T- Shirt Printing
T-shirt printing has come a very long way since the original Mickey Mouse and Davy
Crockett t-shirt designs of the 1950s! From the beginning though, the main method of t-shirt printing has been that of screen printing, and whilst other processes such as digital or direct to garment print are now developing (and enabling much smaller print runs such as one personalized t-shirt for a birthday or special occasion), screen printing has been the mainstay of the t-shirt printing industry for over 60 years.
Screen printing is also known as silk screening and is essentially a very simple technique that uses a mesh and a stencil. The fine mesh is first stretched onto a wooden frame and a stencil is then used to allow blank areas of the design to be covered with impermeable substance. The open areas of mesh are then able to transfer ink to the fabric when the print roller or squeegee moves across the screen stencil. Ink is transferred to the desired areas of the t-shirt, and not to the blank areas, and the pattern or design remains perfect.
Colour wise, pretty much anything is possible with t-shirt printing - spot colour on white is the most popular print process, in which one colour at a time is printed on white fabric, but up to 12 colours can be used in total too. On a dark fabric, the process is slightly more complicated - a white base print needs to go down first, to cover the whole artwork, and the specific colors are then applied on top of the white background.
With four colour process t-shirt printing, the artwork is seperated into black, yellow, cyan (or blue) and magenta, and then layered to give the full picture image. Particular pantones may even need special colour inks. Again, if printing on a dark fabric, a base white always has to be applied to the fabric first.
Glitter print or foil print is also possible when t-shirt printing, and this uses special inks that are more expensive and slightly trickier to perfect. Colours can be slightly limited though and of course final wash instructions for the wearer are more complex too!
T-shirt printing, like anything in the clothing industry, is subject to fashion and trend. Speciality inks, for example, trend in and out of fashion and can include shimmer, puff, discharge and chino based inks. And in combination, all these methods of t-shirt printing can make almost anything possible. When combined with shimmer ink for example, metallics can give an amazing mirror like effect to a t-shirt fabric.
T-shirt printing is often used in conjunction with other methods of clothing decoration too, such as embroidery and heat transfers, or dye sublimation transfers. And the best t-shirt printing companies are those that can offer all these methods in one, tailoring a t-shirt printing solution to their customers' exact needs. That way, if a client needs an embroidered logo, a printed slogan, and a range of colours and sizes, then one company can deliver all that on one custom made garment. Branding problem solved!
There are a now a number of excellent t-shirt printing companies in the UK, with extensive capacity and facilities. Indigo Clothing in London, Fanela in Leicester and Creative Apparel in Stockport are all exceptional and pay real attention to producing quality printed t-shirts, as well as other branded garments.
by: Sara Allom
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