Screen Printing

Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, like t-shirts.

Ordering:

Here are a few things to consider before choosing screen printing as your print style.

• Our minimum order quantity is 10 pieces, due to the time and expense that is required to produce a screen print product. All 10 must use the same design.
• We do not offer sample shirts, a single screen printed shirt used for the purpose of evaluating the print shop’s craftsmanship. We do offer shirts that we’ve printed in house that we offer for sale.
• We do not accept shirts that have been purchased outside of our shop for print jobs. We work with a few apparel distributors and have access to many different brands, styles and sizes.

Art Work:

A few basic guidelines must be followed in the area of artwork:

• Files must be in a vector format or high-resolution (minimum of 300 DPI) prior to printing. Programs like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, or Corel Draw can provide the file required for printing. If you don’t have a fancy graphic design program, we can help! For a small artwork fee, we can convert your image to press-ready. It does require time and effort to perform this task.
• We accept the following file types: PSD, .AI, .JPEG, .EPS, .PDF, .TIFF. We prefer .AI or .EPS files first as vector images can be scaled-up without affecting image quality. Next, we prefer .PSD, .PDF, .TIFF. And finally, .JPG last.
• Remember that the amount of colors in an image translates to a screen. If you have 4 colors, in most cases, it will require 4 screens. 

Ink Types

• There are several different types of ink to consider when printing. There are inks to give your shirt a nice pop of color and inks designed to give your shirt a “soft-hand” (can’t feel the ink at all). Then there are specialty inks and printing methods such as metallics, bases to give your print texture, glow in the dark ink, and others to add a special effect to the print.
• Currently we are only using plastisol inks. Plastisol is used to give your shirt a nice, bright pop of color. Whites are very opaque, colors are vivid. This is the most standard ink type used. Plastisol has a slight feel to it when running your hand across the shirt as the ink actually sits on top of the shirt surface. This type of ink is typically used on 100% cotton tees