Screen printing is one of the most popular ways of customising t-shirts. It’s highly effective, affordable, and can be used to create a wide range of aesthetics and designs, but how does it actually work?
If you’re considering using a screen printing service, whether for your own personal project or for a new work uniform, it can be nice to understand how those pieces will actually be customised.
From artwork design to curing the freshly printed t-shirt, here’s how the screen printing process works.
Artwork design
The first part of the screen printing process is to create a suitable design. Screen printing techniques suit certain kinds of designs better than others, and can only be used to print blocks of colours, rather than the more blended effect you might get with digital printing.
As a result of these design restrictions, it’s important to work with a graphic designer who understands and has worked on screen printing projects before, to get the best outcome possible.
Screen preparation
Next, the screen can be prepared. To do so, a company like Screen Textiles will need to transfer the design onto a screen, which is essentially a mesh plate with thousands of tiny holes.
The negative of the image will be blocked out by a stencil, so that ink can only pass through a certain area on the screen. The rest of the screen will need to be washed, to ensure that none of the holes that the ink needs to pass through are blocked.
Once this is done, the screen is good to go.
Printing
With the screen ready, t-shirts can now be printed on. The screen will be placed over the part of the t-shirt that needs to be printed on, and fastened with some kind of clamp or weight.
Ink can then be forced through the part of the screen onto the fabric of the t-shirt.
If you want to have multiple different colours on the t-shirt, you’ll need to have prepared multiple different screens; these have to be aligned properly, and printed one after another, to result in the final, multi coloured image.
Curing the t-shirt
Once the image has been printed on the t-shirt, it can finally be cured. There are a number of different ways that this can be done, often with either heat or certain chemicals.
The goal is to render the ink durable and permanent, so that it doesn’t flake off the garment or come off in high heat in the wash.
Of course, even a perfectly cured screen print will still need to be looked after and treated with care, to ensure its longevity.
Screen printing remains one of the best ways of personalising t-shirts. Whether you want to make a celebratory t-shirt for a family event or create a fun run of branded garments to help market your new business, it’s definitely worth considering as an option. Just make sure you get a suitable designer and an experienced screen printing service to help you out, and you’re good to go.
