The Basics in T-shirt Printing

If you are a graphic designer and want to print your art on a T-shirt, your only limitations are creativity and level of skill. In fact, anyone can create an art work and print it on a plain T-shirt. Transferring your artwork can then be done using silk screens. This will set new limitations and considerations until the final destination of your artwork.

These limitations can be overcome with the right amount of awareness and experience, and reasonable expectations for what is possible. It may be difficult to use T-shirt fabric as a design medium for it has inherent sets of constraints because of the printing process, porosity of the surface, inks used, and elasticity. Knowing these difficulties, however, means you are on the way to winning half the battle on T-shirt printing.

When designs are used on fabric or papers, it is best to use paper as a print medium after checking it on the computer screen. On the other hand, paper as medium isn't as absorbent as fabric because inks dry faster with minimal color being mixed. Importantly, you should realize that inks dry quickly near the surface. Fabric is decidedly more absorbent because it allows the ink to saturate deeper than paper. This is why it is more advantageous to use fabric for printing and making a permanent finish product. It also affects the quality and the way colors look, especially when using light-colored inks on dark T-shirts.

A good example of this is when you want to print a design on a black T-shirt. The color will translate differently since black t-shirt dominates the white ink. The only solution to this is to swipe the white ink twice with flashing in between each print. Another technique when printing T-shirts is using dark colored fabrics with white as under-base color. This process involves printing the first layer with white in order to create a blank canvas underneath the actual design before printing. This will also make the design more noticeable and bright to the eyes when used on dark colored t-shirts. Understanding these problems can improve your work. When using fabric as your design medium, it can dramatically improve the way you design and finish the product. Knowing the printer's challenges can help you effectively deal with the remaining steps, making the best result in the translation from computer screen to fabric. Using printed T-shirts has been widely used in hospitality uniforms especially in a tropical setting. In this case, one can do the design and then ask a uniform manufacturer to do the T-shirt printing.