Top 5 Different Types of T-Shirt Printing Methods in 2021
Dec 21, 2021
Different people have different preferences when going out to buy a particular product. Herein, production techniques and styles determine the final outlook of the finishing product. It is the same for clothing items including t-shirts.
You may want your t-shirt plain or with print. There are a variety of designs and t shirt printing methods giving an individual characteristic look to each one.
The method to be used is determined by several factors including the design of print, available tools, mass production or not among others.
Top 5 T-shirt Printing Types For Beginners
Screen Printing Or Silk Screen Printing
This is probably one of the oldest and most common techniques used to put the print on a t-shirt. The basic principle here is to isolate certain areas within the space you want to print allowing the print ink to flood the rest of the design area and there after creating what we will now call the ‘print’.
The process involves the use of a screen and allowing ink through the same using a tool called a squeegee. A stencil is used to create the design and waterproof material such as rubber or wax is used to keep the ink out of the ‘positive areas’ while letting it into the ‘negative’ areas.
The result is a design by screen printing. You may use a single screen for one color and design or several depending on how complex the design is and how many colors you want to use for the same.
Screen printing is used across the board both for domestic and commercial purposes and can be done manually or by machine and is particularly credited for identical designs. Other reasons it weighs against other methods include:
Advantages:
It is a very fast process and can be used to produce many prints in a very short time. This credited to the simplicity of the process. It may only take a relatively longer time to set up the screen. Once that is done the rest is extremely fast.
Screen printing can be used by armatures that are new to the industry to practice skills. It not a complicated method and be used to inform on the general principles of t-shirt printing.
The kinds of ink used for screen printing are generally superior in quality compared to other printing methods. This gives them a
longer lifespan.
The method is fabric friendly as it does not expose the material used to harsh conditions that may discolor or damage the fabric. It is also usable on different types of fabric and the only variable here would be to use a suitable type of ink depending on the cloth.
It is easy to create unique limited designs by destroying the stencil once you are done with the desired number of prints. It is very hard to identically replicate a stencil design and a fake would easily be noticeable to a keen eye.
