Custom Screen Printing
Spot Color is the most common form of custom 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. When you begin to plan a design with 5 to 8 or more spot colors, a different printing method like simulated process may reduce the amount of film work and screen making needed to set up the job. Spot color artwork is great for most graphic logos that do not require gradients or excessive colors.
Simulated Process Printing: This combines standard 4 color process printing with spot color printing. This may also be done by printing spot colors with halftone colors which combine to create the colors of the original image. Here we use spot colors to intensify the overall look of the printed shirt. This may also be done when 4 color process printing is unable to reproduce a color the customer wishes to be dominant on the final print. As many spot colors may be added as needed but limited additions are recommended. This process can actually be more expensive than process printing because it can require complex artwork and the addition of many screens. This is most often the process used to print complex images onto black colored garments. It can produce some excellent imagery but requires some experience in artwork creation. The feel of this print will depend on the artwork and the under base if printed on black shirts.
4-Color Process Or CMYK Printing: This is probably the most complex of the printing processes, although it may be done on a manual printing press, optimum and consistent results will be achieved better on a fully automatic press. Here we take a full color photograph or image and break it down into its four constituent colors; cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The printing process uses these four colors combined to recreate the full tonal and color range of the original image. Each color printer is a halftone of the opposite color in the original image.
Sometimes screen printing isn’t enough by itself. Specialty inks provide a unique print with effects that truly stand out. Whether it’s the soft, light print of Fashion Soft inks or the heavy, raised print of High Density inks, your screen printed apparel can be customized even further with specialty inks. Here you see a Crystalina printed over top of PMS Matched Plastisol giving it a beautiful glitter effect.
PMS Matching: A popular color matching system used by the printing industry to print spot colors. Most applications that support color printing allow you to specify colors by indicating the Pantone name or number. This assures that you get the right color when the file is printed, even though the color may not look right when displayed on your monitor.
