Even if you are not an artist, you can easily create designs using your personal computer and laser or ink-jet printer. Popular programs such as Corel Draw®, PhotoShop®, and Illustrator® combined with literally millions of electronic clip-art designs help you create custom designs without an artistic background. Once the design is created, you create a Film Positive by printing each color of the design onto a piece of translucent film or paper as shown in the illustration.

A good print starts with a high quality screen! To transfer your image from the film positive to the screen, the film must be put in contact with an emulsion-coated screen and exposed to UV light. It is important to have good film-to-screen contact and precise control of exposure time.

Once a screen has been exposed on your screen exposure unit, the image must be washed-out with water. This removes the emulsion where the positive image was on your film, making a stencil that ink passes through when you are printing. Once a job has been printed, the screen may be recycled by reclaiming (removing) the emulsion. Reclaiming saves material and storage costs by recycling the same screens over and over again.

Printing is the easy part! Once you have your screens imaged, you are ready to register and print the job. To register the screens, simply align the image on each screen with a copy of your image (original film positive used to image the screen or a copy of it), which has been taped to one of the shirtboards. Then clamp the screens in place, and use the micro-registration adjustment for final alignment. Just add ink, and garments and you are ready to perform tshirt screen printing or printing on many type of shirts.

To Get a bright, opaque image on dark colored garments, it is often necessary to spot dry or partially cure the ink, and then print another layer on top. This print, spot-dry, print technique is also used for multi-color printing on dark garments.

Proper ink curing is the key to a lasting image. With too little time the image may wash out, and with too much time you may risk scorching the garment. Choosing the right sized dryer to keep up with your production requirements is a critical decision. If it's in your budget, it's a good idea to get a bigger dryer than you may need today. As your sales and production levels increase, it's easy to add a second or third press, but it is costly to replace a dryer that you have outgrown.