The RushDTF Team · Updated 2026-09-06 · 9 min read
DTF stands for direct-to-film. It's the reason a print shop can now put a full-colour photo on a black hoodie, a cotton tee, and a nylon jacket with the same machine. Here's exactly how it works.
DTF — direct-to-film — is a printing method where full-colour artwork is printed onto a special plastic film, coated with a white ink layer and an adhesive powder, then heat-pressed onto a garment. The film stays in the shop; the printed design transfers to the fabric and the film backing peels away. That's the whole idea in one sentence. The rest of this page is how it actually happens on a real production floor, what it costs, and where it belongs and doesn't.
A printer lays CMYK ink and then a white ink layer onto PET film, in that order, printed in reverse. While the ink is still wet, hot-melt adhesive powder is shaken over it and stuck on with heat. The film is cured, cut, and shipped or pressed. At press time, you place the film ink-side-down on the garment, press at roughly 290°F for about 8 seconds, peel the film while it's still warm, and press again briefly to set the adhesive. That's a finished DTF transfer.
There are five distinct stages between a finished piece of artwork and a wearable print. Skip or rush any one of them and the transfer will fail — usually by cracking, peeling at the corners, or not sticking at all. We run this process daily out of our shop in Regina, so this isn't theory.
Your artwork is printed onto a roll of PET film using a specialized DTF printer with CMYK ink channels plus at least one dedicated white ink channel. The image is printed mirrored (flipped left to right), because when you eventually press it face-down onto a shirt, it needs to read correctly from the front. This is also why fine text and logos need to be prepared correctly before they ever reach the printer — get the mirroring or resolution wrong at the file stage and no amount of good pressing fixes it later.
Right after the colour layer, the printer lays down a white ink layer behind the design (which becomes the layer closest to the garment once pressed). This white underbase is what lets the exact same transfer look correct on a white t-shirt, a black hoodie, or a heather grey crewneck — the ink colours don't have to fight with the fabric colour showing through, because they're not. This single detail is the reason DTF exploded in popularity: it's the same reason DTF can put a bright, saturated print on a navy or black garment when methods like sublimation physically cannot.
While the ink is still wet, the printed film passes through a powder shaker that dusts it with a hot-melt adhesive powder — essentially a fine plastic powder that will melt and bond under heat. Excess powder that didn't stick to wet ink is vacuumed off and reused. This step is entirely mechanical and it's the one most home-shop DTF setups get wrong: too little powder and the transfer won't stick; too much and it goes stiff and cracks early.
The powdered film runs through a curing oven (or under a curing lamp on smaller setups) at a controlled temperature just high enough to melt the adhesive powder into the ink without fully activating it. Done correctly, the film comes out feeling slightly tacky to dry, with the powder fused into a smooth adhesive layer. This is what gets shipped to you, or in our case, cut to size and packed for a customer order — a roll of cured, ready-to-press film, sometimes called "cold peel" or "hot peel" film depending on the formulation.
This is the only step that happens outside a DTF supplier's building, and it's the step that decides whether the finished print lasts. Lay the transfer film-side down on the garment, press at approximately 290°F with firm, even pressure for about 8 seconds, then peel the film while it's still warm ("warm peel") or let it cool fully first ("cold peel") depending on the film type. A quick second press for another 8 seconds, ideally with a Teflon sheet or parchment paper over the print, locks the adhesive in fully.
| Setting | Typical value | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature | 285–295°F | Too low and the adhesive doesn't melt fully; too high and colours can scorch or shift |
| First press time | 8 seconds | Activates the adhesive into the fabric weave |
| Pressure | Firm / medium-heavy | Adhesive needs contact pressure to fuse, not just heat |
| Peel | Warm or cold, per film type | Peeling the wrong way for the film pulls ink off with the backing |
| Second press | 6–8 seconds, cover sheet | Sets the adhesive fully and knocks down surface shine |
When a customer tells us a DTF print cracked in the first wash, it's almost always an under-pressed transfer, not bad film. Home irons and cheap presses that don't hold consistent heat across the whole platen are the most common cause.
DTF is priced by the sheet, not by the design, because the printer doesn't care how many logos are on the film — it prints the whole sheet either way. We sell 22" × 12" sheets starting at $8.25 each, dropping to $6.95 a sheet once an order hits volume pricing. Shipping is free over $149, and everything ships from Regina in 1–2 business days, so a Saskatchewan or Alberta shop typically has film in hand within a couple of days of ordering.
| Order size | Price per 22"×12" sheet |
|---|---|
| 1–4 sheets | $8.25 |
| Mid-volume | $7.25 – $7.65 |
| 200+ sheets | $6.95 |
For a single left-chest logo (roughly 4" × 4"), you can fit a dozen or more on one sheet, which puts the cost of the transfer itself well under a dollar per shirt once you're printing multiples. Full front prints eat more of the sheet, so a single 11" × 11" design is closer to $4 of film at the base rate.
Upload your artwork to our gang sheet builder and arrange it on a 22-inch sheet — the price updates live as you go, no account and no minimum order required.
It's worth knowing where DTF sits relative to the methods it's usually compared against, because "what is DTF printing" almost always turns into "should I use DTF or something else" pretty fast.
Browse our detailed comparison guides for screen printing, sublimation and HTV vinyl, or head straight to ordering DTF transfers shipped anywhere in Canada.
DTF stands for direct-to-film. Artwork is printed onto a PET film (not directly onto the garment), then heat-pressed onto the fabric, which is where the term comes from.
No. Sublimation dyes polyester fibres directly and only works on light-coloured polyester. DTF prints ink onto a film with its own white underbase, then presses it onto the fabric, so it works on cotton, poly, dark garments and blends.
Pressed correctly — 290°F, 8-second first press, warm peel, 8-second post-press — a DTF transfer typically survives 50 or more home washes without cracking, especially if washed inside-out on cold.
Yes. Unlike sublimation, DTF bonds to virtually any fabric that can handle a heat press: cotton, polyester, nylon, tri-blends, canvas and denim among them.
Not for small orders. Our gang sheets start at $8.25 for a 22" × 12" sheet, dropping to $6.95 a sheet on volume, with no setup fees or minimum order — a single transfer is affordable, which isn't true of methods like screen printing.
It's possible but risky. A home iron struggles to hold even heat and pressure across the whole design, which causes patchy adhesion. A proper heat press set to around 290°F with firm, even pressure gives far more consistent results.
There's a slight, soft film feel where the design sits, similar to a quality vinyl print but thinner and more flexible. It's noticeably softer than older transfer methods and gets less noticeable the more the shirt is washed and worn.