Screen Printing Process

What is Screen Printing?

The screen printing process is a versatile printmaking technique that allows you to quickly stencil the same design on multiple items such as clothing e.g. DIY T-shirt printing at home or screen printing a poster.

Ink is transferred using a synthetic mesh stretched across a frame and a stencil is created by blocking off a negative image of the desired design (ink goes where the open spaces are). This screen printing process guide will walk you through how to screen print at home, even if you are a complete beginner.

Sustainable Printmaking Guide

Help Improve This Screen Printing Guide!

You can checkout the Reddit Printmaking Forum for more ideas and information. Feel free to contact me through the contact form to contribute & improve this guide. You can also check the comments at the bottom of the guide.

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Tools & Materials For Screen Printing

You can find links for the required tools and materials in the table below! You will need the following items before you start screen printing at home – check out Cat Spit Productions for an idea of different setups.

Paper VS Textile Screen Printing

There are pros and cons for printing on paper and textiles, each of them have their own uses which are case dependent on what you want to create/produce. For the purpose of this guide, we will be covering textile printing on t-shirts, however, this process can also easily be used for paper printing. Throughout the screen printing guide I’ll recommend alternative materials where there are any changes in the technique for paper/textiles.

Table Of Mesh Counts & Uses

The information in the table below was taken from Wicked Printing Stuff Mesh Guides, this has been a great guide for me over the years.

Plastisol Inks

Plastisol inks on the other hand require a lot more work because they have to be cured under a heat lamp/flash dryer to cure the inks otherwise the ink does not dry. They also require solvents to clean up the inks after printing, which are not environmentally friendly. The inks contain plastic particles which is the reason they have to be heated up and melted with a flash dryer to cure them.

However, some key benefits are having longer-lasting inks and inks that are a lot more vibrant and colourful on all garments, regardless of the colour. It is advised to only use plastisol on textiles and garments.

For the purpose of this tutorial we shall be working with water based screen printing inks as they are more accessible for beginners to use.

Squeegees For Screen Printing

There are a variety of squeegee blades that you can use for screen printing, some are demonstrated in the image above or below (I haven’t decided yet). This guide covers 90 degree squared blade, which is best for both textile and paper printing. You can check out this squeegee blade guide from Anatol for further information.

Squeegee Materials

Watch the video below for information on what materials/types of squeegee blades that are available for screen printing and how they can affect the quality of your print. You can check out Floodway Print Co on youtube for some great explainer videos on screen printing.

Lights For Screen Printing Exposure

Exposure lights are one of the key tools for screen printing, without them you cannot expose your screens and all your efforts would be in vein. However, with the right lights, you can expose your screens, as an alternative you can expose your screens under natural sunlight.

You can either purchase a UV exposure kit/unit which can be quite expensive or you can buy a cheap 1000wat halogen light on eBay and build your own which I have pictures of below. You must be very careful with self-built exposure lights as there is always a fire risk when using these, please don’t leave them unattended.

The units I have built with 1000wat halogen flood lights have been made with the light at about 15 inches away from the screen. A safe bet for exposure time of your screens is around about 4 minutes, this can vary dependent on your setup so you will need to experiment. Please refer to the table below which has a rough idea of different heights and lights.

Two other key points when exposing your screens before printing:

1. Place a blacked-out material that sits under the screen and fits the inner edges of the screen frame and pushed very tightly on the underside of the screen mesh.
2. Place a sheet of glass on top of the screen roughly the same size as the outer edge of the screen frame where you put your film positive to create a seal.

An example of this is a sheet of wood with black foam stuck to it, bare in mind the heat produced from the light may warp the foam. This is to make sure the artwork does not move when you expose your screen, otherwise, this may cause ghosting. This will be covered in more detail in the steps below.

Films & Positives For Screen Printing Exposure

There are multiple ways you can create your positive for you screen printing which basically allows the design to be exposed on the screen. When setting up your artwork any lines of blocks of colour will make up the film positives.

You can print these onto transparency paper, however, when printing onto transparencies you need to make sure the ink/toner of the positive is very dense so no light can get through. It’s advisable to use a toner printer to achieve this or seek out a printing firm who may be able to advise you on this.

Remember to align your film positives before printing if using multiple colours and ensure that the black/key layer overlaps all other colour layers with a slight bleed. Also, remember to mirror or reverse the film positive when laying it onto the screen. Use registration marks in the corners as well to align when printing. The following article on Preparing Artwork for Screen Printing in Adobe Illustrator by Smashing Magazine.

Great video about the best way to print screen print transparencies for screen printing from NateScreenPrints.

Area/Setup For Screen Printing

There are a number of options depending on your budget and requirements. You can either buy your own screen printing carousel for t-shirt printing or buy a vacuum bed for paper printing, however, these can cost a lot of money unless you find a good deal online.

Alternatively, you could build your own screen printing bench or carousel or buy speedball screen printing clamps. Check out the plans on building a 4 colour screen printing press.

Personally I have tried both, building my own setup from self-sourced materials and later purchasing equipment. When starting out I would advise building a simple setup to see if you enjoy it as much as I do! Then later down the line, if you decide you do want to explore screen printing and want to commit to preparing a more permanent advanced setup on a regular-use basis you can purchase a setup online, or potentially find a good deal on eBay, as I did.

As an example, I spent £500 on a second-hand Wicked Printing Stuff 8-colour screen printing carousel. Then I spent £100 on the therapy for spending that much. Then another £100 on a 10 foot by 8-foot screen printing vacuum bed.

The Screen Printing Process Step by Step

Step 1 – Decide What to Print On

Equipment Needed

Firstly, you will need to decide whether you want to print on paper or textiles, as this will determine the type of screen you use (more details below):

Tips for deciding:

• For printing on textiles (why not try DIY T-Shirt printing at home) you’ll need to use a screen with a low mesh count of around 43T to allow more ink to pass through to the material you are printing onto
• For printing on paper you’ll need to use a screen with a mesh count of at least 90t − I use 120t for my own projects
• Mesh size indicates how many threads of mesh cross each square inch; higher mesh count = finer mesh and lower mesh count = coarser mesh
• Fabrics need more ink to absorb so they last longer after repeated washing, this is why you use a 43T mesh to allow more ink through to the fabric

Step 2 – Preparing Your Screen/Mesh For Printing

Equipment Needed

De-grease your screen to make sure the emulsion stays on the mesh, using pregan NT9 degreasing agent.

Tips for de-greasing your screen:

• Clean thoroughly using a sponge, wear some gloves
• Wear goggles to make sure no chemicals get in your eyes
• Rinse the screen with water to make sure there is no residue of the de-greaser left over
• Dry with towel/rags and leave in dust free area

Equipment Needed

The next part of the screen print at home process needs to happen in a dark/dim-lit room (during the evening is safest!) because emulsion is sensitive to UV light.

Tips for coating your screen:

• Pour the emulsion into a trough/scoop and apply to the screen at a 45 degree angle, starting at the bottom and working upwards making sure there is an even coating
• Then move your screen into an upright position and capture any excess emulsion with your scoop
• Leave the screen to dry horizontally on a level surface in the darkened room
• Make sure the area is as dust-free as possible, as dust can contaminate the drying emulsion, potentially ruining later exposure of design

Step 3 – Design & Planning For Screen Printing

Equipment Needed

Now for the creative part of the screen printing process. You can create your screen print design by hand, but it’s much easier to use your PC (e.g. Photoshop). Check out this preparing artwork for screen printing in Adobe Illustrator guide.

All designs should be printed onto transparency paper/acetate and be opaque, use a toner printer for this or contact a professional printer.

Tips for planning your design

• Your design should be slightly smaller than your pre-prepared screen and only use a maximum of 3 colours as it will need separating into individual layers per colour
• Lighter colours should be overlapped by darker layers
• You will need to include registration marks on your design to help to align the layers during printing, refer to this Youtube video on registering your screens
• Once you are happy with your design, print it out (using the highest quality print settings) on the rough side of transparent film (I find low weight/gram tracing paper also works well)
• The design on the film needs to be opaque so no light reaches the emulsion. Make sure you let it dry properly!

Step 4 – Exposing Your Screens

Equipment Needed

Now your design is ready for exposure onto the emulsion so it’s back to your dimly-lit room and your screen coated with now-dried emulsion. You need to lay your design which is printed on film/transparency paper on top of the screen & then expose to light. My setup with a 1000w light takes about 4 minutes of exposure. Once exposed you have to use a jet wash and clean out the emulsion that has not been exposed.

Tips for exposing screens

• Place a block of blacked-out material underneath the mesh area of your screen, snugly place your design on top of the mesh side, then position a sheet of glass on top to create a flat surface with no gaps
• The exposure time needed will vary depending on how far your screen is from the light and how powerful the light is (wattage) Use the charts provided or follow the next tip
• Using a 1000w light that is about 15 inches away from the screen, expose for about a minute, then turn the light off

Information for the 2 charts taken from:Wikibooks Screen Printing