Screen Printing is a traditional technique of printing that involves pressing ink through a mesh stencil, or screen, onto the T-shirt. The process begins by separating your artwork into individual colors. Screens are created for each color in your design and then arranged in succession onto a specially designed screen printing press. A heat-curable ink is pressed through the stencils with a squeegee onto the T-shirt one at a time resulting in a uniform and vibrant layer of ink. T-shirt is then sent through a special conveyor dryer to cure the ink making your artwork permanent.
âš¡The Most Economical Way To Print Large Orders
âš¡Bright, Vibrant, and Long-Lasting Colors.
âš¡Ability To Print with Specialty Inks Such As Glitter, Metallic, Fluorescent, Puff Etc.
âš¡Exact Pantone Color Matching
âš¡48 Piece Minimum Order Requirement
âš¡Artwork Must Be In Vector Form (.ai .cdr .pdf .eps .svg)
âš¡Each Color Adds Additional Cost
âš¡Fades and Shodows limited by Halftones
âš¡Up To 10 Days Of Production Time (Rush Service Available)
âš¡Only Certain Products/Fabrics Can Be Screen Printed
In order to produce a quality screen print, you must start with a quality graphic! Vector-based graphics are the gold standard for screen printing. The vector formats we accept include: .ai*, .cdr, .pdf, .eps, and .svg. (*please note that .ai Adobe Illustrator files must be uploaded using our Information Form instead of our online designer). If your file is in raster format the ideal minimum native resolution for your screen printed graphic is 300 dpi. As long as your graphic meet our minimum guidelines, our professional graphics team will convert your graphic into vector format free of charge after you place your order. If your graphic does not meet our quality standards and/or requires extensive re-working, InstaShirt reserves the right to charge an artwork vectorizing fee and/or an artwork color separation fee.
Screen printed designs are priced by the color, each additional color adds additional price. When you upload your graphic, you will be prompted to decide how many colors you want to print with. The default method of screen printing is using "Spot" colors where up to 14 individual colors can be used to recreate your artwork. Every "Spot" color can be mixed to match your exact color specificatons using the Pantone Color Matching System.
For graphics where a full-color photo-realistic print is desired It is possible to separate the artwork into "Process" colors. This is more commonly known as CMYK, a method where 4 colors (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and blacK) are used with tiny dots to reproduce thousands of hues and shades of colors. For screen printing full-color graphics we typically use a "Simulated Process" wherein most basic full-color graphics can be acheived using 10 colors. For screen print orders with 10 or more colors where a full-color "Simulated Process" is desired we will separate your artwork free of charge. Please note this is considered a specialty process and will generally add a minimum of two working days to your order production time. If your graphic does not meet our quality standards and/or requires extensive re-working, InstaShirt reserves the right to charge an artwork color separation fee and/or charge for our Professional Graphic Design Service
Certain fades and shadows can be limited in detail due to the halftone processing that occurs when artwork is transferred onto the screens. For a more detailed explanation of halftones click here.
As long as we don't have to make any changes to the final layout of your design, then the artwork approval process will be automatic for your order. In the event we need to make adjustments to your artwork, you will receive an email with a link to make the final approval before we begin production of your order.
