While some may consider the screen fill method simple and inexpensive, there are several drawbacks:

It is extremely time consuming, in fact most demonstrations of this method involve low detail, simple art. When you make a mistake painting the filler, it can be quite aggravating to try to fix. It is tedious. It takes a long time and is painstaking. If you want to reproduce the screen, you have to do the whole process over again, and it’ll never be exactly the same. Line work and small type are pretty much out of the question. Imagine trying to paint the centers of letters like “e” and “a” or a long, straight line.

Fortunately, there is another method for creating stencils on screens that solves all five of the above problems, and it is also relatively inexpensive on a per screen basis: the photographic method using light sensitive emulsion.

Basically, the photographic method involves filling all the holes in the screen with photographic emulsion (also know as coating the screen). The emulsion is simply poured into a scoopcoater, and then dragged across the screen, creating a barrier about as thick as a few sheets of paper. When the coat dries, it’s ready for exposure.

Then a film is made with the desired image. The film has two parts to it, the light-blocking part and the transparent part. The film looks just like the final print will look, except it is black and clear.

The film acts as a light barrier when exposing the emulsion with light. Because the emulsion is light sensitive, it becomes water resistant when exposed. After exposure, the screen is rinsed, and the unexposed parts wash away. The image on the film becomes the stencil on the screen, allowing the ink to pass only where the image is. Films are commonly made of transparencies on a paper much like tracing paper, or on specially coated acetate sheets that can be printed with an ink jet printer.

While there are a few types of photographic emulsions, including capillary films, diazo, photopolymer, and dual cure, the light sensitive emulsion that is probably the most useful to the kind of printer that might consider the screen fill method is the dual cure emulsion. The reason why the dual cure is a suitable substitute is because someone who would use the screen fill method most likely is looking to do a short print run if they are using waterbased inks(less than 1000 pieces), they want to make a quality screen that can be recycled, and they want as few steps as possible to create the screen with as little expense.

Coating screens with photographic emulsion is a fairly quick and painless process once you get the hang of it. While there are some best practices and trouble-shooting tips that can shorten your learning curve, even without much experience most people pick it up quickly. The one main drawback of the photographic process is that you need a light source to expose your screen. Fortunately, with the right set-up, you have a large variety of choices including the sun.

There are a few reason for the disconnect:

1.Many specialty imprints exceed the capabilities of most crowd-source websites. Many T-shirt websites use a print-on-demand model that utilizes digital printers or plot cutters and heat presses that don’t modify easily.

2. Even if they can do the prints, unusual prints are more time-consuming and expensive to produce, meaning unless the design is a big hit, it doesn’t help the bottom line.

3. Most small T-shirt designers only consider what they’d like to design, and don’t give much thought to the production process until long after the concept phase.

So what’s a designer to do when confronted with roadblocks put up by their once accessible outlets? When, contemporary problems don’t find comfort with contemporary solutions, go old school. In other words, it’s time to learn how to screen print and market for yourself.

At this point, a designer may be asking himself, “Why don’t I just hire a screen printing shop to make the shirts for me?” The answer is, that is a great solution, bearing in mind one thing, you’re going to need a pile of money to go that route. Screen print shops are geared for mass production, so they need to do either large runs, or charge sizable set-up fees to cover all the make-ready. Compound that with the massive size requirements for the equipment needed to do over-sized imprints in bulk, and you have an equation for high start-up hurdles. The only way an artist can afford to pay them is if he is sure his designs will be big sellers or he has very trusting investors.

Why does it make sense to screen print your designs for yourself when commercial screen printers don’t do short runs? There are two reasons: a large part of the expense of paying screen printers is that you are paying for shop time in a place that is not set-up for short runs. It is cheaper and less space-intensive to set up your screen printing studio from the get-go for doing prototypes. Instead of paying money for your market samples, you’ll pay in time –your time.

What does a designer need to go from zero to T-shirt design prototyping? Not as much as one might think. For starters, a one-car garage, a few hundred dollars, access to a hardware store and a screen printing supply house, and some good learning materials with sound advice about guerrilla screen printing, can take the designer quite far. After that, a designer simply needs time for developing a skill that most artists pick up fairly easily. Considering the alternatives, that short list is a pretty modest hurdle.

Even if you could find a screen printer to do short runs of your test designs at a low cost, there still is yet another reason for a T-shirt designer to learn screen printing. If you want to get serious about designing T-shirts, the experience of printing may lend you invaluable insights that most likely you couldn’t get otherwise. The simple fact is, whenever you design anything, you really do need insight into the production process if you want to excel in that field. How your designs will be produced should not be an afterthought, but instead, an intrinsic part of the design phase.

Direct-to-garment printing is notable for its use of home printers instead of professional printing equipment that costs quite a lot of dollars to buy. It is touted as the cheapest alternative to screen printing and is quite simple to do. First, you print out the design you want put on the T-shirt on a special type of printing paper, and then you iron it to the shirt. That’s it, you’re done.

Because of its simplicity, direct-to-garment printing is preferred by most people to print their designs since they can reproduce photographs conveniently and easily without suffering a loss of quality or image clarity. It is also ideal for those that desire to print only a small amount of tee shirts since getting a professional printing service requires bulk orders of about a hundred shirts or more.

However, when you want to print out a lot of shirts, then direct-to-garment printing is definitely not your cup of tea. That is because for every shirt you print the design on, you have to print the design separately. That is time-consuming and, not to mention, expensive.

Screen printing, on the other hand, is ideal for this because they only need to use one screen for each design they need to print on each individual shirt. They only need to create one template for the design, and then they press the design right away on each shirt. You can compare screen printing services to the busy bees in your garden: they hover on one flower, grab their honey or pollen, and then they move on to the next flower. So, printers apply the design to one shirt, wait for it to be finished, and then they move on to the next.

What makes screen printing so expensive is the fact that their equipment for pressing is expensive. However, did you know that you could use your home printers to start a screen printing service?

Stenciling: That’s the Key

The stencil, next to the screen, is the most important tool in screen printing. The stencil is the template for the design. It acts like a filter. The stencil has open and closed areas that allow the ink to pass through. The open areas follow the contour of the design. This way, the printing ink can pass through and take the shape of the design. All the other parts are made to block the printer ink from getting through the screen.

That’s where your home printer comes in. One of the two ways of making a stencil is to cut out the design from any non-porous material and place it at the bottom of the screen. You can use your home printer to print out the design, cut it out from the paper, and reproduce the design on a non-porous material that you can use as a negative. You then cut out the design again from your negative, and you’re all set to print it.

The Technical Differences

One of the first things that you need to understand is the technical differences between offset and screen printing.  For screen printing, during the first step of the process, the image is burned onto a film positive from the electronic artwork. Then ink is pushed through a fine mesh screen onto the object being printed.

With offset printing, the image is burned onto the printing plate.  The plate is then inked and the image transferred to the surface of the item.

Offset Printing Considerations

If you think the offset printing process is right for you, then there are some things to consider.  For starters, offset printing is more expensive and time consuming to set up, which means the final cost can be pricey if you only need a few units. The process becomes more cost effective after 5,000 units.  It can also mean that you will have a longer delivery time due to the more complex process.

If you are transferring photographs or images using percentages of color, then offset printing will provide you with better image results. You will need higher resolution photos for offset printing to get the best possible image, and the lines will be smoother with offset printing than with screen printing.

Many large quantity paper printing is completed with offset printing.  For example, if you are printing on multiple mediums but want the images to look the same, then offset printing may be the best way to create that consistency. For example, if you are printing on both the front of a CD and the CD jacket, offset printing will make it easier for the two to appear similar.

Screen Printing: Pros and Cons

Screen printing is faster and easier to set up, which means the project is often cheaper than offset printing, particularly for smaller runs. Screen printing can also provide you with a faster delivery time, which is ideal for those with a tight deadline.

If you are trying to match a specific color, then it is easier to accomplish with screen printing, which will give you truer color results.  You will also be able to use metallic and fluorescent inks with this process.

However, solid colors may not print as well with screen printing as they do in offset printing, and the lower line screen used means that the surface is not as smooth.

Deciding which printing method is right for you is a personal choice. You will need to take into consideration what you are printing, how many copies you need, the quality and colors of your artwork, and even the turnaround time that you need for the finished project. With these considerations in mind, you will be able to choose the printing process that is right for you.

For t-shirt printing, the screen is made of a piece fabric which is finely woven and called mesh. It is stretched over a frame of aluminum or wood. Areas of the screen are blocked off with a non permeable material to form a stencil, which is a negative of the image to be printed. You can design your own t-shirt with the help of t-shirt screen printing techniques are printed in multi-color designs using a wet on wet technique, while graphic items are permitted to dry between colors that are then printed with another screen and usually in a different color.

While the people think of garments in combination with t-shirt screen printing, the technique of screen printing is used on tens of thousands of items, decals, clock and watch faces, balloons and many more products. You can design your own t-shirt using your personal computer and a laser or ink-jet printer. Clip-Art and other popular design programs let you create designs without an artistic background. Prepare a Film Positive by printing each color of the design onto a piece of translucent film or paper. Software breaks your full color images apart own its own. To transfer your image from the film positive to the screen, the film must be put in contact with an emulsion-coated screen and exposed to UV light. It is important to have good film-to-screen contact and accurate control of exposure time. Develop the exposed screen with water. This eliminates the emulsion where the positive image was on your film. So far it is easy. Then, register your screens by aligning the image on each screen to the film positive that has been taped to one of the pallets. Then clamp the screens in place, use the micro-registration adjustment for final alignment and print.

To get a bright, opaque image on dark colored t-shirts, it is often necessary to flash partially cure the ink and then print another layer on top. This print, flash-cure, t-shirt screen printing technique is also used for multi-color t-shirt printing especially the dark ones.

Screen printing was mainly introduced to the western continents by some of the Asian countries in the late 18th centaury. However, the method was not so popular in the European countries. But the situation changed with the introduction of silk mesh. Silk mesh was merchandized from the east. Thus a profitable outlet for screen printing was discovered.

In England screen printing was patented for the first time by Samuel Simon in the year 1907. It was primarily used as a medium to print exquisite wall papers, silk, linen, and other expensive fabrics. Different types of screen printers came into existence; however, in order to gain competitive dominance, quality printing techniques were kept secret from the outside world. In those days, several screen printers that worked on photo-reactive chemicals utilized actinic light based cross linking. They used compounds like traits of sodium, potassium, ammonium chromate etc. These chemicals were combined with gelatin and other types of glues.

Scientists in those days experimented different chemicals to improve the printing technology and quality. They experimented with salt sensitized emulsions to create photo-reactive stencils.
Commercial screen printing makes use of sensitizers which is far safer than bichromates used in the olden days. At present, different types of user-mixed and pre-sensitized emulsion chemicals are available for building photo-reactive stencils.
In 1928, Joseph Ulano discovered the method of using lacquer-soluble material for stencils used upon a removable base. The stencil material was carved and stuck against the mesh to produce prominent print patterns.

By this time screen printing was quite popular in fabrics industry. And the technology was eventually adopted by artists too. For them it was a conveniently repeatable medium that helped them in replicating designs and blends without much labor.

At present, the printing technique is popular in commercial printing as well as fine arts. Screen printing is extensively used for printing posters, CDs, t-shirts and hats, ceramics, paper, wood, polyethylene, and metals.

In the 1930s, the technique was named as Serigraphy by a few artists who later on went on to create the National Serigraphic Society. The purpose was to give a different identity to this age old printing method.

According to Printer’s National Environmental Assistance Center screen printing is perhaps one of the most resourceful printing processes ever developed. All the raw materials used in this type of printing are readily available and inexpensive. Over the years, modern printing techniques were developed but they couldn’t replace the application of screen printing which is far more vibrant and artistic in its make and finish. It is still used extensively in printing contemporary styled posters, flyers, album covers etc. Consequently, the demand for quality screen printing is on a rise irrespective of the competition.

Even though, lots of changes can be noticed in the way t-shirts have been designed, it still remains the most popular piece of clothing. Now a days custom screen printed t-shirts are also available with which people try to express their unique style. Here personalized messages are printed which in a way express the attitude of the person wearing the t-shirt. It means you can design your own t-shirts. This has been possible only due to screen printing technology.

As far as types of screen printed t-shirts are concerned, there are many options available in the market. Right from a simple one colored print on a white t-shirt to full color prints, the market is full of t-shirts. They make ideal sportswear, paired with any athletic apparel. In fact, screen printed t-shirts also look good over thermal tops or under V-neck sweaters. Even various fabrics such as cotton, synthetic, polyester and other stuffs are used for making such t-shirts. To design your own t-shirts, you can even select the fabric and message you want on your t-shirt.

The screen printed t-shirts are very popular due to a number of reasons. First they are affordable; t-shirts are less expensive as compared to other apparel. Screen printing on fabrics are very cheap and can be done easily. Secondly, t-shirts are adaptable to different types of outfits as they can be worn with a pair of jeans or shorts or even trousers.

The main feature of screen-printed T-shirts is the design printed on the chest. Well, there are some t-shirts where designs are available on the sleeves, back, along the hem or around the collar. As far as color are concerned for screen printed t-shirts, black and white are the most common colors. But today the color options are varied.

While buying a screen printed t-shirts remember that while some of them look great off the rack, but after one wash the grace of t-shirts are lost. To avoid such situation, check the label to find out whether the t-shirt was pre-washed. This can help in making a prediction about how much changes in the size can be expected after a wash.

To maintain the quality of your custom screen printed t-shirts avoid washing the tightest or thinnest shirts in hot water. Before using any detergent, check the composition of the fabric as some fabrics can get loosen if washed in harsh chemicals.

Most importantly, you must always prefer to buy screen printed t-shirts from a reputed store, be it a traditional store or from some online shop. The quality of your custom t-shirt screen printing depends a lot on the place from where you are purchasing.