Screen Printing Instructions

Screen printing generally uses a hand or electronically prepared stencil. The part that is to be printed is created of silk, nylon or a stainless-steel mesh. Ink can pass through this region and through the other part of the stencil that is contained in a frame. The printing surface is located on a flat surface under the frame. The impression is created by coercing the ink through the screen area with a rubber squeegee. The need for a heavy ink consistency and halftone screen restricts reproduction quality. Such a process offers good opacity and brilliant color possibilities.

Screen Printing Tips

• Allot lot of time for the t-shirts to be printed
• Have a design professional handle the preparatory work
• Reduce the number of colors in the design
• Take pre-orders
• Investigate the suppliers
• Create the artwork in a vector drawing program
• Be wary of fancy t-shirts blanks
• Do not overlook the shipping and delivery costs
• Locate a great t-shirt printer
• Screen or silkscreen printing is useful for t-shirts

Screen printing precautions

• Precautions have to be taken from exposure to solvents in the inks, thinners and clean-up materials.
• Inhalation must be avoided as it leads to narcosis, headache, nausea, dizziness and light-headedness.
• Solvents have to be stored in approved and capped flammable storage cabinets.
• Before beginning, all sources of ignition should be eliminated.
• Solvents should be purchased in the smallest quantities for minimizing fire hazards.
• Gloves have to be worn for all screen printing processes to protect the skin from pigments, solvents and other chemicals.
• The inks and cleaning materials used in water-based screen printing employ water rather than toxic organic solvents.
• Products only with water, propylene glycol or ethylene glycol or used.
• Use of diazo photoemulsions can totally make the need of solvents unnecessary.
• Basic personal hygiene is very essential for those working with art materials.
• Hazardous pigments and some toxic solvents are used in the manufacture of water-based inks and related materials.
• There has to be no eating, drinking, make-up application or smoking in the studio or while working.
• For water-based printing, correct ventilation has to be provided by a window exhaust fan and this costs quite less than a slot exhaust hoods or other complicated systems.
• If lacquer stencils are used, then one explosion-proof slot exhaust hood is required for this process.

Screen printing guidelines

Digital art : There must be PC format, Vector based artwork in .Al, .CDR or .EPS formats. Corel Draw documents must be up to version 9 and Abode Illustrator files up to version 10. There should not be any trapping in the design and separate all layers. Embedded objects or bitmap images are not accepted. The text can be transformed to outlines or curves. If the text cannot be converted, provide the .TTF font file.

Imprint sizes : A full front or full back imprint can be 9" to 12" wide and 12" high. Left chest imprints range from 2.5" to 4" wide and up to 4" high. Sleeve imprints are generally 2" to 3" wide and up to 10" long for a long sleeve garment.

Paper Art : If there is no access to digital art, paper artwork can be used. Multiple color designs have to be color separated so that every color in the design can be seen in the correct position on separate pages and these must be printed in black ink. If separate artwork cannot be provided, it is possible to re-create the design by scanning it and re-drawing the image digitally. There are separate charges for artwork.

Color : Screen printing is done in spot colors. The inks are in process color printing and are not blended . Every color is applied one at a time with individual screens. Any uncoated PMS color is matched at no additional cost.

Artwork design : If there is no design, the graphic artists would work to create one where thousands of stock images and templates can be used or modified to fit the specific need.