What is Involved in T-Shirt Printing?
For the production of printed garments for promotions, merchandise and fashion there are mainly 3 particular methods of screen printing employed. ‘Spot Color’ printing is the method most often used for a large variety of graphics. It is also the best suited method for such a task. Spot color printing is the appropriate procedure for graphic prints that aren’t photographic.
A graphic design professional typically determines the exact Pantone colours that the ink will be matched to in order to produce a high fidelity image. In order to isolate the hues of the ink in the image, Pantone coated or noncoated references are selected. An international colour reference used in publishing, printing and design whereby each colour is identified by a unique Pantone name and number and is called the Pantone matching system.
Branded promotional garments, or other merchandise where color identify and uniformity must stay constant, are particularly well suited for spot color printing.
The Four Color Process is another method used in tshirt screen printing. This printing process is utilised primarily with photographic designs and sketches comprised of a broad variety of hues, shades and gradations. The images found in many books and magazines and printed by the 4 colour process.
The inks are translucent and merge together on a white background to reproduce all the hues and tones of the original. This is certainly a much harder procedure to do on material than it is to do on paper. But the method used is about the same.
This t-shirt printing method only works well on white garments and is unsuitable for coloured fabrics.
This type of printing is only right for use in print runs of one hundred or more. This is because it simply costs more to set it up. A process called “Simulated Process” is used in cases where t-shirt printers copy full colour pictures using coloured cloths. The artwork is separated into various colours and shades using a method similar to spot colour printing to achieve the overall look and feel of the original image.
This is a standard method used by all printers and most popular for example with the reproduction of heavy metal and fantasy imagery taken from CD cover artwork and reproduced onto black t-shirts for band merchandise. Colour separations and the number of colors necessary make this the most expensive printing option, and the higher set-up costs mean it is usually reserved for larger runs.
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