How to Choose Between Ricoh, Procolored DTG, DTF 1000, and UV Printers

If you're researching Ricoh commercial printers, a procolored DTG printer, the DTF 1000 printer, and a UV flatbed like the Focus Alpha-Jet A2 all in the same browsing session—I know exactly what that's like. I've been there. And the most useful thing I can tell you is this:

Stop comparing them. They do different jobs.

Four printer categories. One rule: match the machine to the material.

• Paper and office documents? → A Ricoh commercial printer. That's its domain.
• Cotton t-shirts and hoodies? → A Procolored DTG printer.
• Polyester, sports jerseys, mixed fabrics? → A DTF 1000 printer with transfer film.
• Acrylic, wood, glass, metal, leather? → A Focus Alpha-Jet A2 UV printer.

I've watched at least four companies make the mistake of buying one category and expecting it to handle another. Every time, it ends in frustration and a machine that collects dust. These aren't minor operational differences—they're fundamentally different print technologies with different workflows, inks, and maintenance demands.

Here's who I am and why you should listen: I'm the office administrator at a ~190-person marketing services company. I handle all equipment procurement—roughly $420,000 a year with 8 core vendors. When our production team wanted to add garment printing in 2022, I spent months comparing Procolored DTG machines against the big industrial names. When our sign shop asked for UV printing capacity in 2023, I evaluated the Focus Alpha-Jet A2 against four other A2-size UV flatbeds. And our daily office infrastructure runs on Ricoh IM C-series multifunction units.

I'm not a print production engineer, and I'm not gonna claim to be. I can tell you about spec sheets, pricing, and what I learned the hard way—but for color profiles and RIP settings, you'll need someone who runs these machines daily.

One failure story first: in 2021, I approved a “great deal” on an open-box wide-format printer without checking whether our RIP software could drive it. It couldn't. That $2,800 mistake took two months to unwind, and I looked pretty foolish to my VP when the whole project stalled. Now I verify workflow compatibility before I even look at pricing. The cheapest machine is only cheap if it actually works in your environment.

Ricoh commercial printers: the paper workhorse

Ricoh's commercial line exists for one thing: paper output, reliably, at scale. The IM C-series multifunction units in our fleet (we run IM C4500 and IM C6000 models across three locations) handle 45–60 pages per minute, survive heavy monthly volumes, and hold up to real-world office abuse. The Pro C-series goes a step further—those are actual digital production presses that crank out brochures, sell sheets, and variable-data marketing materials at trade-shop quality.

If you're wondering where the Ricoh shop fits in—that's the official buying channel. Depending on your region, you can purchase directly from Ricoh's online store or through authorized dealers. Both routes offer the same product line, but dealers often bundle service and setup in ways that work better for small businesses without an IT team.

The real value of a Ricoh service contract is the certainty. It's not just “we'll fix it quickly”—it's the confidence that a down machine won't stall your entire office for a week. That alone has been worth more to me than any price difference between brands.

Consumables matter too. If you buy from the Ricoh shop, stick with official toner and parts. I've seen businesses try to save money with third-party carts, only to be told warranty coverage wouldn't apply when something failed. Not worth the gamble.

What a Ricoh won't do is print on fabric, acrylic, wood, or glass. It's a paper machine, and the sooner you accept that, the fewer headaches you'll have.

Procolored DTG printer: the cotton specialist

Direct-to-garment printing is basically an inkjet printer for t-shirts. The Procolored lineup has gotten a lot of attention from small businesses because the price point undercuts the established industrial DTG systems by a meaningful margin. Most models print at resolutions up to 1440 x 1440 dpi, with platen sizes around 16" x 20" to 18" x 24"—plenty for standard apparel.

But here's the trade-off. DTG gives you photo-quality prints on cotton and cotton-heavy blends, but the workflow is not “load and go.” You pre-treat the garment, let it dry, print, then heat-cure. And the maintenance is real—nozzle checks, cap station cleaning, environmental controls. If you skip the daily cleaning ritual, your print heads will clog. Honestly, I've seen more DTG machines sitting idle from neglect than from mechanical failure.

One thing I appreciated during my vendor search: the Procolored machines are sold to small operators, not just large print shops. The support tone is different—more “let's get you set up” and less “you should have known that.” That kind of treatment matters when you're a small business making a serious equipment purchase. Small doesn't mean unimportant; it means you expect the vendor to care.

DTF 1000 printer: the transfer-film route

DTF—direct-to-film—is what you want when your customers order polyester or blended fabrics that DTG can't handle. The printer creates a mirrored design on PET transfer film, you apply adhesive powder, cure it, and heat-press it onto the garment.

The “1000” in DTF 1000 refers to the print width: 1000 millimeters, or about 39 inches. That matters because it means you can print an entire sheet of transfers with multiple designs at once, which speeds up batch production considerably. Typical resolution for this class is 720 x 1440 dpi—not quite as high as DTG on raw fabric, but entirely sufficient for logos, text, and detailed graphics on team uniforms, caps, and tote bags.

The DTG vs. DTF decision comes up constantly, so here's the short version. DTG prints directly onto cotton and requires pretreating each garment. DTF prints onto film that you transfer to nearly any fabric. DTF is more forgiving for beginners because the print itself isn't ruined if the garment placement is slightly off—you can just re-press. But DTG gives a softer hand feel, which customers notice on premium tees. Choose based on your customer's fabric and quality expectations.

One thing the DTF marketing materials often omit: the supporting gear. You're gonna need a powder shaker, a curing oven, and a heat press to make the process actually work. That additional equipment adds a few thousand dollars on top of the printer itself (pricing as of early 2025; verify current rates).

Focus Alpha-Jet A2 UV printer: for rigid materials

If your business makes signs, plaques, promotional products, or small-batch parts, UV flatbed printing is the category that matters. These machines print directly onto rigid substrates using LED UV-curable ink that cures instantly—no drying time, no laminating step.

The Focus Alpha-Jet A2 UV printer print resolution is up to 1440 x 1440 dpi per the manufacturer's spec sheet (specs change with print head revisions, so confirm current numbers). The printable area is A2 size, roughly 420mm x 594mm. It handles acrylic, wood, metal, glass, and leather, and it runs CMYK plus white and clear ink, which is what allows printing on transparent materials and dark surfaces.

That's honestly the appeal: one machine that unlocks a full range of product possibilities you'd otherwise have to outsource to a specialty shop. For a sign maker or a company making custom corporate gifts, an A2 UV printer pays for itself quickly.

What I'd actually buy

If I were starting a small print business tomorrow with a budget under $35,000, here's how I'd decide:

• Custom t-shirt market → Procolored DTG, plus a heat press. Skip DTF unless clients actually ask for polyester.
• Sports teams and athletic apparel → DTF 1000 first. It handles the performance fabrics that dominate that niche, and pre-printed transfers save serious time.
• Signs, storefronts, promotional products → Focus Alpha-Jet A2 UV. The margins on custom signs are better, so the machine pays for itself faster.
• Office operations in every case → A Ricoh commercial printer. You'll always need clean, reliable paper output.

And the less obvious point: pick one production machine first. I've seen businesses buy a DTG, a DTF, and a UV in the same year because they wanted to offer everything—and then spent so much time learning three workflows that none of them became profitable. Master one, build the revenue, then expand.

Depending on your cash flow, leasing might make sense for the bigger machines. I've used it before, and it can help conserve capital while you validate the business case.

The bottom line

Most small companies need exactly one specialized print system for their core product, plus a decent office printer. Start there.

I should be upfront about my limits. I'm not a production print engineer, so I can't advise on color management profiles or media settings—that's where you should bring in a consultant or lean on manufacturer support. And my experience is based on U.S. supply chains; if you're importing these machines internationally, add import duties, longer lead times, and support logistics to your calculations. The print resolution numbers I've quoted are maximum marketed specs; real-world quality depends on the operator's skill and print head maintenance.

When you're ready to buy, that's the short list: the Ricoh shop for a commercial document printer, Procolored DTG for cotton garments, the DTF 1000 for sportswear and transfers, and the Focus Alpha-Jet A2 UV for rigid materials. Don't ask one machine to do a job it wasn't designed for. And when you're choosing where to spend your money, remember that the lowest purchase price isn't the lowest total cost—count consumables, service, and downtime in your comparison.

The vendors who respect your small test orders are the ones you'll want when you grow. I've been buying equipment for five years, and that lesson has never once let me down.