A Closer Look At How True North Gear is Printed

All of the designs on our garments are created using a procedure called Plot Printing and most of the work is done by hand. Plot print is high-quality, high-durability printing. After you place your order, this is how your shirt gets created:

Step 1
The plot machine works by cutting along the lines of the curve into either smooth flex material or velvety flock material.

Each sheet of material is a single colour. That means, for designs with multiple colours, different layers of colour are cut out and pressed onto the fabric.

Step 2
The cutting of the design is done by computer, the separation of the colour from the background is done by hand. It’s hard work doing this careful job!

Step 3
The design is heat-pressed onto the T–shirt. This is also done carefully and by hand. Which means that there may be minute differences between one T–shirt and another.

Step 4
Finally, the transfer sheet is peeled off, and voila — your designed T–shirt is finished!

Advantages to Plot Printing:
* Print is very soft - great quality!
* Almost permanent, designs don’t fade
* Printing available on dark textiles (unlike many Digital Transfers)

Disadvantages:
* Only one, two or three colours per design
* No colour blending possible

Look and Feel
There are two kinds of plot printing: flock print is soft and velvety, flex print is slick, smooth and shiny.

Durability
Both plot printing styles are absolutely high quality, they don’t fade and your design will last longer than your shirt.