Just What Does T-Shirt Printing Entail?
February 9th, 2010
To produce printed articles of apparel for advertising, retail and fashion, there are three fundamental methods of screen printing that are utilised. The method most commonly used and best suited for a large variety of graphics is called ‘Spot Colour’ printing. Spot colour printing is best used when printing graphics which are usually not very photographic in nature.
Ink colours used in remaking graphic images, are usually Pantone, as specified by the graphic designer. Pantone coated or uncoated colour references are chosen to specify the ink colours of the design. 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. Book and magazine images are also printed by the same 4 colour process.
Reproducing the colours of the original image requires a mixing of translucent inks on a white background. This is rather more difficult process to achieve on a fabric than it is on paper. The methods are pretty similar.
This t-shirt printing method only works well on white garments and is unsuitable for coloured fabrics.
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 t-shirt printers make full coloured images and put them on coloured fabrics this is called ‘Simulated process’. Much like spot colour printing, the art is divided into tones and colours to preserve the essential qualities of the original.
This is a standard method used by all printers and most popular for example with the reproduction of heavy metal and fantasy imagery taken from CD cover artwork and reproduced onto black t-shirts for band merchandise. Due to the higher costs when it comes to setup, colour separations and the larger number of colours, this is considered the most expensive form of printing.
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