screen printing vs heat transfered vinyl

[bjbk 0]

what is a good way to put the pros and cons on screen printing vs heat transfered vinyl ? i do heat transfer vinyl and i get that question alot. i know that screen printing is done for orders over 50 and that it's paint. thanks for the input

[midwaste 4]

Pros of Heat Transfer Vinyl:

Easy to do small quantities - low setup cost

Can do individual designs with little extra effort (numbers/names on shirts)

Cons of Heat Transfer Vinyl:

Cost of vinyl

Time involved in weeding can easily exceed setup times for screenprinting

Overhead cost in equipment (heatpress)

Time for pressing is typically greater than SP

Depending on your design, can look cheap and home-made

Pros for SP:

Much cheaper per shirt cost of printing

Better "hand" (feel) of the imprint.  It will be what your customers are expecting.

Many more options for textures/colors

Cons for SP:

Considerable amount of effort needed learning process

Equipment overhead

Can be messy

Requires many more supplies than heatpress vinyl

SP's, help me out here on what I missed.

[jheyne 0]

Screen printers typically use plastisol ink however there are a wide range of inks available to offer different "hand" feels to the finished product.

The steps involved in setting up a screen printing job are much more involved than cutting vinyl.

Pre-press (before your screen is even put on your printing press) is very important and plays an important role in the quality of the finished product.

You first creat a film positive of the image (after the artwork has been perfected) this is usually done with high end laser or inkjet printer and special film or velum.

If the shirt is multi colored, you must use registration marks so that your screens line up correctly. (multi color jobs mean more work, you must separate the colors with your software and create multiple films.)

The next process is preparing to burn your screen.

you need to make sure the screen is clean (commonly we use a degreaser like "like simple green") then the screen must dry completely.

Next you coat the screen with a photo-sensitive emulsion (some people use a capilary film) and again the emulsion needs to dry on the screen (coating screens correctly is a topic in and of itself).

After the screen is dried you place the film positive on a light table(i.e. exposure unit) of some sort (different types are used and again can be it's own topic).

The screen is then exposed for a specific amount of time (again time can vary depending on the design, screen mesh, etc...).

After the screen is exposed, you use a hose to rinse off the excess emulsion and voila you have an image on the screen (over exposure & under exposure are a different topic).

I've got to go to work, so i'll add more later if people are interested.

typically screen printing requires a wider knowledge on raster graphics if  you do high end screen printing

use of chemicals is unavoidable

extremely messy (ink seems to jump everywhere no matter how neat & careful you are)

but once you learn how to do screen printing and you have good equipment it is very satisfying!  We screen printers tend to declare that the ink gets in your blood!

[bjbk 0]

thanks a bunch , i would like to learn how to do it some day , i'll start saving up for the set up thanks again

[Fbomb 0]

I do both and fight this question a lot...I'll focus on the pro's of each...

HEAT PRESS:

The hassle to burn the screen, clean the screen and reclaim it is my biggest factor...That and size/complexity of design plus # of colors. If someone wants a simple design shirt 50-75 might not be that bad to press. If they want it in 2 different colors (say 30 red on white and 30 white on black), its easier for me to cut/press than to print, clean, change colors, print. That is for an easy design.

You can press on a wider range of products...Jerseys, bags, etc...Not that I can't screen print on them, but it either involves a specialty ink (or ink additive) or special platen to hold the bag or whatever...

It is easier to press light colors on dark garments...Printing can involve another screen to put a white underbase or need a few strokes (print/flash/print/cure)!

1 off clothing...I started with screen printing and my friends would ALWAYS say, "make me a shirt that says...blah,blah,blah"...Followed by "I don't care how much it costs"...Then I follow with "Lets see, $50 for the screen, $20 for ink setup/break down and $6 for the shirt...But for you, I'll eat the ink setup charge. $56 for the tee shirt". My friends stopped asking me, until I got a heat press.

Both offer cool effects...But vinyl wins with ease of reflective, foils...But printing can be cheaper to produce (but more fickle)...Vinyl offers pattern material (i.e. camo) which is cool, but I am not crazy about the feel of patter vinyl...

SCREEN PRINT:

Once the job is set up, you can rip through printing them. You don't have to align each design like you do pressing. Which can save you time and make you more profit.

You can print finer detail, halftone and process (full color).

The print won't crease and has a softer hand...SOMETIMES.

[bjbk 0]

that was perfect thank you , I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,

                                    I can see all obstacles in my way

                                    Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind

                                    It