Screen Preparation and Reclamation for Apparel Decorators
Screen making is vital to good apparel decorating, since the quality of a screen-print design will be very influenced by, if not dictated by the quality of the screen.
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Screen Printing: Process + Techniques
Mastering Four-Color Process Printing
Learn how to achieve high-end designs with these technical tips.
In this technical newsletter and accompanying video, you’ll learn how to achieve excellent color and tone range on your next true four-color process job (also known as 4CP or process color). These tips are designed to give you the fullest range of tone (light to dark) and color gamut possible using just four process colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black, also known as CMYK) plus the optional, but recommended, Wet White. For this project, we’ll be printing on Fruit of the Loom’s 6-ounce, 100% cotton Lofteez HD® T-shirt, an excellent surface to achieve this high-end printing.
We’re witnessing a resurgence of four-color process printing because of the rise of digital direct-to-garment (DTG) inkjet printing. It’s important to deliver both excellent short-run DTG images and matching four-color process screen prints for longer runs. High-end process color is being driven by a competitive market and maturing digital technologies.
Four-color process printing is more difficult than simulated process printing, but delivers a wider range of colors using only CMYK pigments. Even if you’re limited to a six-color press, you can still deliver vibrant, exciting prints.
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Ensuring High-quality Screen Printing
Quality control is an essential part of growing any manufacturing business and maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty. Screen printing has its challenges, but that’s what separates the good from the excellent.
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Manual Screen-Printing Success Part 2: Coverage to Squeegees
In Part 1 of this series, step-by-step techniques were listed for everything from press setup to preparing pallets and applying pallet adhesive. In Part 2, we'll start with emulsion practices and sufficient coverage on screens.
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