Custom apparel can provide your business with merchandise to sell or promotional items to give to employees and customers. Screen printing is among the most popular ways to imprint personalized designs onto garments and accessories. Here's more about this service and the steps involved in the process.

Why Is Screen Printing Popular?

Screen printing, also known as silk-screening, involves transferring a stenciled design onto garments such as T-shirts, hoodies, and jerseys. This process is widely beloved for its ability to produce vivid and intense colors in light and dark fabrics. It also creates bold designs that attract customers to your products and help promote your business. 

Since screen-printed designs contain layers of ink or paint, they can appear to pop out of the fabric, giving them an eye-catching, three-dimensional look. Once a screen printer makes a stencil, they may use it multiple times to reproduce the same design. This makes it quick and easy to create numerous garments and accessories for your company. 

What Are the Steps?

Creating the Design

Screen printers that provide in-house design services use software to bring your vision to life. Alternatively, you can provide them with a premade graphic. They'll create the stencil by printing the design onto transparent acetate film and coating a mesh screen with a light-reactive emulsion.

Next, the printer will lay the acetate film over the netting and shine a bright light on it, which hardens the emulsion around the substance. The professional will rinse off the unhardened portions, leaving a clear imprint for the ink to pass through. They'll finish the stencil by drying the screen and making any necessary corrections to ensure it matches the original design. 

Printing & Inking

To create your custom apparel, they'll place the screen onto a printing press and lay the first garment flat onto the board beneath the mesh. They'll add ink to the top of the netting, using a squeegee to pull the color and distribute it evenly over the stencil. This presses the ink into the fabric to imprint the design.

The screen printer will raise the mesh and place a new garment on the printing board before repeating the process with the desired amount of apparel. Finally, they'll move printed items through a dryer to cure the ink and wash out any residue before delivering them to the customer.

If you're interested in creating personalized T-shirts and garments using this approach, contact Honolulu Shirt Shop in Hawaii. These professionals have provided screen printing and embroidery services to commercial clients throughout the area since 1984. They will also guide you through the process to ensure you receive the desired results. Call (808) 847-0831 to get started on a shirt design, and visit the website to find out how they can help you create custom apparel.