Promotional Screen Printing & Clothing Screen Printers

Screen printing is a printing method that transfers your design onto an item of clothing or work wear of your choice. Your artwork is separated into its constituent colours and exposed onto a fine mesh screen that is covered with light sensitive emulsion. Ink is passed through this mesh screen onto your garment which is then put through a 'curing unit' to bake the design onto it. For each colour in your design a separate screen is required as each colour is printed separately.

We are able to print up to 8 spot colours or if you wish to replicate a design with many more colours, gradients or achieve a photo-realistic print we use a system called 4 colour process printing. This works similarly to your desktop printer using Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black to create the image. Spot colours can also be applied using this method of screen printing.

The prints created by silk screen printing are very durable, do not wash off (unlike some digital printing methods) and in many cases tend to be more durable than the garment itself!!

Screen Printing Methods

Plastisol & Water Based printing ink

The most commonly used inks used in the garment printing industry are Plastisol inks or water based inks. Plastisol bonds with the fabric fibres and has a rubbery feel that produces a long lasting vibrant print especially on dark coloured garments. but cannot be ironed over.

Water based ink is a good choice when a you want a soft feel to your printed garment. This type of ink dyes the fabric as opposed to 'sitting on top' of the fibres and can be ironed without smudging the print.

Four colour process printing

If you require a full colour print or wish to replicate a photograph we use a method called 4 colour process This combines standard 4 colour process printing with spot colour printing. It can also be achieved by printing spot colours with half tone colours to create the image and is often used to print complex images.

Speciality Printing

We provide speciality printing such as puff printing or glow in the dark inks. Please call us for details.

Artwork

We require your artwork to be sent to us as a vector-line graphic, i.e. an Adobe Illustrator file (AI), CorelDraw (CDR), EPS, JPEG, PDF, PNG, PSD or TIFF at 300dpi with all fonts outlined. We will prepare your artwork for printing and e-mail you a PDF mock up representing what your clothing will look like with your design applied. We require this mock up to be signed off by yourselves before we commence production.

As a rough guide please be aware that the maximum size we can print is 35cm x 48cm. A standard size front print on a t-shirt is usually printed at 260mm wide, a left chest print is roughly 10cm square and a back print up to 32cm wide.

When artwork for screen printing is supplied in our preferred format (a vector-line graphic, Adobe Illustrator AI, EPS file or a CorelDraw file with all fonts outlined) NO artwork charges will be incurred. We do accept other file formats such as JPEGs or Bitmaps but these must be provided in a high resolution (300dpi). If artwork is supplied in an unsuitable format artwork charges may apply depending on the complexity of the design. This service is available from £15.00 per hour.

Colour Separations & Screen Set-up Charges

Once the graphic mock up has been signed off we are able to produce the colour separations we require for the initial stage of printing. For every colour in your design an individual screen is required. E.G. If there are two colours in your design we would require two colour separations. Once the colour separations have been completed we expose them onto silk screens in readiness for printing your clothing.

Screen set up charges

Screens need to be made up to print your design onto your clothing which are charged at £20.00 per colour. This is a one off fee so if you required more of the same design printed at a later date these charges would not apply provided the dimensions and number of colours in the design remain a constant.

Pantone Matching

If you have a specific colour in mind or need to match your corporate identity please provide a Pantone reference number so we can match the colours as closely as possible. We use the Pantone Solid Coated guide for colour matching. Please note colours on computer screens can look vastly different from each other and should not be replied on.

Screen Print Pricing

Our print pricing is summarised on each product page for easy reference. Prices for screen printing are based on the quantity of garments you require and the number of colours in your design and are shown exclusive of VAT.