News

July 31, 2020 Sage Larson

How to Screen Print White FN-INK™ on a Black Shirt with a Smoothing Screen
Printing white ink on a dark garment. Screen printing genius Colin Huggins goes over best practices for printing white plastisol ink on a black shirt. Got a notebook and pencil handy? Right, let's learn how to print white ink on a dark garment and make the print as bright and clean as possible.
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July 29, 2020 Sage Larson

How to Create a White Underbase in Adobe Illustrator
And we're back to Screen Printing Art 101! If you watched the video about making color separations in Adobe Illustrator, you'll want to watch our latest video as well. Screen Printing Expert Colin Huggins walks you through the process of creating the white underbase in Illustrator.
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July 15, 2020 Sage Larson

How to Achieve Soft-Hand Prints Using Plastisol Ink

Want soft-hand prints? Print with water-based inks.

Well, water-based printing isn't accessible to every printer. Luckily, there are some things you can do to make your plastisol prints softer. Between the inks you choose to use, the garments you're printing on, and to the available ink additives, achieving soft plastisol prints is possible. Let's take a look to see how to accomplish this goal.

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July 10, 2020 Sage Larson

How To Screen Print With Plastisol Heat Transfers
Screen printing heat transfers can seem daunting but in reality, it’s actually fairly simple. If made properly, plastisol heat transfers can last almost as long as a screen prints and can be much easier to apply in certain scenarios. Here are a few ways screen printing your own transfers can help your business.
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June 26, 2020 Sage Larson

Ensuring Proper Ink Curing
Curing your prints is one of the last steps of the screen printing process, but it is one of the most important steps. Ink needs to be cured properly so it sets into the garment. If the ink does not cure fully, it will crack, fall apart, and not last for long. Printers use either heat guns, heat presses, flash dryers, or conveyor dryers to cure inks. Let's take a look at how each curing device works.
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June 24, 2020 Sage Larson

The Darkroom Process: Film, Emulsion Density, Exposing, and Washout
After coating a screen, it's time to expose and washout the screen. Dialing in screen exposure is no easy feat. In the latest videos, screen printing expert Colin Huggins goes over the tools you need to create optimal and to make solid, exposed screens. He'll also address nuances within the exposing and washout process and share ways to improve your darkroom procedures.
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June 19, 2020 Sage Larson

CMYK vs. Spot Color vs. Simulated Process Printing
Okay, so you’ve heard their names, CMYK Process, Spot Color, and Simulated Process, but what are they? What sets them apart from one another and what is the best use for each? Let’s go through them, one by one!

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June 17, 2020 Sage Larson

When to Use White Discharge Ink
Printing with discharge is fun, but the process has a lot of factors printers need to consider — type of garment, curing device, safety precautions, and more. Let's look at one question today: When would you use white discharge ink?
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June 10, 2020 Sage Larson

Handy Tips for Coating Screens
After learning how to create the best environment for drying screens, now it's time to learn the best practices for coating screens. Screen printing expert Colin Huggins shows what to look for when coating screens to get the best emulsion coverage. Not all emulsions respond the same when coating screens: some emulsions require adjustments in pressure and speed, depending on the emulsion thickness and the type of mesh you're working with on your screen. You want the end result to a nice glisten that makes a great stencil for your next screen printing job.
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