I've gotten the opportunity to make shirts for the hotel I work at, which are thin cotton blanks (standard cheap corporate merch) with a multicolor graphic of the greek islands on back and business name on front (this google image is somewhat similar to the design I'm printing). These shirts are getting washed around twice a week, so after 4 months the wash count is likely around 32, 96 for the year. I am currently only printing with matsui alpha series and have sold my boss on the print quality/feel that you get with that ink, but I am unsure whether waterbased is used in corporate applications very often.

Will waterbased be better or worse than plastisol in terms of longevity? My gut says plastisol is worse because it cracks and peels off rather than the imbedded ink of waterbased prints, but I'm honestly unfamiliar with the long term signs of aging of waterbased. Thoughts?

I would love to get this t shirt but it’s stupid rare, and I know of one website that is reprinting it but it’s heat transfers, heat transfer prints give me sensory issues because they don’t fold with the tshirt and it’s just straight up plastic.

I thought it was naturally damages but upon closer look you dan so that its all done on purpose

I’ve been printing out of photoshop a lot lately with some crazy sim-process designs, and the file sizes add up and cause a slow output process. Considering my rip software is printing anywhere between 48-60 dpi, is 300dpi in the file overkill?

Not sure how to get this textured/dithered effect when screen printing this. Mostly with burning the image onto the screen, any tips?

Honestly I need some perspective. Im 31F, 15 years experience in the trade, trade school graduate, have earned a BA in Fine Arts. I live in Massachusetts.

My abilities are but not limited to: running auto, running Manuel, screen prep, pms color mixing, embroidery operations, screen and embroidery finishing, graphic design, heat transfer, trophy building, custom engraving operations, receiving, shipping, order intake.

I’m trying to figure out if I’ve reached the cap for hourly wage in the field. I hold the title of screen printer, but as you can see I have experience in multiple departments, making me an adaptable and flexible employee.

What are you paying your employees like me?
If you hold a similar role to me what are you making?

I’m considering giving up my passion and switching gears to a different career because I’m truly struggling. I have 2 kids, 1 and 6 y/o who’s childcare cost is crippling, paired with $2,200 rent payments, crazy utilities, and crazy expensive bills everything else! I know I’m not the only one, but please is there hope to make good money doing this, like is anyone actually making anything close to $30 an hour because I’m not. Right now I’m sitting at $22 an hour, and I have absolutely squeezed that number out of them.

I need honesty people, help a girl out.

What's up printers! I just finished this 5-color simulated process design (White Underbase, Red, Yellow, Cyan, Dark Blue) tuned for 90-120 mesh (230-305 mesh count in US).

I wanted to give back to the community, so I’m dropping the print-ready separation files for FREE for anyone who wants to burn screens and test it out on black tees.

Let me know what you think of the halftone/stipple mix! If anyone prints it, please tag me or share the results, I’d love to see how it comes out on press.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1A2H4QdG5LEnAk02F0zkUKYlP5vahD6Ew?usp=sharing

I’m in search of some place in Canada where they make customizable silk screens (preferably boneless) to order.

Hello Reddit hivemind! I’m having some issues burning screens and figured I’d turn to yall for some guidance. I started out making my own screens and burning them in the sun and had great success the first few times, but as the summer set in I started having issues with over/underexposing. I wanted to get some more consistency so I moved to a smaller UV lamp (https://a.co/d/03li3Uj0 here’s the exact one), my first two attempts were over exposed, then underexposed so I figured I’d do an exposure calculator but the results sort of have me feeling more confused. It almost looks like parts of each like are both overexposed, underexposed, and maybe washed out too much.

I’d really appreciate any tips anyone has! I’m using ecotex pre-sensitized emulsion with 1 coat on each side of the screen, the lamp was about 10” from the screen and was doing each row in 7 second increments. I don’t have a washout booth so I’m just using a combo of my shower, kitchen sink, and garden hose.

There is a tattoo shop in my city I began printing for in the last year. Very popular and we all thought it was cool because they supported punk rocks shows, etc. However, an article from 25 years ago surfaced in the last few months concerning a hate crime committed by the owner. To my knowledge, he never made a public statement of apology and to claim he is no longer a white supremacist. He contacted me last week to print another job for him.

Is this a hard no? I feel like there is no question, but I guess my question is how do I tell him? Should I tell him explicitly why? I kinda feel like he needs to know why. There should be zero tolerance for such ideology.

Have any of you handled this kind of situation before?

I had a rush shirt order (about 175 shirts) completed in under 4 days for an event (first time customer).

10 days after delivery and the event took place, the client reached out saying that many of the shirts were misaligned, customers and event attendees were not happy, and they wanted to return the remaining inventory for a full refund. (Remaining inventory meaning an unknown number of shirts were already sold / given out at the event).

I had some newer staff help out since the order was so rushed, and based on the photo feedback do acknowledge at least 10 or so prints had some alignment issue. We also include at least 5% free extra shirts in each order to compensate for misprints, but may have had a slightly higher misprint rate with the rush.

We offered the client a 50% refund for returning 45% of the shirts, free replacements for any misaligned shirts, or a flat refund for the total cost of 20 shirts.

I want to protect my businesses high-rating, but feel this client is trying to take advantage of us due to the long time that passed from the event until the complaint, and the request to keep 25% of order for free. We do not have a guaranteed refund policy or anything.

What would you do?

So I’ve always avoided this because I hate it and always have issues, but there’s some stuff I really want to do soon so I need to figure it out.

I use Matsui 301 ink. For most of my designs, white is also a color, so I use my underbase white to capture that as well.

My process: white underbase - flash - print color 1 - flash - print color 2 - flash, etc.

The issue I always run into: this builds up SO MUCH HEAT in my platen. The platen starts warping, the colored ink start getting white spots, etc.

I initially tried flashing my underbase and then printing wet on wet, but every screen was sticking to the previous layers and just pulling it off the under base.

What is the correct way to do this?? I know it’s possible, but it just can’t figure it out.

I’m new to CMYK and am currently using One Stroke plastisol inks. This is for a client that I have test three samples on and can’t get it quite right. Last and most clear shirt was shot at 58 dpi on 230 mesh. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you

Hi! I am trying to create a design for some t-shirts, prints, & stickers to give to friends/people who are ai-refusal like me (they say DARE to resist artificial intelligence with the original DARE font). I found a screen printing lab near my home that gave me a great quote, but they're asking for a high-resolution file of the artwork (I put together a rough draft of a design basically, you can see it below) and I'd like to pay someone to create that for me and make sure it will look good on the t shirts...where should I look to do that? I read some reviews saying Fiverr was an unethical site and I'm trying to make this as ethically and effectively as possible. Thanks for letting me know if you have any ideas!

I am looking to get into printing some shirts for my wifes tattoo business...but I can tell there is a steep learning curve.
Can anyone recommend a quality resource to educate myself from zero to hero?

Thanks!!!

Helpful for those who want to do unlimited colors on a print, without having a giant lump of a press. The top L bracket would be attached to an angle iron which would be on the edge of a table or a 1 color press.

Been lurking here for a bit and keep seeing people mention issues with Printavo price going up, hard to export your stuff if you leave, missing features for shops that do both screen print and embroidery. Curious how big of a deal this actually still is for people. If you're on it right now, what's annoying you most? And if you already left, what'd you switch to and why? Not trying to sell anything, just trying to understand the space.

So, where I work we have a VERY old National branded metal halide suction exposure table. I've been working on tuning it up so we stop getting light leakage on the edges of screens - new hinges, new gas spring for the lid, cleaned out and adjusted the suction, figured out the blower is dead as disco.

I've been looking at LED exposure options, because as tech, this thing is stone age shit. Has anybody here ever converted a large format exposure from bulbs to UV LED panels, and how does one fine tune such a thing?

First time screen printing towels!!
It’s a one color logo. Anything I need to do differently than I normally would printing garments?

Gregory Alan Isakov with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY on August 22nd, 2026. 4 silkscreened colors on Lessebo Amazon cover stock. Designed and printed by Aaron and Alix at New Antlers Workshop, Easthampton MA

I finally got the chance to print this poster I had waiting for over 3 years.
Printed with enamel based inks on holographic paper.
Feel free to ask any questions

Never used. Speedball Paper Stencil Beginner Screen Printing Kit

Hey guys! First time posting here but I need some help! Trying to make band tees for my husband’s band. I’m using normal speedball screen print paint and I have a Vevor heat press to cure it after waiting two days to dry. How hot and how long should I be curing it for? I saw 350 for 40 seconds but I don’t think it’s enough. Or is it the paint that’s crapping out on me? That’s after one wash, in cold water low heat drying. Thanks for any tips and advice I really appreciate it :)

hello ! i recently moved to hungary and would like some tips on where i can find supplies? namely ink and emulsion since i brought some screens with me but i'd love to know where i can get those in the future along w frames and squeegees !!

would personally love to get familiar with the local scene if there are local suppliers but in case that's not an option does anyone know any websites i can rely on?