Walking down the streets on a perfect day, you see a lot of people out in casual wear. Girls walking out in their skirts, jeans, and blouses, and guys shuffling in their chinos and tops; for every three people you see in different attire, one of them is wearing a T-shirt. These clothing items have been very popular since the 19th century, and they'd shown they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

 

Most people have shirts with imprints on them – really artistic drawings that catch your eye or inscriptions that make you suppress a giggle. You might wonder: How did they get those on there? How do they make it virtually permanent? Does it mess with the fabric quality? How does it work? All these questions are easy to answer, but you have to follow us down the path of T-Shirt printing, a virtually easy, not-so-esoteric art that manages to blow the minds of everyone who doesn't know how it works. 

 

There are different methods of T-Shirt printing, some more reliable than others, but each with its own different markers. It is quite easy to print a shirt, and the most challenging thing you would probably encounter is knowing what method to use on a certain kind of fabric. We would list some popular methods, give some analysts, and then walk you through the process of one of these. We hope that by the end of reading this article, you remain enlightened about the beauty and art that is T-Shirt printing.

 

 

Methods of T-Shirt Printing

There are a lot of T-Shirt printing styles, so many that you might not even be able to differentiate between two completely different styles just by looking at them. We would go through a few in this article so you can get a basic idea of what goes down.

 

1. Screen printing

This is without a doubt the most popular T-Shirt printing technique that ensures amazing quality. If you've used a shirt for so long and the inscription still shines, it was most likely screen printed. It can be done by both machine and hand. It is best for mass production. Inks are used here with a stencil and a template. 

 

2. DTG (Direct-to-Garment)

This is the method used for designs that are thought to be too complex for other print methods. It is an inkjet method that churns out high quality prints that are vivid in colour. 

 

3. Dye sublimation

This is a printing method mostly used for light fabrics only. It works by printing images digitally and then using heat to imprint the dye on T-shirts. 

 

4. Vinyl cutting method

This is probably the method that requires the most precision on this list. It requires the use of a CAD cutter to cut the designs and then imprint them on the shirt using heat (Another heat transfer method). 

 

5. Spray and hand painting

If you have an artistic streak, spray painting or air brushing the design on your clothes might interest you. It doesn't require much precision – as long as you are going to end up with something beautiful, you can go as haphazard as you want to

 

How Screen Printing Works

Screen printing is the printing method with the most utility and it can be used for large amounts of T-shirts at a time. It is best used for designs of one colour, and can be used for multicolour designs but not for very complex designs (you can make it work, though). This is a step-by-step walkthrough on how to screen print.

 

Step 1

The first part of screen printing is to prepare the screen. This is also probably the most important part because the work and perfection that goes into this step would determine the outcome of your print. In this stage, an emulsion or ink is added to a mesh screen. A stencil of the design you want to imprint is placed onto the mesh screen too. The emulsion is light sensitive and is exposed to UV light, which embeds the imprint into the ink (the emulsion). The screen is then washed with a shower of running water to remove the rest of the emulsion, leaving only your burnt imprint on.

You can either do this or use a kind of printer to print onto the mesh. 

 

Step 2

If you are trying a multicolour design, this step is for repeating the first step to separate each colour onto different layers. If you are using two colours, you would need two screens to do this. After separating the colours and your screens are ready, you can then start your print.

 

Step 3

This step is for printing, and by tacit implication: alignment. You would need to align your print with the T-shirt before you even bother to imprint it. This is done with computer-controlled lasers or manual alignment methods. After the print is aligned, the ink is pressed through the screen to imprint the final product on the T-shirt. 

 

Step 4

To ensure the imprint is secure and that it lasts long, it is important to heat the ink at certain temperatures so that it hugs the T-shirt properly. 

 

Screen printing is amazing because the ink gets absorbed easily and you can use the ink to print large numbers of T-shirts. It can be used on a large variety of fabrics. Screen printing has its drawbacks, though. It is a bit too expensive if you are not printing large amounts of T-shirts because of the amount of ink needed for one. You also would not be able to print complex designs easily because of the straightforward nature of the process. You also need to have enough practice to be able to do it perfectly.

 

 

Where to buy custom T-shirts?

You can buy custom T-shirts from Edition without wondering how much custom T-shirts are. You can get a quotation after filling out a form to get how much you are going to pay or order online.

Contact us today for your custom T-shirts with amazing designs!