pm.
Brands we decorate — garment brands we supply and decorate, not our clients
How it works
What garment printing actually involves
Your artwork is printed onto a transfer film, then heat-pressed onto the garment.
Print to garment work runs in two steps. Our print partner prints the design onto the film, and then we press it onto the garment here in Glenfield, under heat and pressure, on our own press. The transfer bonds into the fabric rather than sitting on top of it as a thick layer.
What DTF printing is, and why we use it
DTF stands for direct-to-film. The design is printed onto a film in full colour, a powdered adhesive is bonded to the back of it, and the finished transfer is pressed onto the garment. DTF transfers handle photographic images, gradients and fine detail that thread cannot hold, and they sit soft enough that you are not wearing a plastic panel. DTF also works on cotton, polyester and blends without changing the process, which is why it has largely replaced older vinyl for anything with more than a couple of colours.
Heat transfer printing versus older vinyl
Cut vinyl is still fine for one or two flat colours — a name, a number, a simple wordmark. It is cut from a coloured sheet, with the excess picked off by hand, then pressed, so every extra colour is another layer and another pass. Heat transfer printing with a printed film does the whole design in one press regardless of how many colours are in it. For most logos that makes printed film cheaper and better, and we will tell you which one your artwork actually needs.
Which fabrics and garments take a print well
Most printable apparel works: cotton, polyester, cotton-poly blends, and the technical fabrics used in sports and hi-vis. Clothing printing is really a question about the surface. Fabric printing gets harder on heavily textured knits, deep waffle or ribbed panels, because the film needs somewhere flat to bond to. Waterproof and heavily coated shells are the usual no, since the coating stops the transfer bonding to the fabric. For apparel printing on anything unusual, send us the garment or the style code and we will tell you before you order rather than after.
Can you print a photograph on a shirt?
Yes. Printing a picture on a shirt is the case where print clearly beats embroidery — full colour, gradients and photographic detail all reproduce properly. Printed shirts like that hold up well provided they are washed inside out and not tumble-dried on high. What we would not do is take a low-resolution screenshot and print it large; the result on fabric is exactly as soft as the file you send, so send the best version you have.
Two ways to start
Ready to get your gear printed?
Most quotes go back the same business day. There is no obligation and no minimum order.
Or call 021 082 12843 — Mon–Fri 8:30am–5:30pm.
What happens next
- 1. You send rough numbers and what the team does.
- 2. We come back with garment options and a price per garment, decoration included, usually the same business day.
- 3. Once you go ahead, we confirm logo size and placement in writing before anything is pressed.
Why printing
What printing gives you that thread does not
It is the better method whenever the artwork has more colour in it than stitching can sensibly carry.
One thing worth being straight about: we press every transfer here on our own heat press, but the transfers themselves are printed for us by our transfer partner. Screen printing we do not offer at all — if that is specifically what you need, we would rather tell you now.
Full colour, no extra cost
A twelve-colour logo presses the same way a two-colour one does. Gradients, photographs and fine shading all reproduce, which thread cannot do at any price.
Detail stays sharp
Thin lines and small text survive. Embroidery loses anything under about 5mm, so intricate marks that turn to mush in thread come out clean here.
Light on the garment
A pressed transfer adds almost no weight and no stiff panel. On tees, singlets and lightweight technical fabric that matters more than it sounds.
Large prints are practical
Full-back and across-the-chest artwork is straightforward. The same coverage in stitching would be heavy, slow and expensive.
Is it the right fit
When printing is the right call
It is not the answer to everything, and we would rather say so now than after a run of 40 shirts.
Photographic logos
Anything with gradients, shading or a photograph in it. This is the case print exists for.
Event and promo runs
Custom prints for shirts that a team wears for a season or a weekend, where cost per unit matters more than a decade of washing.
Names and numbers
Teamwear where every garment is different. Printing handles one-per-shirt variation without a setup each time.
Large artwork
Full-back prints and big chest pieces, at a size that would be impractical to stitch.
Light fabrics
Tees, singlets and technical fabric that a dense stitch would pucker or drag out of shape.
When it is not
If the gear gets industrially laundered every week for years — hospitality, healthcare, heavy trades — embroidery outlasts any print, and a simple one-colour logo costs about the same either way. Thread also reads as the more premium finish on a polo or a softshell. In those cases we will point you at embroidery rather than take the print order.
Still deciding? Our guide to embroidery vs heat transfer compares the two, including which lasts longer in the wash.
Read about embroideryThe process
How a printing order actually runs
Five steps, and nothing is pressed until you have approved a proof.
Step 1
Send us the details
Your artwork, roughly what garments you want and how many. Rough numbers are fine at this stage.
Step 2
We quote it
Garment options and a price per garment with the print included, usually back the same business day. Print is priced on size and quantity rather than colour count.
Step 3
Artwork setup
We size and position the design, and check the file is sharp enough at the finished size. No digitising step and no setup fee — those belong to embroidery, not print.
Step 4
Transfers printed
Your transfers are printed by our transfer partner while the garments come in. You approve a proof, and we confirm size and placement in writing before anything is pressed.
Step 5
Pressed and sent
We press the transfers onto your garments here in Glenfield and courier the order to you. Typically 5–21 working days from artwork approval.
Step one takes about two minutes. Send the artwork and rough numbers.
What we print
Logo printing on shirts, hoodies, tees and hi-vis
Custom shirt printing is where most orders start, and the same transfers press onto anything with a flat panel to work on. You can mix garment types across one order, and plenty of jobs print and stitch together — tees and hoodies printed, polos and caps embroidered, all on the same quote.
Hi-vis is the one garment where placement is not a taste decision. Certified garments follow AS/NZS 4602.1:2011, which sets how much retroreflective banding a garment carries and where it sits, so we place a logo clear of that banding rather than across it — and we can press that logo in reflective or fluorescent film as well as standard. If certification matters on your site, confirm the requirement against the garment’s own certification before you order. WorkSafe New Zealand's PPE guidance covers where that gear is required in the first place.
Where we work
T shirt printing for Auckland, delivered NZ-wide
The press is in Glenfield on the North Shore and every garment is pressed there. We are a service-area business — there is no shop to visit and no walk-ins — so orders start online or over the phone.
Shirt printing NZ-wide works exactly the same way: outside Auckland we press and courier. Custom t shirt printing in NZ is the same job with a longer courier leg — Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton, Tauranga and everywhere between, and the South Island is no different. Textile printing NZ jobs run to the same 5–21 working days from artwork approval.
Questions
Printing questions we get asked
If yours is not here, ask when you request a quote and you will get a straight answer.
What kind of shirt printing work do you take on?
Most of it is logo work for Auckland businesses — printed tees, hoodies, polos and hi-vis, usually a chest logo with an optional back print. Alongside that: teamwear with names and numbers, event and promo runs, and one-off personal pieces. People search for printers for shirts and get a lot of overseas dropshippers; we are a local workshop that presses transfers here and couriers the gear out.
Do you do print on demand?
Not in the dropshipping sense. Print on demand NZ usually means an online store that prints and ships each item automatically, with no contact between you and whoever prints it, and we do not plug into storefronts that way. What people usually want from NZ print on demand is the no-minimum part, and that is true here: one shirt is a real order on standard transfer. If you need per-order fulfilment wired into a shop, we are honestly not the right fit and will say so.
How much does t shirt printing cost?
Every job is quoted. Print is priced on the size of the design, the garment and the quantity — colour count does not change the price the way it does with older methods, so a full-colour logo and a one-colour one press the same. Larger runs come down per unit because the press setup is spread further. Send the artwork and rough numbers and the quote usually comes back the same business day.
Is there a minimum order for printing?
No. One shirt or two hundred. Larger runs price better per unit, but there is no minimum quantity and no obligation to reorder. A very small order carries a handling charge, for the same reason the per-unit price moves: setting up the artwork and the press takes much the same work whether the job covers one garment or fifty. The charge is shown on your quote, so you see it before you commit. Speciality film is the one exception to no minimum. It is used for reflective and fluorescent logos, technical jackets, heat-sensitive fabrics and polyester that bleeds its dye, and our transfer partner runs those films in minimum quantities: ten transfers of each design at each size, twenty for fluorescent. That is transfers rather than garments — one logo on each shirt means ten or twenty shirts, though a shirt carrying four of the same sleeve band is four transfers, so five shirts reaches twenty, and two of the same band on five shirts reaches ten. Ordinary full-colour transfer has no minimum, and the quote says which your garment needs.
How long does a printing order take?
Typically 5–21 working days from artwork approval. Simple reorders where the artwork is already on file and the garments are in stock sit at the fast end; new artwork or garments we have to bring in sit at the slow end. If you need it faster, say so at the quote stage rather than after — sometimes we can, often we cannot, and we would rather be straight with you than miss a date you were counting on.
How long will a print last in the wash?
A well-pressed transfer will outlast most of the garments it goes on, provided the garment is looked after: wash inside out, warm rather than hot, and skip the high-heat tumble dry. What we will not tell you is that print matches embroidery under weekly industrial laundering, because it does not. If that is your situation, ask us about embroidery instead.
Can you print on caps?
No — caps, beanies and bucket hats are embroidery only. Pressing a transfer onto headwear needs a cap press, which is a different machine from the flat press we run, and we do not have one yet. It is not a view about caps: the crown seam and the curve mean a flat press cannot make even contact anyway. Embroidery is the better answer on headwear regardless, so that is what we do and it is what the caps page covers.
Is there a print shop I can walk into?
No. Unlike a walk-in NZ print shop, we are a service-area business — the press is in Glenfield on the North Shore and there is no counter. Orders start with a message or a phone call, artwork comes over email, and the finished gear is couriered to you anywhere in the country.
Can I supply my own garments?
Yes. Send us your own stock and we will press it, or we supply the garments and decorate them in one go. If you are supplying, send one spare where you can — fabric and coating change how a transfer bonds, and it is better to find that out on a sample than on your whole run.
Send us your artwork and we will quote the print
Usually same-business-day replies, Mon–Fri. No minimum order.