Silk screen printing is a technique in which a stencil is used to superimpose an image or design through a mesh screen. A blade or
squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh apertures with specialty ink and the reverse stroke then causes a line of
contact with the substrate thus transferring the design onto the desired printing surface. When in production one color is printed at a time,
so several screens can be used to produce a multi colored image or design.
Direct Printing
A basic direct print can be composed of one to ten colors. Each color in the design needs a separate screen and each screen must be
blocked, stenciled, taped, and setup in order to begin printing, all of this work is the reason screen printing was designed for printing
bulk quantities of quality garments. Once production is underway and your first color has been applied it is then "flash" dried before
receiving the next color. This ensures bright, vivid, professional quality printing that will last. Once all of your colors have been applied
the garment is then sent through a large conveyor dryer which ensures your print is cured and will not transfer or crack.
CMYK (Four Color Process)
CMYK, also known as a four color process is a method of printing used when trying to emulate a complex color image.
A file is separated into four different colors; cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black (K). Small dots of these colors are printed at
different angles and intensities, usually without being dried in between. When these four process colors are blended together they produce
many different colors and give the desired look of your chosen design. This method works best on white colored garments but can be
done on black and other colored pieces with the addition of an underlay.
Simulated Process
Simulated process printing is used to print photos and high color graphics onto a substrate. Similar to a CMYK print a
simulated process uses only a few ink colors to create a myriad of different colors. The process utilizes traditional spot colors in a
way that blends them together with halftones and gradients. Unlike the CMYK prints these colors are dried between each
screen, this allows for a print with dozens of colors to use under 10 colors to make the exact same design.