Why screen print

If the final design is going to include more than one colour, then a separate screen must be used to apply each layer of ink. To create multi-coloured products, the printer must use his skill to design each stencil, and line them up perfectly to ensure the final design is seamless.

After the screen has been exposed for a set time, the areas of the screen not covered by the design will have turned hard. Any unhardened emulsion is then carefully rinsed away.

This leaves a clear imprint of the design on the screen for the ink to pass through. The screen is then dried, and the printer will make any necessary touch-ups or corrections to make the imprint as accurate as possible to the original design. The stencil is now ready to be used. The screen is then placed on the printing press. The item or garment being printed is laid down flat onto the printing board, underneath the screen.

There are a number of different presses, including manual and automatic styles, but most modern commercial printers will use an automatic rotary carousel printer, as this allows several different screens to work at once. For multicoloured prints, this sort of printer can also be used to apply the separate colour layers in quick succession. The screen is lowered down onto the printing board. Ink is added to the top end of the screen, and a squeegee is used to pull the ink along the full length of the screen.

This presses the ink through the open areas of the stencil, imprinting the design on the product underneath. If the printer is creating multiple items, then the screen is raised and a new garment is placed onto the printing board.

The process is then repeated. Once all the items have been printed and the stencil has served its purpose, the emulsion is removed using a special washing fluid so the mesh can be reused to create new stencils. The printed product then passes through a dryer, which 'cures' the ink and creates a smooth, colourfast finish. The final product will be checked and washed thoroughly to remove any residue, before being passed on to its new owner. To get a clean, sharp print, a screen printer needs to have the right tools for the job.

While it is possible to screen print with just a mesh screen and a squeegee, most printers prefer to use a press, as it allows them to print lots of items more efficiently. This is because the press holds the screen in place between prints, making it easier for the user to swap out the paper or clothing being printed. There are three types of press: manual, semi-automatic, and automatic. Semi-automatic presses are partially mechanised, but still require human input to swap over the items being pressed, while automatic presses are completely automated and require little to no input.

Businesses that need to print items in large quantities will normally use a semi- or fully automatic press, as this allows faster, more efficient printing and minimises mistakes. Smaller companies, or those who do screen printing as a hobby, might find that a manual table-top press sometimes called a 'handbench' press is better suited to their needs. The ink, pigment or paint is pushed through the mesh screen and onto the item being printed, transferring a coloured imprint of the stencil design onto the product.

There are lots of specialist inks, which can be used to create different effects on the finished product. For instance, a printer may use glittery inks, texturised inks, or puff inks which expand to create a raised surface to create a unique look or feel. The printer will also take into account the type of fabric being screen printed, as some inks will work better on certain materials than others.

When printing clothing, printers will use a type of ink which becomes machine washable once it has been heat-treated and set. This produces a colourfast, long-wearing item that can be worn again and again. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent.

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This setup is often charged as a one-off fee — the origination fee. The price per print can also depend on the number of colours you want to use.

An additional screen is required for each new colour with screen printing which means any additional colours will cost you. It was then that ancient artists first stretched silk fabric across a frame and poured hot beeswax into it. Digital printing processes have evolved a lot in the meantime to the point where batches of digital prints can be published in a matter of seconds. Where a screen printing gives a more vibrant finish especially when printing onto a darker surface , digital distribution is better suited to detailed work due to the layers of ink being thinner which assures the final print will turn out more precise.

So there you have it. Hopefully, our guide has given you a better idea of the processes involved and finished you can achieve with screen printing and digital printing. Please leave this field empty. Delivering world class mail and print solutions since , we know a thing or two about the industry.

Read our latest news and insights to learn more about our experience and expertise. This overall set up for silk screening is much longer than DTG printing as we have to manually do everything by hand. This is where the wizardry happens. We take our custom colors and start mixing and matching until we have the exact colors that you specified. We only use high-quality inks that are designed to last a long time.

The inks we use are also really thick, which means the design is going to come out looking really good. The press is where the shirt is silk screened. Picture a armed metal beast from some mythical Viking tale.

On each arm there is place where the wooden silk screen that we designed for your shirts is placed. The t-shirt is stretched over an ironing board looking device.

The screens are then lowered on top of the t-shirt. We pour the custom ink concoction on top of it and then use a rubber squeegee to very quickly move the ink from one end of the silk screen to the other. As the ink gets moved over the screen, the t-shirt soaks up the ink on the front and the design starts to appear. Depending on what colors you wanted, we may have to mix colors more wizardry and the t-shirt may undergo two or more silk screenings using different colors and a different arm of the armed metal beast.

The end result is a t-shirt that has the exact same design, and color that you wanted.