SCREEN PRINTING

  • PRINT QUALITY

    We do all of our screen printing in house, along with all of our design for print. Screen printing is the time tested process for reproducing designs and it is still unrivaled in quality and predictability. There are many specialty inks that we offer as well as other techniques we can use to produce the best quality print specific to your clothing - we will always offer you our advice before we do any print run.

  • VOLUME ORDERS

    Screen printing is meant for mass production - not for printing one item.
    In fact screen printing is probably the most cost effective way to mass produce any garment or sign. Our minimum order for printed clothing is 12 for one-colour designs, and 25 for multi-colour designs. Printing orders of 100 plus often have the best value for money.

  • POSSIBILITIES

    Screen printing offers a huge variety of special effects and finishes that other decorating processes do not. With several types of ink to choose from, as well as different screen meshes, squeegee blades, and other special additives, the possibilities are endless.

  • RELIABLE

    At Black Cat Studios we design with production in mind. Our experienced print designer is always in house, so we have total control over every aspect of your print run from concept to pulling that first squeegee.

 

SEE HOW IT WORKS

Take a look at the screen printing shop in action.

 

Ready to place an order?

Submit your artwork via email along with a brief description of what you want to do.
We will respond within 24 hours with your no obligations quote.

CHOOSING INKS

WATER BASED

Water based inks are used when you want absolutely no touch whatsoever, and your printing on white or light coloured shirts. The darker the shirt, the more it influences the colour of the ink. Water based ink is absorbed into the fabric of the shirt and then as it passes through our dryer, the water evaporates leaving the print colour permanently in the fabric.

Recommended on white or light coloured t-shirts only.

PLASTISOL

Plastisol ink is our standard go-to for most jobs. With proper technique the final print can be soft to the touch while still having perfect bright prints - on any colour garment.

We’ve come a long way since those tees in the 80’s with prints as thick as a coin.

DISCHARGE

Discharging is similar to a bleaching process. A reaction occurs while the shirt is passing through the dryer that causes the dye in the fabric to disappear. We can use discharge as an underbase on a dark coloured t-shirt, and overprint other water based colours to provide the softest feel on a dark t-shirt.

Not all dark coloured t-shirts discharge the same. For example a solid black would discharge differently than a heather dark grey and the result might not be desirable.

SPECIAL INKS

We are proud to offer a number of special effect inks on top of our arsenal of plastisol, water based, and discharge inks. These inks include:

  • Metallic shimmer inks

  • Reflective inks

  • Glow in the dark inks

The range of special ink options that are available to you are dependent on your artwork and clothing requirements. This is because some combinations will not work together. We will gladly discuss what is possible and what changes to make in order to print with a desired special effect.