The Top 4 Things You Should Know About Screens For Screen Printing

One of the bigger hurdles that I’ve seen when working with my clients is knowing what is involved with a screen. Seems pretty straight forward, right?! I mean, you can’t screen print without one. But when it comes to tension, mesh count, mesh color, frame type, and how many times it’s been used, everything has to be dialed in. So let’s dive right in…

Mesh Count

Whether you’re new to screen printing or not, one of the first things you may have noticed is multiple types of screens with numbers on the frame. Those numbers are important and can be the difference between a horrible or successful print. When purchasing screens, you shouldn’t simply grab a few that are just available. Do the work beforehand to know what type of design you’ll be printing on what type of garment and how detailed you will need to go.

If you are going to be printing a design that contains gradients and looks almost like a photo, the screen mesh will need to be able to hold the halftones needed to replicate that design as a screen print…..(and we will dive into artwork setup and halftones in another blog and video course very soon!) If you are printing a design that contains thicker text and has no detail, then you may need to lay more ink down or need an underbase, so your mesh will need to be more…