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There are three particular methods usually employed to accomplish screen printing that produces printed garments for promotions, merchandise and fashion. ‘Spot Color’ printing is the method most often used for a large variety of graphics. It is also the best suited method for such a task. The most suitable method used for the printing of graphics that are not photographic in nature is Spot colour printing.

Ink colours used in remaking graphic images, are usually Pantone, as specified by the graphic designer. Pantone coated or uncoated colour references are chosen to specify the ink colours of the design. An international colour reference used in publishing, printing and design whereby each colour is identified by a unique Pantone name and number and is called the Pantone matching system.

This method of spot colour printing is particularly suited to the printing of branded promotional garments or merchandise where colour identity and uniformity must remain constant throughout a diverse range of products.

“4 Colour Process” is another method of t-shirt screen printing. The type of printing that is used, relates mainly to images dealing with either photography or illustration, as well as having a large degree of colours, tones, and graduations used. Book and magazine images are also printed by the same 4 colour process.

Reproducing the colours of the original image requires a mixing of translucent inks on a white background. It is a lot harder to process on fabric than it is on paper. The methods are pretty similar. This type of t shirt printing will of course only work on white garments and will not be suitable for coloured fabrics. The cost for the print set up is going to be a lot higher than that of simple spot colour designs and is only good for the bigger print runs of 100+. When the garment screen printers make full coloured images and put them on coloured fabrics this is called ‘Simulated process’. Much like spot colour printing, the art is divided into tones and colours to preserve the essential qualities of the original.

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.

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