Teeshirtprinters.com - Equipment for Screen Printing Professionals, Silk Screen Printing, Screenprinting

Screen Printing, often called silkscreen printing, is the most common process for printing tee shirts (t-shirts) and other textiles. Screen printing works by simply forcing ink through a stencil directly onto the garment - this is known as a direct printing process. This is in contrast to offset lithography which is an indirect printing process which is also very common.

Screen printing is very easy to do in the case of very simple designs, and can become as complex as you want to make it! The beauty of screen printing is that the vast majority of clients who visit a small local screenprinting shop need only simple designs. This means you can start doing business a lot quicker, even if you have never held a squeegie before.

Low initial investments are required for screen printing setup. as opposed to other types of printing, as well. Teeshirtprinters.com offers presses from a basic one-color model to a six color model that requires four operators, ranging in cost from only $119 to just under $2000. Try to get a six color Heidelberg offset press for under two grand!

Screen Printing Tutorial
Table of Contents
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Section A – History/Origin of Screen Printing

Section B – What is Screen Printing

Section C – Basic Supply List

Section D – Step-by-Step Instructions

Section E – Conclusion and Appendix

Screen Printing Equipment
Tools & Chemicals, their uses
Articles to be added soon... check often!

Scoop Coaters - What they are, how they are used.
Screen Frames - Describes 3 kinds of frames and explains mesh counts.
Emulsion - Types and how to use.
Squeegies - How to select one, and how to use it correctly.

Well as you can tell, we love screen printing! In order to promote our industry, and in particular our products, we have assembled a collection of articles explaining the screen printing process in detail. Our "how-to" tutorial gives you a basic runthrough and tells you everything you'd need to have to start printing right away. For more detailed information on the proper use of specific tools and products, read the technical articles for those items.

We suggest reading the tutorial through first. This will aquaint you with the process and introduce you to the chemicals and tools you'll be working with. Then go back and read the technical articles for detailed instructions on using the tools and supplies mentioned in the tutorial.

Finally, if you haven't heard of the Fresners, you will... you should buy their book "how to sell t-shirts for fun and profit" as soon as you can. It is the industry standard reference and the Fresners produce a ton of useful educational tools for screen printers.

Follow the links, and have fun learning how to screen print!