How to achieve a rich red color when printing on dark garments

Updated on Oct 27, 2025

DTG printers use the CMYK configuration for printing. As red isn’t a primary color of this color system, its creation results from the combination of Magenta and Yellow ink. Although specific ICC profiles are created for each CMYK ink set on the market, in order for the inks to show their true colors and their corresponding vividness, sometimes, depending also on the digital file, they cannot succeed to translate into printing the exact representation of the true red that is pictured on the screen.

Polyprint’s Digital factory is equipped with a Color Replacement tool that allows the user to replace a particular color, with a tolerance option, using a color picker. This feature allows quick corrections on the design that will result in the desirable color hue. Plus, the software provides the option of printing pantones and with the use of the color replacement tool, the user can pick a specific color of his choice that consists of a certain analogy of the basic CMYK inks and the print’s quality will result as imagined.

In order to get a true red outcome, as close as possible to your digital file, we recommend trying the adjustments described below:

STEP 1

Right-click on the uploaded file and select the Job Color Replacement option.

Note: Make sure that you have chosen Open, in order for the file to be able to be subjected to changes.

STEP 2

Two new windows will pop-up. One with the image preview and one with the Job Color Replacement adjustable parameters.

At the window with the preview, drag your mouse to the image, in order for the color picker to show up. Tap on the red color hue you want to alter. The values displayed in the Input section are the original colors.

STEP 3

At the Output section, adjust both Magenta and Yellow at 100%, in order to attain a true red color. Tap at the Add button, reading “Add to color replacements”, to confirm the color replacement. Then, select Apply to save your changes.

Note: Depending on your preferences for red color outcome, you can insert different values. Keep in mind that when the Magenta is more than the Yellow color, a more cherry-red is achieved, while the opposite results in an orange outcome.

STEP 4

At the Color Preview Warning window that pops-up, select OK to preview the new color substitution. Then, click on the Color Replacement Preview button.

Tip: After performing various tests, we concluded that bests results on the red hues are attained when using RGB and TIFF file types.

For a more in-depth guide on how to use the Job Color Replacement tool you can check the following guide: How to use the Job Color Replacement tool in Digital Factory Apparel Polyprint Edition v10

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