For the production of printed garments for promotions, merchandise and fashion there are mainly 3 particular methods of screen printing employed. 'Spot Color', for a t-shirt printer, is the method most often used for a large variety of graphics. It is also the best suited method for such a task. Spot color printing is used for those graphics that do not have photographic properties.
A graphic designer usually chooses the ink colours used to reproduce the graphic images, and they are all Pantone specified. Pantone coated or noncoated color types are selected to clarify the ink hues of the pattern. Used in publishing, printing and design, the Pantone matching system, is internationally used to identify colors with a unique name and number.
Branded promotional garments, or other merchandise where color identify and uniformity must stay constant, are particularly well suited for spot color printing.
Another method of screen printing used is called '4 Colour Process'. This is the best way to print photographs and illustrations which contain broad colour ranges, tones, and graduations. 4 colour process is also the same method of printing by which all images in books and magazines are printed.
The inks are transparent and blend with one another on a white backdrop to recreate each of the colours and shades that the original possessed. This is of course a rather more difficult process to achieve on a fabric than it is on paper. However, the actual method used is mostly the same. This particular sort of printing will, obviously, only be effective on white cloth. It won't work on coloured garments. The print set up costs are higher than that of simple spot colour designs and as such only suitable for larger print runs of 100+.
When garment screen printers reproduce such full colour images onto coloured fabrics a method called 'Simulated Process' is used. Much like spot colour, used by any t-shirt printer, the art is divided into tones and colours to preserve the essential qualities of the original.
This method is used by every printer and is very popular for reproducing heavy metal and fantasy images taken from CD artwork and reproduced on black t-shirts for band merchandising. Colour separations and the number of colors necessary make this the most expensive for a t shirt printer, and the higher set-up costs mean it is usually reserved for larger runs.
