Screen Printing

Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh apertures with ink, and a reverse stroke then causes the screen to touch the substrate momentarily along a line of contact. This causes the ink to wet the substrate and be pulled out of the mesh apertures as the screen springs back after the blade has passed. One color is printed at a time, so several screens can be used to produce a multicoloured image or design.

View our Screen Printing Price Guide.
This is the printing price only, garment/item cost not included.

Understanding Inks

Discharge inks use Zinc Formaldehyde Sulfoxylate to activate the dye in fabric to discharge from the originating fabric. Discharge inks are available in clear or colors. Cons of using discharge inks is that the process only works properly on dark fabrics that have a content of 100% cotton. Fabrics with under-dyes and fabric blends will discharge their dye to different degrees. The fumes resulting from the application and curing are pungent and strong ventilation and a face mask are commonly needed to relieve exposure. Pros to this process is that discharge is especially effective for distressed prints and under-basing on dark garments that are to be printed with additional layers of plastisol. It adds variety to the design and gives it that natural soft feel.

Expanding ink (puff) Expanding ink, or puff, is an additive to plastisol inks which raises the print off the garment, creating a 3D feel and look to the design. Mostly used when printing on apparel.

Foil is starting with an adhesive glue or plastisol ink base layer. Foil is finished by applying a thin sheet of reflective/mirror like material on top of the screened base, then heat pressed to set. The foil substrate does not adhere to non-screened areas of the design, and the balance of the foil sheet is discarded.

Four-colour process or the CMYK colour model Four-colour process is when the artwork is created and then separated into four colours (CMYK) which combine to create the full spectrum of colours needed for photographic prints. This means a large number of colours can be simulated using only 4 screens, reducing costs, time, and set-up. The inks are required to blend and are more translucent, meaning a compromise with vibrancy of colour.

Glitter or shimmer ink is when metallic flakes become an additive in the ink base to create this sparkle effect. Usually available in gold or silver but can be mixed to make most colours.

Plastisol is the most common ink used in commercial garment decoration. Good colour opacity onto dark garments and clear graphic detail with, as the name suggests, a more plasticized texture. This print can be made softer with special additives or heavier by adding extra layers of ink. Plastisol inks require heat (approx. 150 °C (300 °F) for many inks) to cure the print.

Water-based inks these penetrate the fabric more than the plastisol inks and create a much softer feel. Ideal for printing darker inks onto lighter coloured garments. Also useful for larger area prints where texture is important. Some inks require heat or an added catalyst to make the print permanent.

MORE INFO

There are a few different ways of reproducing artwork when you screen print tee shirts or any other garment. The different methods used will produce various results in color and print hand. It is important to have a decent understanding of the processes used as a screen printer. Even though you may not create the artwork, it will benefit you if you understand how the artwork is supposed to work. This starts with a basic understanding of the printing methods used to screenprint. The following is a brief explanation of the individual types of artwork and printing methods.

Spot Color Printing: This is the most common form of screen printing tee shirts. This method uses the stock color of the ink without alterations by printing it through the stencil in wide open areas of the screen mesh. This will produce a very vibrant solid "spot" of color. It also tends to produce thicker layers of ink depending on the ink and the mesh count used. Printing in spot colors will be helpful in achieving opacity on darker garments. This is the least expensive to create artwork for and can also be very cost effective to print on 1 to 4 colors. When you begin to plan a design with 5 to 8 or more spot colors, a different printing method like simulated process may reduce the amount of film work and screen making needed to set up the job. Spot color artwork is great for most graphic logos that do not require gradients or excessive colors.

Half-Tone Printing: This process involves printing a single or multiple colors in gradients. Here we can take a single color of ink and make it appear as two shades or more of the same color. These tones can range all the way from a solid spot to a very fine halftone of the same color. Sometimes referred to as a "spot and dot" this method is great when you want to achieve the look of multi color printing without the expense of actually doing it. For instance, if we print red on a white shirt and include a 50% gradient of the red, the 50% gradient will "mix" with the white of the tee shirt giving the appearance of a pink color. Therefore giving us a print with red and pink but only using one screen and one color of ink. If your graphic artist knows what they are doing, you can use this technique to improve the look and quality of your graphics. It's a great effect that will reduce the number of spot colors and screens. Printing in halftones will also produce a softer feeling print when printed directly onto the garment.

Grayscale Printing: This is a simple way of printing full color images as 1 color grayscales or halftones. Full tone color photographs may be printed as a 1 color halftone. Full color drawings or paintings that contain complete tonal ranges in different colors may also be reproduced by means of a 1 color halftone. Most often these are done in black ink on a light colored garment. But single color halftones may actually be done in any color ink if so desired. Many of us are familiar with the black and white printed images we see in many newspapers. This is a similar method used for printing 1 color halftones onto tee shirts. Resolution or image clarity will depend on the lines per inch used in the dot pattern. The more dots a halftone has the more detailed and crisp it will look. This is a great method for inexpensively printing black and white or full color photographs onto garments. Best results are achieved on white tee shirts. This will also produce a softer feeling print when printed directly onto the garment.

Duotone Printing: This is simply the combination of two halftones for the same image printed with 2 colors. Meaning there is the black halftone printed with black ink and then we will have a second halftone which will be printed with a color ink like a warm brown for instance. The warm brown halftone combines with the black halftone which will create a duotone print which has the color hue of the warm brown halftone. This is similar to a sepia toned print in photography. This is a very cool effect to print on light garments creating the feel of a full color print but being much less expensive to do. It also has a sophisticated, artsy look. This will also produce a softer feeling print when printed directly onto the garment.

4-Color Process Or CMYK Printing: This is probably the most complex of the printing processes and is recommended for automatic presses only. Although it may be done on a manual printing press, optimum and consistent results will be achieved only on a fully automatic tee shirt press. Here we take a full color photograph or image and break it down into its four constituent colors; cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The printing process uses these four colors combined to recreate the full tonal and color range of the original image. Each color printer is a halftone of the opposite color in the original image. This system is based on what light is being absorbed. This is so that the amount of any color showing in the final print will depend on the amount of ink laid down for each or the 3 primary colors. Cyan is the opposite of red. Magenta is the opposite of green. Yellow is the opposite of blue. The amount of blue in the final print will be directly related to the amount of yellow ink that is printed. The same is the case for the other primaries respectively. This is the most expensive process especially on dark garments. In reality only four color process printing done by lithography or similar printing processes create the traditional "rosebud" associated with process printing. CMYK printing on a tee shirt is more like simulated process in that spot colors may also be used and the dot pattern differs from that of traditional process printing where the colors perceived are mixed more in the brain rather than actually in the print. This will also produce a softer feeling print when printed directly onto the garment.

Simulated Process Printing: This combines standard 4 color process printing with spot color printing. This may also be done by printing spot colors with halftone colors which combine to create the colors of the original image. Here we use spot colors to intensify the overall look of the printed shirt. This may also be done when 4 color process printing is unable to reproduce a color the customer wishes to be dominant on the final print. As many spot colors may be added as needed but limited additions are recommended. This process can actually be more expensive than process printing because it can require complex artwork and the addition of many screens. This is most often the process used to print complex images onto black colored garments. It can produce some excellent imagery but requires some experience in artwork creation. The feel of this print will depend on the artwork and the under base if printed on black shirts.

Apparel Screen Printing Price Guide
Coroplast Sign Screen Printing Price Guide
PRINTING ON DARK GARMENTS
UNDERSTANDING UNDERBASING
Screen Printing Vs Digital Printing
Max Print Area
Trapping Example