Review: Procolored F13 Panda DTF Printer

So you’ve got something to say and you want to wear it on your sleeve, or maybe your chest, or your back? Well the Procolored F13 Panda DTF printer has you covered. There lots of ways to put graphics on a garment. Silkscreen is popular, but multicolor takes lots of practice and it’s still hard to get a lot of colors. And printable vinyls are thick and heavy.

Direct to film printers print a full-color image onto a film that can be heat-transferred onto a garment, then removed leaving only the ink and binder. The key is that they not only print traditional CMYK, but also a layer of white on the back of the entire graphic. This means you get clear, high-color images printed on even black garments. 

The Procolored F13 gives you a maximum print width of 13″ but up to 31″ long. A built-in slide cutter makes it easy to cut your prints off the roll when complete. 

The speed and accuracy of making full-color designs with the Procolored has been fun, but it does come with a couple downsides. The software is Windows only, and requires a security dongle plugged in at all times. And the machine needs to be used regularly to keep the ink from drying up and ruining the system, so this isn’t a print-a-couple-shirts-a-year machine.

I think the Procolored F13 is a perfect fit for organizations that want to quickly make their own shirts. Schools, large makerspaces, and sports teams would find it an invaluable resource. And Procolored has released the smaller and lower-cost K8.