Print on Demand & Apparel Manufacturing Glossary
We've processed hundreds of thousands of custom apparel orders at NexelPrint. We understand that success in the custom clothing space requires more than just good designs—it requires mastering the terminology of manufacturing, logistics, and finance. This glossary isn't just definitions; it's a playbook filled with operational insights to help you navigate RTOs, understand fabric GSM blends, and optimize your margins.
1x1 Lycra Ribbed Collar
A circular-knitted collar binding constructed with a 1x1 rib weave incorporating 3% to 5% Lycra (elastane) for superior stretch recovery and anti-sagging neck longevity.
3PL (Third-Party Logistics)
Outsourcing supply chain management—including blank inventory warehousing, print decoration, automated picking, packing, and courier dispatch—to a specialized fulfillment partner.
A3 vs A4 Print Size
Standardized paper dimension metrics adopted by apparel printing factories to specify and price artwork print canvas areas on t-shirts and hoodies.
Acid Wash (Mineral Wash)
A specialty post-garment chemical washing process using porous pumice stones soaked in oxidizing agents to create a mottled, high-contrast vintage marbled finish.
AOV (Average Order Value)
A core e-commerce metric measuring the average gross rupee amount spent by customers every time they complete a checkout order on your online store.
API Integration
A software connection that enables an e-commerce storefront (Shopify/WooCommerce) and a manufacturing fulfillment hub to exchange orders, stock, and tracking data in real time.
AWB (Airway Bill)
A legally binding shipping document and unique tracking barcode issued by a logistics carrier that accompanies a parcel throughout its transit journey.
Bio-Wash (Enzyme Finishing)
An eco-friendly enzymatic wet-finishing process using cellulase enzymes to dissolve fuzzy micro-fibrils from cotton yarn, delivering a butter-soft surface and permanent anti-pilling resistance.
Brushed Fleece Fabric
A heavy-gauge winter knit fabric where internal loops are mechanically brushed with wire teeth to create a plush, insulating fuzzy interior layer.
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
The total marketing and advertising expenditure required to acquire one single paying customer across your digital sales channels.
Cart Abandonment Rate
The percentage of online shoppers who add apparel items to their virtual cart or reach checkout, but leave the website without completing the transaction.
COD (Cash on Delivery)
A consumer payment method where the customer pays the courier executive in physical cash or via QR UPI at the precise moment of doorstep parcel handover.
COD Remittance
The formal financial reconciliation cycle where courier companies transfer collected cash from delivered COD parcels back into the merchant’s bank account.
COGS (Cost of Goods Sold)
The direct aggregate cost incurred to manufacture and package a physical garment, excluding indirect operating expenses like marketing, software, and rent.
Cotton Piqué Matty Fabric
A textured double-knit fabric characterized by raised geometric waffle or honeycomb parallel cords, engineered specifically for structural polo collar t-shirts.
Custom Hangtags
Heavyweight cardstock branding tags attached to garment seams using nylon cords or safety pins to display brand logos, story, size, and care instructions.
Custom Packaging
Bespoke branded polybags, frosted ziplock garment pouches, or corrugated mailer boxes customized with your company’s logos and aesthetic artwork.
Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
The total cumulative revenue or gross profit an e-commerce brand expects to earn from a customer throughout their entire purchasing relationship.
Cut and Sew Apparel Manufacturing
The comprehensive manufacturing method where garments are custom cut from raw fabric rolls and decorated across flat panels before being assembled and stitched together.
D2C (Direct to Consumer)
A business model where apparel brands manufacture goods and sell directly to end consumers via online storefronts, bypassing third-party retail distributors and department stores.
Discharge Screen Printing
A chemical screen printing technique for dark 100% cotton garments that chemically bleaches out the original reactive fabric dye and replaces it with new graphic pigments for a soft, breathable print.
DPI (Dots Per Inch)
A metric of print resolution defining the physical number of individual ink droplets an industrial printer deposits within one linear inch of printable area.
Dropshoulder (Silhouette)
A relaxed streetwear pattern cut where the shoulder seam is placed intentionally lower down the upper arm rather than sitting on the anatomical shoulder bone.
DTF Printing (Direct to Film)
A cutting-edge industrial digital printing method where vibrant pigment inks are printed onto PET transfer film, coated with hot-melt TPU adhesive powder, and heat-pressed onto garments.
DTG Printing (Direct to Garment)
A digital printing method where specialized aqueous textile inks are sprayed directly onto pre-treated 100% cotton fabric using modified inkjet printheads.
Dye Sublimation Printing
A digital thermal printing technique where solid disperse dyes convert directly into gas under 200°C heat, molecularly bonding inside polyester synthetic fibers.
Factory Milestone Escrow (50% Advance / 50% Doorstep)
NexelPrint’s B2B payment model where bulk manufacturing is initiated with a 50% advance, and the remaining 50% balance is paid via Doorstep Cash or UPI only upon physical consignment delivery.
French Terry Knit
A premium mid-to-heavyweight knit fabric featuring soft, unbrushed yarn loops on the interior and a smooth, clean jersey surface on the exterior.
Fulfillment Center
A specialized industrial distribution center where product blanks are inventoried, custom printed, inspected, packed, and handed to national courier networks.
Gross Profit Margin
The percentage of retail sales revenue remaining after subtracting direct Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), representing the capital available to pay for marketing and operations.
GSM (Grams per Square Meter)
The international metric unit of measurement defining the absolute weight and density of knitted or woven fabric per square meter.
GST on Apparel (5% vs 12%)
The multi-tier indirect tax structure enacted by the Indian government governing the sale, manufacture, and commercial interstate movement of clothing.
Heat Press Machine
An industrial garment decoration machine that applies precisely regulated temperature, pneumatic pressure, and dwell time to permanently transfer graphics onto textiles.
HSN Code for Apparel (61091000)
An internationally standardized 8-digit commodity code used to classify knitted cotton apparel for Indian GST taxation and cross-border trade customs.
Mockup Generator (3D Studio)
A digital software application that maps 2D graphic artwork onto photorealistic 3D blank apparel photographs to visualize print placements and scale.
MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity)
The lowest quantity of garments a textile mill or printing factory requires a buyer to order per design, colorway, or production run to begin manufacturing.
NDR (Non-Delivery Report)
A real-time operational notification generated by a courier when a parcel delivery attempt fails due to customer unavailability, incorrect address, or refusal.
NDR Management
The systematic operational workflow of resolving failed courier delivery reports through automated WhatsApp prompts, customer outreach, and courier escalation.
OTP Delivery Verification
A mandatory digital security verification where the recipient provides a unique 4-to-6 digit SMS password to the courier executive to complete parcel handover.
Oversized Fit
A deliberate garment pattern engineered with exaggerated chest, shoulder, and sleeve proportions while maintaining proper neck and length measurements.
Packins (Package Inserts)
Supplementary promotional items—such as die-cut stickers, thank-you cards, discount vouchers, or lookbooks—placed inside the garment shipping package to drive repeat purchases.
Payment Gateway
The encrypted fintech software infrastructure that securely authorizes, validates, and processes customer card, net banking, and UPI transactions at storefront checkout.
Pigment Dyeing
A surface-level coloring process where insoluble color pigments are bound to garment fibers using cationic binders, creating a soft, sun-faded vintage hue that develops natural patina with wash.
Pincode Serviceability & Tier Classification
The operational capability of courier networks to deliver parcels to specific postal codes across India, dictating transit timelines, Cash on Delivery (COD) availability, and freight rates.
Pre-Production Sample (PPS)
The final physical prototype garment manufactured by the factory using bulk fabric, final inks, and real trims for formal buyer approval before mass cutting commences.
Pre-Shrunk Fabric (Compacting)
Fabric that has been mechanically compacted and relaxed through industrial heat, steam, and compressive rollers during manufacturing to limit post-purchase shrinkage to less than 3%.
Pre-Treatment (Fixation Chemistry)
A liquid chemical primer solution sprayed onto 100% cotton garments prior to direct inkjet printing that chemically binds pigment inks to cellulose fibers.
Print Area (Printable Canvas)
The designated boundary on a garment where graphic designs can be safely heat-pressed or screen printed without crossing over seams, collars, or pocket bar-tacks.
Print on Demand (POD)
An e-commerce business model where custom apparel products are printed and fulfilled only after a customer places and pays for an order on the merchant’s store.
Private Labeling
Manufacturing apparel under a unique fashion brand identity, utilizing custom fits, fabrics, inside neck prints, and custom packaging to build long-term brand equity.
Puff Print (High-Density 3D)
A specialty dimensional printing technique where a foaming blowing agent is blended into plastisol ink, causing the graphic to expand upward into a raised 3D tactile texture when heated.
Ring-Spun Cotton
Cotton yarn spun by continuously twisting, drawing, and thinning cotton fibers around a spinning ring traveler, producing a much finer, tighter, and stronger strand than open-end spinning.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
The foundational digital advertising efficiency metric calculating gross revenue generated directly for every rupee invested in paid advertising channels.
RRP (Recommended Retail Price)
The suggested retail price benchmark recommended to merchants to ensure healthy gross profitability across marketing and fulfillment costs.
RTO (Return to Origin)
The reverse logistics process where an undelivered parcel is deemed un-deliverable after multiple failed attempts and shipped back to the fulfillment warehouse.
Sample Kit Credit Program
A quality-assurance policy where buyers order a single custom-printed sample piece (₹349), with 100% of the sample fee credited back upon placing a subsequent bulk order.
Screen Printing (Plastisol & Water-Based)
The traditional industrial printing method where squeegees push liquid inks through photographic mesh stencils directly onto fabric, followed by high-heat conveyor curing.
SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)
A unique alphanumeric code assigned by merchants to identify and track specific product variants based on category, garment style, colorway, and size.
Streetwear Dropshipping
A high-margin e-commerce business model focused on selling heavyweight (240+ GSM), oversized streetwear apparel fulfilled on demand by an automated manufacturing partner.
Super Combed Cotton
An extremely high-grade cotton yarn that has undergone a mechanical combing stage to strip away short fibers and impurities, leaving only long, straight, parallel fibers.
Tajima Computerized Embroidery
High-speed commercial embroidery executed on multi-head Tajima industrial machinery, utilizing digital vector stitch files (DST) to sew luxury thread graphics directly into garments.
Tech Pack (Technical Package)
The comprehensive architectural engineering blueprint created by designers detailing flat sketches, exact measurement tables, seam tolerances, fabric specs, and color codes for the factory.
Tirupur Textile Manufacturing Hub
India’s globally recognized knitwear manufacturing cluster in Tamil Nadu, producing over 90% of the nation’s cotton knitwear exports with vertically integrated spinning, knitting, and dyeing infrastructure.
TPU Powder (DTF Adhesive)
A specialized granular thermoplastic polyurethane hot-melt adhesive powder applied to wet DTF ink to chemically bind the print to fabric fibers under heat and pressure.
Vector Image (SVG / AI / EPS)
A digital graphic file constructed using mathematical formulas (points, lines, and curves) rather than fixed pixel grids, allowing infinite scaling without loss of clarity.
Volumetric Weight (Dimensional Weight)
A standardized billing metric used by courier companies that calculates the space a parcel occupies in a cargo vehicle relative to its actual physical weight.
Water-Based Screen Printing
A textile printing technique using aqueous ink suspensions where water evaporates, depositing microscopic pigments inside the cotton fibers for an ultra-breathable zero-handfeel print.
Weight Discrepancy & Dispute Management
The formal commercial dispute process where merchants challenge incorrect, inflated parcel weight scans recorded by automated courier sorting hubs.
White Underbase (Textile Printing)
A solid opaque foundation layer of titanium dioxide white ink printed beneath colored graphics on dark garments to prevent fabric dye from muting print colors.
White-Label Fulfillment
A manufacturing and shipping protocol where orders are fulfilled without any mention of the factory supplier, featuring only the merchant’s custom branding on labels and packaging.
Ready to Build Your Brand on Tirupur-Engineered Fabric?
Experience our 180 GSM classic combed cotton, 240 GSM drop-shoulder oversized tees, and 350 GSM fleece hoodies firsthand. Order a single ₹349 sample credited back on your first bulk order.