A Guide to your Custom Bag Printing Options

As consumers opt for more environmentally-friendly accessories like reusable bags, now is a great time for your company to consider a customised bag to showcase your brand or logo. Choosing a high-quality and durable bag is important, but so is selecting how you print it. You have plenty of options for printing your custom bag, and each offers a different look and feel. To help you choose the right printing technique for your bag, we present here a few of the most popular options and how they differ.

Screen Printing 

Screen printing is one of our most popular printing options for our bags. With screen printing, pigment inks are passed through a mesh screen onto the bag fabric and then allowed to dry. Colours appear crisp and vibrant, making this a great choice for logos, messaging and other artwork with distinctive lines and colours. Screen printing is also a versatile option as it works brilliantly on all fabrics. Further, it’s effective and long-lasting, which ensures a long shelf-life and maximum exposure for your bag. 

For example, this clean and vibrant large drawstring bag is screen printed on 190T polyester. With a 250 by 250 mm print area, you’ll have plenty of space for your own vibrant logo or message.

A report on the custom t-shirt industry suggests that screen printing is a popular choice for other textiles, too, often attributed to its longevity in the market. With clothing, screen printing remains the dominant technique in global t-shirt printing markets, comprising 55 percent of total market revenue. 

Digital Printing

While screen printing is the most popular option, we’re also seeing a shift toward digital printing. With this technique, a digital-based image is applied directly to your bag using micro-sized droplets of ink that are placed on the fabric through an inkjet print head. For this reason, digital printing is a great choice for complicated designs. Printing graphics directly onto the bag also helps keeps production costs down. 

This also means quick production times.  As consumers opt for the speed and convenience of online shopping over retail stores, customised merchandise must keep pace to get quality goods to you and your customers quickly. Digital printing is a great choice for last-minute or rush orders. 

However, keep in mind your choice of fabric. Digital printing is a good choice for polyester-based fabrics, but is not recommended for cotton bags. As an example, this document bag was digitally printed and effectively showcases this company’s intricate design.

Embroidery

Embroidery will give your bag a special three-dimensional feel. We can help you create an embroidery design that you can either apply directly or we can create an embroidered patch that can then be applied to your bag. For inspiration, check out some of these brilliant embroidery examples on Etsy, from intricate designs to monograms. Embroidery is a great way to capitalise on style trends like “boho” and floral designs.

Dye Sublimation Printing

Last, but not least, is dye sublimation printing. This process uses a heat press to apply sublimation inks directly onto your bag using a heat press that combines heat, time and pressure. This allows the ink to penetrate the material which creates a bight image that is long-lasting and scratch-resistant. As with screen printing, this durability equates to a true bag-for-life and maximum exposure for your logo or messaging. 

For example, this shoulder bag was created with dye sublimation printing for a bright and durable product.

Printing technique is just one of the many options you have to create a totally custom bag. With Rocket Bag’s tailor-made bags, you’re in control of everything, including the shape, size, branding, pockets, materials, straps, colours, zips and so much more!

What other printing options are you interested in? We’d love to hear more about your vision and work together to select the perfect printing process to ensure a unique, brilliant and long-lasting bag for your company and your customers. Please get in touch with us today to talk printing!