Set up for What… Don’t you Just Press Print?

Are you new to screen printing and unfamiliar with the setup procedure?

This month we have decided to talk about screen setup and how it affects your print run in regards to quality and cost.

Firstly I need to address the most common myth that we come across with screen printing: YES it’s still an art! There is no one-way to complete a print and each step of the process is subject manipulation, ultimately being controlled by the printing team completing your job.

Unfortunately it’s not as simple as digital printing aka DTG (direct to garment) that works in a similar way to a conventional computer printer. You can press go on a machine and it will do all the work for you, therefore human interaction is not as big a factor to consider.

I am going to be covering all the steps we go through to prepare your artwork to hopefully help you understand the process a bit better, allowing you to make the best decisions for your work.

After all ‘knowledge is power’ isn’t it?

In order for us to setup your artwork this is what we have to do:

Print ready artwork

Separating artwork

Film

Making the screen

And that ladies and gentlemen is that… I hope we have allowed you to see a basic overview of the setup process. Demonstrating that it really does come down to the quality of the people and equipment used when setting up that will make your job perfect. As you can see there are a lot different areas during setting up that can directly affect the quality of the print.

Then the magic happens…