Ridiculously Awesome Screen Printing for Custom T Shirts

Screen Printing

What is Screen Printing?

Screen Printing, also known as silk screening, is the process of pressing ink through a mesh screen onto fabric. The ink, also known as plastisol, is then heated on the fabric. The ink cures on the fabric leaving the design you had on the mesh screen.

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Considerations for Screen Printing

Artwork

Your image needs to be properly formatted in what’s called a vectored format. Read this page to learn about your artwork.

Colors

The more colors you have, the more complex the process can be. It will also drive up the cost of a custom shirt. This is due to each color requiring an individual screen for that specific color. After one color is applied to the shirt or garment, the color needs to be heated just long enough so the next color can be applied without distorting the previous color.

Type of Fabric & Style of Apparel

The type of fabric can determine what type of ink plastisol may need to be used. For example, some ink is more rigid than others, so for a sports team jersey or a dri fit t-shirt may require an ink that is flexible. Also, fabric that tends to be fluffy instead of flat may require a different ink.

We carry and have access to a variety of apparel textures, blends, and brands. Here are few ways to help you with your selection of the perfect custom shirt.

Types of the most common blends and fabric:

100% Cotton
100% Polyester, known as a Dri Fit or Performance Shirt
50%/50% blend of Cotton & Polyester
75%/13%/12% Tri-Blend of Poly/Cotton/Rayon, known as a soft

Common Brands we carry:

Port Authority
Port & Company
Sport-Tek
Red House
District
CornerStone
Nike & Nike Limited Edition
OGIO & OGIO Endruance
New Era
Eddie Bauer
Carhartt
Red Kap
Bulwark

Alternative Apparel
BELLA+CANVAS
Hanes
Jerzees
Fruit of the Loom
Anvil
Comfort Colors
American Apparel
Gildan
Rabbit Skins
Russell Outdoors
Ourey

Number of Locations

Each screen printed location for your custom t-shirt or garment requires a different screen. The more locations and colors you have will increase the cost of the t-shirt. Common locations include full front, full back, left and/or right chest, and left and/or right sleeve/pants.

Quantity

Having a low quantity of custom shirts printed is not necessarily the most cost effective way, however, it may be just what you need. The more you do, the less it is per shirt or garment. For less than 12 quantities there are other print options available, like vinyl & heat transfers (provide link)

The same setup that goes into one shirt is the same for 1000 shirts.

Direct to Garment

This is an alternative to the traditional screen printing method. It’s typically used for shirts that have very high complexity of artwork with many colors. The process works much like your printer at home, except instead of inserting a piece of paper, you insert a shirt. Then you have to cure the ink. There are two downsides to this process. It cost a bit more per shirt and the ink will eventually wear off. It’ because you can’t get as much ink on the direct to garment shirt compared to a plastisol ink screen print.

You can do On Demand Shirt printing with this method. This basically means, when you need one shirt, we can print it as there are no setup fees. We just need the artwork and colors.