For the production of printed garments for promotions, merchandise and fashion there are mainly 3 particular methods of screen printing employed. In t-shirt printing, ‘Spot Colour’ printing is the most common and works exceptionally well for a great variety of graphics. Spot colour printing is the most suitable method used for the printing of graphics that are not photographic in nature.
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. Pantone coated or noncoated color types are selected to clarify the ink hues of the pattern. 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.
Spot colour printing is well suited to printing branded promotional garments or items in which colour identity and uniformity needs to stay the same throughout a varying range of items.
Another method of screen printing used is called ‘4 Colour Process’. The type of printing that is used, relates mainly to images dealing with either photography or illustration, as well as having a large degree of colours, tones, and graduations used. All magazines and books use this four-color printing process as well.
These inks allow light to flow through and then merge together on white backgrounds to make all the hues and tones of the orginal one. It is a lot harder to process on fabric than it is on paper. The methods are pretty similar. This type of printing will of course only work on white garments and will not be suitable for coloured fabrics. The print set up costs are higher than that of simple spot colour designs and as such only suitable for larger print runs of 100+
When garment screen printers reproduce such full colour images onto coloured fabrics a method called ‘Simulated Process’ is used. Using method similar to spot colour t-shirt printing to achieve the overall look and feel of the original image the artwork is separated into various colours and shades
For transferring heavy metal imagery and fantasy imagery from CD covers to black T-shirts for band merchandise, this popular method is used by printers everywhere. Colour separations and the number of colors necessary make this the most expensive t-shirt printing option, and the higher set-up costs mean it is usually reserved for larger runs.
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