To produce printed articles of apparel for advertising, retail and fashion, there are three fundamental methods of screen printing that are utilised. For any t-shirt printer, ‘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.
The colored ink that is used in reproducing graphic images are chosen by a graphic designer and more often than not are Pantone specified colors. In order to isolate the hues of the ink in the image, Pantone coated or noncoated references are selected. 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.
Branded promotional garments, or other merchandise where color identify and uniformity must stay constant, are particularly well suited for spot color printing.
Another method of screen printing used is called ‘4 Colour Process’. Printing in this style is primarily used for images and illustrations that use a wide range of colours, shades and tones. 4 colour process is also the same method of printing by which all images in books and magazines are printed.
The inks are translucent and merge together on a white background to reproduce all the hues and tones of the original. This is rather more difficult process to achieve on a fabric than it is on paper. But the method that is utilised is virtually identical. 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.|The cost for the print set up is going to be a lot higher than that of simple spot colour designs and is only good for the bigger print runs of 100+. When the garment screen printers make full coloured images and put them on coloured fabrics this is called ‘Simulated process’.|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+|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 garment screen printers copy full colour pictures using coloured cloths.|’Simulated Process’ is a method used to reproduce full colour images onto colour fabrics. The costs associated with setting up the print are greater than those of simple spot colour designs. Therefore, they are only useful for larger print runs numbering more than 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 method is used by every printer and is very popular for reproducing heavy metal and fantasy images taken from CD artwork and reproduced on black t-shirts for band merchandising. Colour separations and the number of colors necessary make this the most expensive for a t-shirt printer, and the higher set-up costs mean it is usually reserved for larger runs.