I am writing this because of a post in the Art scene forum on this subject that got over 130 hits, and because I have been a professional t-shirt designer/separator for more than 15 years. I have worked for a long time at the very highest end of the industry. I've done work on black shirts for everyone from Disney to Anheuser Busch to The NBA and NFL to over a dozen big name rock and heavy metal bands. I also owneed and operated my own screen printing shop for several years before selling it for a profit.

If you'd like to get a sense of my qualifications to discuss this subject, check out the designs which are displayed on a black background in my gallery. All are previously printed t-shirt designs. I also did ALL the separations for these designs.



First of all: even today, screen printing in an ART, not a science.

Many shops (almost every one you contact, in fact) will make B.S. claims as to what they are capable of. The actual truth is that very few shops are capable of printing high-detail, high quality prints, expecially on dark colored shirts.

Although technology had affected the screen print industry as well as any other area of production related design, the problem with textile printing is THE SHIRT. It is damn near impossible to write softwear that takes into account the numerous inconsistencies that apply each and every time you try to print on fabric.

There are several ways to print a design on a shirt. ALL are dependant on the separation. By separation, I mean that all the colors used to reproduce the original design must be separated into distinct color screens, which, when printed together, produce a cohesive, full color design on the shirt.

The primary methods of commercial screen printing are:

SPOT COLOR: each separation prints only solid (100%) areas of color, with no half-tones anywhere. Any (very limited) color blending that occurs on the shirt happens because two colors print wet-on-wet, and produce a third color.

SPOT PROCESS: Each screen prints with both solid areas of color, and half-toned areas of color. Often, two, or even three or more colors will print wet-on-wet to produce a range of additional colors. A cleverly constructed spot color separation, using 6 or more mixing color screens, can emulate a full color print. Most of the dark shirt designs in my gallery were printed using this technique. They range in number of printed colors from as little as 6, up to as many as 10 or even more. when getting a job printed using spot-process, ask a shop if they print at at least 55LPI print resolution. This will help cut down on the "grainy" effect you can get at lower resolutions.

FULL, OR FOUR COLOR PROCESS: Four, almost totally half-tone screens are used to print the design. The colors used are transparent, and intended to mix together as they print over each other wet-on-wet. The colors used are CYAN (blue), MAGENTA (reddish pink), YELLOW (lemon yellow in hue) amd BLACK. Most designs with either complex, intricate color or photographic elements require this technique. Most shops will print 4CP at at least 55LPI, and many use 65LPI screens. This helps to reproduce the fine level of detail required in more complex art.

However: if you truly think you will ever get a print of your design that is as smooth as the original, think again. It isn't possible. The nap (tightness of the weave of the fabric) of a typical 100% cotton t-shirt is about 55LPI. It is this factor that limits the resolution of a screen-printed design, as much as anything else.

Also, I've heard many people talk of getting designs printed using new ink-het, direct to shirt technology. That is fine, but don't expect to get anything printed on a dark shirt color. And don't expect to be able to afford more than a few shirts at a time. The cost per shirt is immense to print like this, and the technology is designed primarily for very limited runs (12 - 24 pieces max). Some newer machines that do this use high pigment inks, which allow for printing on mid-range color garments, but no machine I have seen yet is able to successfully print on a very dark, or black shirt color.

In all cases where you intend to print on a dark background (ie: a black shirt) an underbase is required. There are two types of underbases.

UNDERBASE WHITE: Pure white is printed first, then partially dried on the shirt. This forms a base for the other colors, which print on the white, not on the shirt.

UNDERBASE DISCHARGE: A chemical base is printed first, upon which all the other colors are printed, which, when cured during the drying process, discharges the color out of the garment, leaving only the screened colors showing. This technique produces and end product with a softer "feel" or "hand", but often at the expense of pure whites in the design, which can look dull in the final print. This can be over-come with an additional white screen, printed last, but remember: every screen added increases the over-all cost of the print.

In addition to these basic forms of screen printing, some shops also print using water-based inks (more expensive and harder to do well), or specialty inks which produce raised, or otherwise unique looking effects on the shirt. Generally speaking, the more unusual the effect, the more difficult it is to both seperate the art for it, as well as properly print the final screen print. Some specialty forms of printing include, but are not limited to: Gels, Metalics, Puffs, etc. Effects that are possible to simulate can range from a simple metalic sheen, to snake skin, to a suede leather effect, to raised metal letters, or even raised, clear gel letters and shapes (like raindrops on the hood of a car, for example), etc.

Ok, so here ends the lesson in screen printing. Now, for some practical info:

First off, depending on how inportant the final use of the shirt is, be prepared, if you live in a small town, to go pretty far to find a shop that is truly capable of printing what you want. Small, local shops simply do not do high-end work often enough to warrant learning how to do it well.

The problem is the SIZE OF THE ORDERS THEY TYPICALLY TAKE IN. When you are doing 24-36 shirts for Joe's Deli and Sandwich shop, for his employees to get greased up the first time they wear them, you simply don't need to be proficient in high-end precision screen printing. Look for shops, or plants, in the biggest city closest to where you live. Try to find large companies, with multiple presses with 10 or more printing heads. Such shops are used to printing large quantities of highly detailed work, usually on black or other dark colored garments.

Second: if you are working on a shoe-string budget, DO NOT expect any shop to print you a 10 color design. The two factors that mostly determine the cost of a final printed shirt are the number of shirts ordered, and the number of screened colors in the print. If you only want to order 24 shirts, even a one color design will cost about $7 to $8 per shirt. 72 shirts, printed using 3 colors, will cost about $5 to $6 per shirt. These are very rough figures, and the cost varies according to what part of the country you live in, but they are roughly accurate.

You can also choose what type of shirt (by manufacturer) you have your design printed on. An 8 ounce Haynes Beefy T is going to cost you a lot more than a Gildan 6.5 ounce shirt. The Gildan may sell just as well, and will cost you a lot less over any size run. Also remember that colored shirts are more expensive than white.

The more shirts you buy at one time, the lower the cost per shirt. The more shirts you buy at one time, the easier to get more individualy printed colors, because the cost of screens is amortized over the total run. Often, you can talk a company into a few extra screened colors if you buy 144 shirts (a gross) or more at the same time. Shirts are ordered wholesale by the printing company in boxes of 72 each, so the order sizes will typically be based on either divisions of this number, or multpiles of it. The higher the number, the more little extras you can get thrown in.

If you provide the art, you still need it separated. FIND THE SHOP THAT CAN PROVE, BY SHOWING YOU SAMPLES OF THEIR WORK, THAY THEY ARE THE BEST AT SEPARATING ART. Even the best press operator can only improve a lousy separation so much.

Good seps are the key to a good print.

High-end designs need to be printed on screens that have a fine mesh. The two ratings for this kind of print that are employed by most shops are 230 and 305 mesh. Ask what the shop you are considering uses. If they tell you thay will only use 125 or 155 mesh, be leary of their ability to do highly detailed work.

Be leary of shops that nickle and dime you for every aspect of the printing process. Just like a used car salesman, a clever salesperson at a t-shirt shop can try to charge you for art, separations, screens, printing, packaging, and even shipping. Some of these costs are legitimate. Others are extremely subject to negotiaton. Seps should be free for any run of more than 72 pieces, or on an extremely simple design. Screen charges can be left off as well if the run is large enough.

In all cases, it never hurts to dicker a little bit. Most shops are hungry for work most of the time, especially if there are a lot of shops in the same town. In that case, no shop is going to let a job walk over screen charges.

Since we are on deviant, it is not likely you guys will need art to be created, but if you do, art charges can run form $25 to $100 an hour. Get the hour count quoted up-front. That way, if their artist takes longer than they quoted to do the work, it ain't your problem.

I know this business backwards and forwards including art, production and marketing, and would be glad to answer any specific questions. Try to make them relevent to a job you'd actually like to get printed, AND, please read the rest of the thread before you post a question, to make sure it hasn't already been answered. I won't answer the same question over and over. If you provide a link to a specific piece of art, I'll give you my reccomendations on how it should be printed.

Hope this helps all concerned.