Fading is not one process. It is four, and they have different fixes.
1. Mechanical abrasion
Every wash cycle rubs the printed surface against the drum and against other garments. Zips and buttons are the worst offenders. Over dozens of cycles this physically wears ink off the raised fibre tips.
Fix: inside out, and keep printed items away from jeans and anything with hardware.
2. Heat
Heat weakens the bond between ink and cotton fibre. Hot washes do it slowly; tumble dryers do it quickly; a direct iron does it instantly. This is the mechanism behind cracking, which is different from fading and cannot be reversed.
Fix: 30°C, no dryer, no direct iron.
3. Chemical attack
Optical brighteners and bleach in "whitening" detergents are designed to strip colour. They do not distinguish between a stain and a print. Fabric conditioner does something different but equally unhelpful — it deposits a film that dulls the surface.
Fix: plain mild detergent, nothing else.
4. Light
UV breaks down dye molecules. This affects the garment colour as much as the print, and it happens on the washing line as well as on your back. It is slow, but a shirt dried in direct summer sun for a season will show it.
Fix: dry in shade or indoors. Not an issue for most of the British year.
The one habit that matters most
If you only change one thing: stop tumble drying. Heat plus tumbling combines mechanisms one and two, and it does more damage in a single cycle than a month of cool washes.
What is normal
A slight softening of intensity over the first three or four washes is the ink settling, and it is expected. Sharp-edged cracks, flaking, or a print that feels stiff and plasticky are not — those point to heat damage or to a heat-transfer print rather than DTG.
Our range is printed direct-to-garment on combed cotton — see t-shirts and hoodies. Practical routine in how to care for printed t-shirts, and making clothes last longer takes the wider view.
Further reading: Wikipedia: Cotton