Just What Does T-Shirt Printing Entail?
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 color printing is the appropriate procedure for graphic prints that aren’t photographic.
A graphic design professional typically determines the exact Pantone colours that the ink will be matched to in order to produce a high fidelity image. In order to isolate the hues of the ink in the image, Pantone coated or noncoated references are selected. Used in publishing, printing and design whereby each colour is identified by a unique pantone name and number, the Pantone matching system is an international colour reference.
Branded promotional garments, or other merchandise where color identify and uniformity must stay constant, are particularly well suited for spot color printing.
Another method of t-shirt printing used is called ’4 Colour Process’. This printing process is utilised primarily with photographic designs and sketches comprised of a broad variety of hues, shades and gradations. The images found in many books and magazines and printed by the 4 colour process.
The inks, though they are translucent, will merge together on the white background, which will reproduce the tones and hues of the original. This is of course a rather more difficult process to achieve on a fabric than it is on paper. However, the actual method used is mostly the same.
The t shirt printing that you choose will work only on white articles of clothing and will not show correctly on coloured items.
When t-shirt 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+ The artwork is divided into different hues and tones utilising a process that resembles spot colour printing in order to obtain the overall appearance and style of the original picture.
This method is used by every printer and is very popular for reproducing heavy metal and fantasy images taken from CD artwork and reproduced on black t-shirts for band merchandising. This type of printing is the most expensive. For that reason, it is used entirely on large print runs. This is because it costs more to set up the colour separations, and it takes a greater number of colours to print the pictures.