An Unbiased View Of Printed Shirts

With screen printing t-shirts, you may either design your own t-shirts or use among the standard designs provided by those firms that concentrate on t-shirt printing. However if you want to design your own t-shirt, you can find certain aspects of screen printing you should understand, while they effect on the kind of design you may use.

For starters, a brief description of what is linked to screen printing:

Screen Printing T-Shirts: the Process

The Screen - At one time this process was described as silk screen printing, because the screens used were made from silk. It was a popular printing technique in China, hence the silk, but modern polymer fibres now enable us to use synthetic screens which are considerably less expensive.

Although the artwork is needed prior to the screens can be made, an explanation of the technique will be necessary so you can understand the limitations in your design. First of all, a mesh is essential with holes large enough to enable the ink to be squeezed through it. An average mesh will be 110 (110 threads/inch), with lower for thicker inks and block images, and better for thinner inks as well as more definition.

The mesh is coated with a light-sensitive emulsion, and the artwork placed under it. Light is exposed up throughout the screen, and where the light hits the screen, the chemical solidifies and covers the mesh. The design area stops the light, so when the screen is washed, the place of the design is clear of emulsion, while the rest is solid. This is true whether screen printing t-shirts or any other item.

The Printing - The screen is mounted in a box, and also the garment is placed under the box. Ink is poured in to the box and also a tool known as a 'squeegee' is pulled across, forcing the ink over the mesh. The ink is then dried, updated blog post leaving the image on the t-shirt.

While you would ever guess, this process is suitable only for an individual colour per printing because just one colour can be poured in the mesh box or they will run together. For more colours, the process must be repeated. Only delineated areas of individual colour may be printed, so it's not possible to merge one shade into another when screen printing t-shirts.

It should be apparent that a new screen is required for each different colour unless the pattern is exactly the exact same. This adds to the cost, and screen printing t-shirts is expensive for individual garments. There is a fixed set-up cost and then one more cost for each colour. The better t-shirts that can be printed in a run, then the cheaper it gets for each individual garment.

Other printing methods, such as digital printing, can print multiple colours without the increase in price. So why use screen printing for t-shirts rather than just digital? There are a number of reasons:

Advantages of Screen T-Shirt Printing

Screen printing is advantageous if you design your own t-shirt with large areas of block colour. Digital printing, as well as other methods, cannot print large areas as effectively as screen.

Screen printing t-shirts can be very opaque, as well as can cover any deep colour beneath it. Digital printing struggles to print light shades on top of dark, such as pale blue on bright yellow, without it looking green.

Screen printing is great for whites, as well as with DTG jet printers, white on dark often lasts no more than two or three washes. Screen inks are much more stable and also are thicker so give greater coverage. You will need offer no specific washing instructions.

Screen is incredibly cost effective should you have only one colour, and should you have longer runs screen beats most other methods for economy and price.

The colours are brighter and stand out more when screen printing t-shirts