Screen Printing Techniques:

Mtshastatees by Custom Designs uses several different screen printing techniques to provide quality screen printed garments.

There are a few different ways of reproducing artwork when you screen print tee shirts or any other garment. The different methods used will produce various results in color and print hand. The following is a brief explanation of the individual types of artwork and printing methods we use:

1. Spot Color Printing: This is the most common form of screen printing tee shirts. This method uses the stock color of the ink without alterations by printing it through the stencil in wide open areas of the screen mesh. This will produce a very vibrant solid "spot" of color. It also tends to produce thicker layers of ink depending on the ink and the mesh count used. Printing in spot colors will be helpful in achieving opacity on darker garments. This is the least expensive to create artwork for and can also be very cost effective to print on 1 to 6 colors. Spot color artwork is great for most graphic logos that do not require gradients or excessive colors.

2. Half-Tone Printing: This process involves printing a single or multiple colors in gradients. Here we can take a single color of ink and make it appear as two shades or more of the same color. These tones can range all the way from a solid spot to a very fine halftone of the same color. Sometimes referred to as a "spot and dot" this method is great when you want to achieve the look of multi color printing without the expense of actually doing it. For instance, if we print red on a white shirt and include a 50% gradient of the red, the 50% gradient will "mix" with the white of the tee shirt giving the appearance of a pink color. Therefore giving us a print with red and pink but only using one screen and one color of ink. If your graphic artist knows what they are doing, you can use this technique to improve the look and quality of your graphics. It's a great effect that will reduce the number of spot colors and screens. Printing in halftones will also produce a softer feeling print when printed directly onto the garment.

3. Grayscale Printing: This is a simple way of printing full color images as 1 color grayscales or halftones. Full tone color photographs may be printed as a 1 color halftone. Full color drawings or paintings that contain complete tonal ranges in different colors may also be reproduced by means of a 1 color halftone. Most often these are done in black ink on a light colored garment. But single color halftones may actually be done in any color ink if so desired. Many of us are familiar with the black and white printed images we see in many newspapers. This is a similar method used for printing 1 color halftones onto tee shirts. Resolution or image clarity will depend on the lines per inch used in the dot pattern. The more dots a halftone has the more detailed and crisp it will look. This is a great method for inexpensively printing black and white or full color photographs onto garments. Best results are achieved on white tee shirts. This will also produce a softer feeling print when printed directly onto the garment.

4. Duotone Printing: This is simply the combination of two halftones for the same image printed with 2 colors. Meaning there is the black halftone printed with black ink and then we will have a second halftone which will be printed with a color ink like a warm brown for instance. The warm brown halftone combines with the black halftone which will create a duotone print which has the color hue of the warm brown halftone. This is similar to a sepia toned print in photography. This is a very cool effect to print on light garments creating the feel of a full color print but being much less expensive to do. It also has a sophisticated, artsy look. This will also produce a softer feeling print when printed directly onto the garment.

5. Natural Blend Effect. This is a process that can create several colors using only one screen. Multiple colors are pulled through one screen, which blends the colors together – like a rainbow effect. With each item you print the ink blends slightly differently, creating a unique and more individualized design.

6. Ink Selection: In addition to our Panetone Color Plastisol ink selection we also use many speciality inks to add another layer of creativity to your design. Neon, metallic, glitter, sparkle and puff inks can be used.