Custom Screen Printing - What You Need to Know

One of the best ways to promote your business, club, organization or cause is to wear it. Custom screen printing is a great, and often cost effective, way of advertising while doing what you normally do - visiting the park, seeing a baseball game, shopping for groceries. And besides the advertising benefits that you get from custom screen printed garments, it is also a great way to distinguish your employees from everyone else in the room.

But how do you go about getting custom screen printed garments for your business, club, organization or cause? There are several steps to take to make this happen, starting with the decision making step.

What do you want? Before you set out to find your screen printer, there are a few things you need to decide on (there will be more information regarding each of these questions later in the article). What do you want to have printed? What do you want printed on it? Where do you want it printed? How many are you going to need?

What do you want to have printed?
As a general rule, screen printing works best on a smooth, yet semi-porous, surface. Items such as nylon or leather computer cases, pique polo shirts (the bumpy kind commonly thought of when one thinks of a "polo" shirt), and knitted items - sweaters, ski caps, beanies - do not work well for screen printing.

Consider painting. Paint adheres best to a smooth surface that is not overly slick, or glossy, in finish. The same holds true with screen printing inks. Bumpy or rough fabrics will make the ink rough and in some cases the low points of the texture may not receive any ink at all, leaving blank spaces in your design. Slick surfaces, such as vinyl or leather can be printed but will often require special processing of the ink or catalysts to be added, which will raise the overall cost of your screen printing job.

Your best bet when selecting a garment for screen printing is one made of jersey fabric; tee-shirts, sweatshirts or pants, jersey-knit polos.