Home › Screen Printing › What Is Screen Printing? How Silk Screen Printing Works
Think of a screen as a very fine window screen stretched tight on a frame. The printer coats it with photo emulsion, a light-sensitive liquid. Once dry, the screen is placed under a film positive of the artwork and exposed to light. Light hardens the emulsion everywhere it hits; the black areas of the film block the light, so the emulsion there stays soft and washes out with water. What is left is a stencil: open mesh where the design is, sealed mesh everywhere else.
On the press, the screen sits just above the garment. Ink is spread across the screen and pulled with a squeegee. The squeegee presses the mesh down and forces ink through the open areas onto the fabric. Lift the screen and the design is printed. For a multi-color design, the printer repeats the process with one screen per color, lined up (registered) so the colors land in the right place.
Finally the print is cured. Plastisol ink — the most common ink for T-shirts — must reach its cure temperature (about 320°F for most standard inks) through the whole ink layer, usually in a conveyor dryer. Water-based inks cure by driving out the water and then heat-setting. A fully cured print stretches without cracking and survives repeated washing.
They are the same process. Screens were originally made of silk, which is where "silk screen printing" and "silkscreen" come from. Today almost all screens use polyester mesh on aluminum or wood frames, but the old name stuck. You will also see serigraphy, which is the term artists use for fine-art screen prints.
Here is the whole process in eight steps. For a detailed printing walkthrough see how to screen print T-shirts.
| Item | What it does | Shop at Buckets of Ink |
|---|---|---|
| Screens (mesh on a frame) | Holds the stencil; mesh count controls how much ink goes down | Pre-stretched aluminum screens |
| Photo emulsion | Light-sensitive coating that becomes the stencil | Emulsion — e.g. Ulano QX-5 photopolymer emulsion (quart) ($32.00) |
| Film positives | Black artwork on clear film used to expose the screen | Inkjet screen printing film |
| Exposure unit | UV light source that hardens the emulsion | Chromaline Quick Image LED exposure unit 26" x 31" ($2,625.00) |
| Press | Holds the screens and the shirt in register | Vastex V-10 CraftPrinter (1 color) ($583.00) to start; Vastex V-2000HD 4-color 4-station press ($5,587.00) for multi-color work |
| Squeegee | Pushes ink through the mesh | Squeegees — e.g. Wood-handle squeegee, 70 durometer ($10.50) |
| Ink | Plastisol for most T-shirts; water-based for a soft hand | White plastisol ink, Pantone-matched ink, special effect inks |
| Flash dryer / conveyor dryer | Gels ink between colors and fully cures the print | Vastex F-1000 flash cure unit (18") ($1,347.00); Vastex LittleRed X1-30 conveyor dryer ($4,270.00) |
| Tape, adhesive, chemicals | Block edges, hold shirts on the pallet, clean and reclaim screens | Tapes & adhesives, screen printing chemicals |
Prices shown are today's Buckets of Ink web prices and can change; the product page always shows the current price.
| Screen printing | DTF transfers | Embroidery | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Larger runs of the same design; bright, durable prints | Short runs, full-color art, many different designs | Logos on polos, hats and jackets; premium look |
| Setup | One screen per color — setup is the main cost | No screens; print, powder, cure, press | Digitize the design once per logo |
| Cost per piece | Drops sharply as quantity goes up | About the same at any quantity | Depends on stitch count |
| Feel | Plastisol sits on top; water-based and discharge are soft | Thin, flexible film | Raised thread |
Want the full comparison? Read embroidery vs screen printing vs DTF and see real prints side by side in plastisol vs direct-to-film.
Plastisol is the easiest ink for beginners: it does not dry in the screen, it is opaque on dark shirts, and it cures with heat. Water-based ink soaks into the fabric for a very soft feel but can dry in the mesh, so you have to work faster. We compare them in detail in water-based vs plastisol ink. For polyester shirts, use a low-bleed, low-cure ink — see best screen printing ink for polyester.
A manual press is pulled by hand, one shirt at a time — it is how most shops start and what most small runs are printed on. An automatic press moves the pallets and pulls the squeegees for you, printing hundreds of shirts per hour once it is set up. Compare manual presses on our Vastex manual press page and automatics on automatic screen printing machines.
Screen printing is printing through a stencil. Ink is pushed through a fine mesh screen with a squeegee, and a stencil on the screen lets ink through only where the design is. One screen is used for each color.
Silk screen printing is the same thing as screen printing. Screens used to be made of silk; today they are polyester mesh, but many people still call it silk screening.
The shirt is loaded on a pallet, the screen is lowered onto it, ink is pulled across the screen with a squeegee, and the shirt is then run through a dryer so the ink cures and becomes washable. Dark shirts usually get a white underbase that is flash-dried before the colors go on top.
At minimum: screens, emulsion, film positives, a light source to expose screens, a press, squeegees, ink, a way to cure the ink (flash dryer or conveyor dryer), tape and cleanup chemicals. Buckets of Ink stocks all of it in Tempe, AZ and can put together a starter package.
For larger quantities of the same design, screen printing is usually cheaper per shirt and very durable. For short runs and full-color designs, DTF is often faster because there are no screens to make. Many shops run both.
A properly cured screen print can last as long as the garment. Under-cured ink is the most common reason prints crack or wash out, so always cure to the ink maker’s temperature.
Related guides: How to screen print T-shirts · How to start screen printing · Screen printing kits · Plastisol ink guide · How to make a screen · Mesh count chart · Plastisol cure temperature chart · Best emulsion for plastisol · Rear clamp vs side clamp presses · What size conveyor dryer do I need? · Screen printing supplies
