A Printer for Your Clothes: Anker Wants to Put Custom Designs on T-Shirts at Home

Anker's eufyMake brand is developing a personal fabric printer that can put photos and custom designs directly onto T-shirts, jeans, bags, and hats. The device, which does not yet have a name, is planned to launch in spring 2027 and will be shown as a prototype at the IFA 2026 tech show in Berlin (The Verge; eufyMake).

The printer uses two different methods to get designs onto fabric. The first, called direct-to-garment or DTG, squirts ink straight onto soft fabrics like the cotton of a typical T-shirt. The second, called direct-to-film or DTF, prints the design onto a thin sheet first, then uses a heat press to transfer it onto fabric. This second method works on a wider range of materials. The eufyMake device can use both methods on the same garment, just not at the same time. Anker says it produces accurate colors on both light and dark fabrics (The Verge).

One standout claim is that the printer can add color to embroidered designs. eufyMake already sells a simpler machine that stitches single-color embroidery. If the fabric printer can reliably print color over those stitches, users could create multicolor embroidered designs without paying for a more expensive multicolor embroidery machine. Whether the ink actually stays on raised thread through repeated washing is a question a prototype at a trade show cannot answer. Anker has not yet released detailed specifications or pricing (The Verge).

This is not eufyMake's first consumer printing device. The brand previously launched a UV printer called the E1 that can print designs on wood, metal, glass, and acrylic. It debuted at a Shopify pop-up event in New York City (eufyMake). eufyMake also sells a laminator for making weatherproof stickers (eufyMake).

The approach is consistent across these products. eufyMake takes printing methods that normally require large, expensive industrial equipment and packages them for individuals and small businesses. The fabric printing techniques in this device are standard in commercial apparel production, but the machines are typically big, costly, and need regular maintenance. A consumer device combining both in one unit could make custom apparel far more accessible.

The embroidery-color feature is the detail worth watching. Multicolor embroidery machines cost significantly more than single-color ones, and the ability to print color over single-color stitching could change the math for small-scale clothing customization. Much depends on how precisely the printed color lines up with the stitched areas, and how ink behaves on thread versus flat fabric. Anker will need to answer these questions between the trade show and the 2027 launch.

Anker has not shared print resolution, ink details, maximum garment size, printing speed, or the cost of ink and other supplies. The spring 2027 target gives the company about six months from the IFA show to refine the prototype. The gap between a trade-show demo and a product people can actually buy usually involves multiple rounds of hardware changes, software tuning, and sorting out a supply chain for ink and materials.

For now, the eufyMake fabric printer is a statement of intent. Combining two printing methods in one consumer device, along with the embroidery-color feature, is technically ambitious. Whether it succeeds will come down to whether the price and quality meet the expectations of hobbyists and small-business creators who would be its natural audience.