What is Involved in T-Shirt Printing?

To produce printed articles of apparel for advertising, retail and fashion, there are three fundamental methods of screen printing that are utilised. In t-shirt printing, ‘Spot Colour’ printing is the most common and works exceptionally well for a great variety of graphics. Spot colour printing is best used when printing graphics which are usually not very photographic in nature.

The colours of the inks to be used in the reproduction of the graphic images are usually Pantone specified colours chosen by a graphic designer. In order to isolate the hues of the ink in the image, Pantone coated or noncoated references are selected. The Pantone matching system is an international colour reference used in publishing, printing and design whereby each colour is identified by a unique pantone name and number.

Spot colour printing is well suited to printing branded promotional garments or items in which colour identity and uniformity needs to stay the same throughout a varying range of items.

“4 Colour Process” is another method of t-shirt printing. This method of printing is used mainly for photographic images and illustrations that consist of a wide range of colours, tones and graduations. The method used to print images found in magazines and books is the 4 colour process as well.

The inks are translucent and merge together on a white background to reproduce all the hues and tones of the original. It is a lot harder to process on fabric than it is on paper. However the method employed is essentially the same.

This type of t shirt 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 t-shirt printers reproduce such full colour images onto coloured fabrics a method called ‘Simulated Process’ is used. The artwork is separated into various colours and shades using a method similar to spot colour printing to achieve the overall look and feel of the original image.

Most t-shirt printers use this method, and it is especially popular when used to copy fantasy and heavy metal album artwork onto shirts to be sold by the band. Colour separations and the number of colors necessary make this the most expensive printing option, and the higher set-up costs mean it is usually reserved for larger runs.