The Top 5 Most Asked Questions About Printed Shirts

With screen printing t-shirts, you may either design your own t-shirts or use one of the standard designs offered by those firms that concentrate on t-shirt printing. However if you want to design your own t-shirt, you will find certain aspects of screen printing you should understand, while they impact on the type of design you may use.

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

Screen Printing T-Shirts: the Process

The Screen - At one time this process was known as silk screen printing, since 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.

However the artwork will be needed before the screens may be made, an explanation of the technique will be necessary so you can understand the limitations within your design. First, a mesh is essential with holes large enough to enable the ink to be squeezed through it. A typical 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, as 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 the garment is placed under the box. Ink is poured into the box and a tool known as a 'squeegee' is pulled across, forcing the ink over the mesh. The ink is then dried, leaving the image on the t-shirt.

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

It should be apparent that a whole new screen is needed for each different colour unless the pattern is precisely 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 will be printed in a run, then the cheaper it gets for each individual garment.

Other printing methods, for example digital printing, can print multiple colours with virtually no rise in price. So why use screen printing for t-shirts rather than just digital? There are many 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, and other methods, can not print large areas as effectively as screen.

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

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

Screen is incredibly cost effective should you have just one colour, and if 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