Just What Does a T-Shirt Printer Do?

There are three main methods to produce screen printed shirts for the fashion conscious, marketing or merchandising. The method most commonly used and best suited for a large variety of graphics is called ‘Spot Colour’, as known by any t-shirt printer. The most suitable method used for the printing of graphics that are not photographic in nature is Spot colour printing.

The colours of the inks to be used in the reproduction of the graphic images are usually Pantone specified colours chosen by a graphic designer. Pantone coated or uncoated colour references are chosen to specify the ink colours of the design. Used in publishing, printing and design whereby each colour is identified by a unique pantone name and number, the Pantone matching system is an international colour reference.

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.

The Four Color Process is another method used in screen printing. This is the best way to print photographs and illustrations which contain broad colour ranges, tones, and graduations. The images found in many books and magazines and printed by the 4 colour process.

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. This is of course a rather more difficult process to achieve on a fabric than it is on paper. However, the actual method used is mostly the same. This printing method only works well on white garments and is unsuitable 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. 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+ Much like spot colour, used by any t-shirt printer, the art is divided into tones and colours to preserve the essential qualities of the original.

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. This is the most expensive form for a t-shirt printer and as such used only on larger print runs due to the higher set up costs involving the colour separations and larger number of colours used to print the images.