| There are two ways of printing a shirt. The first one, | | | | design, and then they press the design right away on |
| and the widely known of the two, is the screen | | | | each shirt. You can compare screen printing services |
| printing method. The other one is the | | | | to the busy bees in your garden: they hover on one |
| direct-to-garment printing. | | | | flower, grab their honey or pollen, and then they |
| Direct-to-garment printing is notable for its use of | | | | move on to the next flower. So, printers apply the |
| home printers instead of professional printing | | | | design to one shirt, wait for it to be finished, and |
| equipment that costs quite a lot of dollars to buy. It | | | | then they move on to the next. |
| is touted as the cheapest alternative to screen | | | | What makes screen printing so expensive is the fact |
| printing and is quite simple to do. First, you print out | | | | that their equipment for pressing is expensive. |
| the design you want put on the T-shirt on a special | | | | However, did you know that you could use your |
| type of printing paper, and then you iron it to the | | | | home printers to start a screen printing service? |
| shirt. That's it, you're done. | | | | Stenciling: That's the Key |
| Because of its simplicity, direct-to-garment printing is | | | | The stencil, next to the screen, is the most |
| preferred by most people to print their designs since | | | | important tool in screen printing. The stencil is the |
| they can reproduce photographs conveniently and | | | | template for the design. It acts like a filter. The |
| easily without suffering a loss of quality or image | | | | stencil has open and closed areas that allow the ink |
| clarity. It is also ideal for those that desire to print | | | | to pass through. The open areas follow the contour |
| only a small amount of tee shirts since getting a | | | | of the design. This way, the printing ink can pass |
| professional printing service requires bulk orders of | | | | through and take the shape of the design. All the |
| about a hundred shirts or more. | | | | other parts are made to block the ink from getting |
| However, when you want to print out a lot of shirts, | | | | through the screen. |
| then direct-to-garment printing is definitely not your | | | | That's where your home printer comes in. One of |
| cup of tea. That is because for every shirt you print | | | | the two ways of making a stencil is to cut out the |
| the design on, you have to print the design | | | | design from any non-porous material and place it at |
| separately. That is time-consuming and, not to | | | | the bottom of the screen. You can use your home |
| mention, expensive. | | | | printer to print out the design, cut it out from the |
| Screen printing, on the other hand, is ideal for this | | | | paper, and reproduce the design on a non-porous |
| because they only need to use one screen for each | | | | material that you can use as a negative. You then |
| design they need to print on each individual shirt. | | | | cut out the design again from your negative, and |
| They only need to create one template for the | | | | you're all set to print it. |