Your Most Burning Questions About Printed Tees

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'll find certain aspects of screen printing you should understand, while they effect on the type of design you can use.

First, a brief description of what is associated with screen printing:

Screen Printing T-Shirts: the Process

The Screen - At one time this process was referred to 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.

However the artwork is required before the screens can be made, an explanation of the technique will be necessary so you can understand the limitations in your design. Foremost, a mesh is required with holes big enough to allow the ink to be squeezed through it. A normal mesh will be 110 (110 threads/inch), with lower for thicker inks and block images, and higher for thinner inks and more definition.

The mesh is coated with a light-sensitive emulsion, and also 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 in the event the screen is washed, the area of the design is clear of emulsion, while the rest is solid. This really is true whether screen printing t-shirts or every 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 also a tool called a 'squeegee' is pulled across, forcing the ink throughout the mesh. The ink is then dried, leaving the image on the t-shirt.

When you would ever guess, this process is suitable only for an individual colour per printing because only one colour may 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 is not possible to merge one shade into another when screen printing t-shirts.

It should be apparent that a whole new screen is needed click for more each different colour unless the pattern is precisely the same. This adds to the price, and screen printing t-shirts is expensive for individual garments. There is a fixed set-up cost and then an additional 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 can be very opaque, and can cover any deep colour beneath it. Digital printing struggles to print light shades in addition to dark, for example 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 also are thicker so give greater coverage. You need offer no specific washing instructions.

Screen is incredibly cost effective if 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