The art behind custom screen printed t-shirts

Printed t-shirts are very popular and many people consider them to be a great gift, as it allows them to personalize the shirts any way they want. In addition, many seem to think that custom screen printed t-shirts are easily made, but the truth is that there is an entire work of art that lies at the basis of manufacturing such a shirt, or at the very least a complex and time consuming process. Every screen printed job takes not only time, but also a significant amount of care, which is not obvious to the end customer who simply orders or looks for custom screen printing online. These websites that provide custom printed t-shirts and allow customers to choose or make their own designs make everything look so easy, but the truth is that behind that software allowing you to create your printing design, there is a lot of hard work.

Once the company offering custom screen printing online has the design you’ve made or chosen, they will start processing it, creating a composite proof that depicts exactly how the final t-shirt will look. This will accurately show the print size dimensions, the ink colors and the specific locations of the print. The screens are made with film that needs to be output and then pre-registered, in order to be checked for quality and details, so that the custom screen printed t-shirts that reach the end consumers can be a facsimile of their designs. This is where the art ends and the process begins. When the art is fully approved, the screens begin their printing process. The first step of this process is coating the screens with photosensitive emulsion, which needs to dry before being exposed to metal halide light. The exposure is done on a vacuum light table and when the process is done, the screens are being washed under pressure, at approximately 1300 psi. At this point, the image of the screens is checked with the films, as they should be identical. If that’s so, the actual printing process begins.

Before custom screen printed t-shirts were available through this process, printing a design onto a piece of clothing was done by creating a different screen for each color in the design. Then, each screen was blocked, taped, set up and squeegeed, which took a lot more time and involved a lot more work, as you can imagine. Therefore, screen printing was developed, so that printing could be done in bulk quantities. Depending on the amount of orders they deal with, companies offering custom screen printing online can either use manual presses or automatic presses and the final step of the process is called flashing, which involves drying the ink between the color layers. As you can see, there are two sides of creating and manufacturing a printed t-shirt, the art part and the technical part, both having a great influence on the final product, which is why it is important to choose an experienced and professional printing company.

To learn more about custom screen printing online or about custom screen printed t-shirts, please click on the links here.