screenprinting

How it Works

Our Auto Press in Action

Screenprinting is an imprinting method where ink is passed over a high mesh screen stencil similar to the screens on your screen door.

The screens are covered with a light sensitive liquid that hardens as it is exposed to light. The parts of the screen that are covered by artwork stay soft and wash away with water. Next the screen is lowered onto a garment and ink is pushed through the open areas with a squeegee. Once all colors are printed, the garment is sent through a dryer, curing the plastic based ink.

See Screenprinting Setup for More Information.

The Art of Screenprinting

The Art Preparation Process

Artwork
Artwork comes in many forms, from sketches to computer files. Regardless of how the artwork has been created, it is broken down into separate colors by computer. The separations are printed out on a translucent film or paper, one piece per color. The graphic above is made of black, green, red, and yellow, it will take four films and four screens to produce.

Screen ready art is art that you might have had from a previous printer, or art that is prepared specifically for screenprinting. Screen ready art needs to be on film positives (clear film with dense black positive image separated for each color). Upon receipt of your film positives we will inspect the art and advise you of any possible problems we foresee. We retain the right to refuse any artwork not generated in-house. The positives need to be actual print size. An art charge will be incurred for any necessary touch up.

See our main ARTWORK Section for more detailed information.

Screen Printing Options

MINIMUM ORDER: Our standard minimum order for screen printed garments, unless otherwise indicated, is one (1) dozen or (12) items.

PRESSES: We print on 6 color manual and 10 color automatic screen printing presses.

We offer screen printing on all types of sportswear and up to eight (8) color printing in each location.

All standard ink colors are available.

The following is a screen representation of our standard stock ink colors:
This color list is provided for your convenience and should not be used for exact matching due to the different colors computer monitors will display. Other ink colors are available, see store for details.

Lemon Yellow	Yellow Gold	Orange	Brite Red
Maroon	Magenta	Royal Blue	Navy
Brite Green	Kelly Green	Khaki	Sienna Brown
Dark Brown	Gray	Teal	Purple
Solar Blue	Pink	White	Black

Standard Screenprinting Imprint Sizes

1. Left Chest, (also known as "breast" or "heart" size). This is the typical imprint size for a company logo to printed on the breast area or sleeve of a shirt. The logo imprint size is any size 4" X 4" maximum or smaller. The typical logo size print is 3.25" X 3.25."

2. Full size. This is our standard imprint size. This imprint size is for printing across the full front or full back of the shirt.

Adult imprint: 12" x up to 16 inches tall.

Youth imprint: 10" X 10"

Toddler imprint: 5.5" X 5.5"

We can print the design at most any width or height you need up to our press maximums. The above sizes are typical guidelines.

If you have any question regarding Colors, or design size e-mail us or call 1(800)755-0377.