There are three particular methods usually employed to accomplish screen printing that produces printed garments for promotions, merchandise and fashion. For any t-shirt printer, ‘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.
A graphic designer usually chooses the ink colours used to reproduce the graphic images, and they are all Pantone specified. Pantone coated or uncoated colour references are chosen to specify the ink colours of the design. Used in publishing, printing and design, the Pantone matching system, is internationally used to identify colors with a unique name and number.
When colour identity and uniformity is an issue, for example in branded promotional garments or a large selection of products, this method of spot color printing works very well.
The Four Color Process is another method used in screen printing. The type of printing that is used, relates mainly to images dealing with either photography or illustration, as well as having a large degree of colours, tones, and graduations used. 4 colour process is also the same method of printing by which all images in books and magazines are printed.
The transparent inks blend with one another on a plain white backdrop to recreate each of the colours and shades present in the original. This is certainly a much harder procedure to do on material than it is to do on paper. But the method used is about the same. 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.} Using method similar to spot colour, as used by a t-shirt printer to achieve the overall look and feel of the original image the artwork is separated into various colours and shades.
For transferring heavy metal imagery and fantasy imagery from CD covers to black T-shirts for band merchandise, this popular method is used by printers everywhere. Due to the higher set up prices which includes the separating of the colour as well as an increased amount of colours used to print the pictures, this works out to be the most expensive way for a t-shirt printer.
