How Is The Process Done For T-Shirt Printing?
Posted on Friday Feb 19, 2010 Under New IdeasFor 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 color printing is the appropriate procedure for graphic prints that aren’t photographic.
A graphic designer usually chooses the ink colours used to reproduce the graphic images, and they are all Pantone specified. Pantone coated or noncoated color types are selected to clarify the ink hues of the pattern. Used in publishing, printing and design, the Pantone matching system, is internationally used to identify colors with a unique name and number.
This method of spot colour printing is particularly suited to the printing of branded promotional garments or merchandise where colour identity and uniformity must remain constant throughout a diverse range of products.
The Four Color Process is another method used in tshirt screen printing. 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. The method used to print images found in magazines and books is the 4 colour process as well.
Reproducing the colours of the original image requires a mixing of translucent inks on a white background. It is much harder to do the same on cloth rather than than paper. But the method that is utilised is virtually identical.
The t shirt printing that you choose will work only on white articles of clothing and will not show correctly on coloured items.
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 divided into different hues and tones utilising a process that resembles spot colour printing in order to obtain the overall appearance and style of the original picture.
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. This is the most expensive form of printing 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.