The Screen Printing Process Explained Step by Step

Screen printing has decorated garments for over a century, and it still dominates custom apparel because nothing else matches its colour punch, durability and cost-per-unit at volume. But to most buyers the process is a black box: artwork goes in one end, finished shirts come out the other. Understanding what actually happens in between helps you supply better files, choose the right number of colours and judge print quality like a professional. Here is the full screen printing workflow, stage by stage, exactly as a production shop runs it.

Step 1: Artwork preparation and colour separation

Everything starts with the art. Screen printing lays down one ink colour at a time, each through its own screen, so the first job is to separate your design into individual colours. A two-colour logo needs two screens; a six-colour design needs six. For solid “spot colour” artwork this is clean and predictable, which is why screen printing loves bold, flat graphics; photographic images are handled differently, broken into tiny halftone dots or process colours. Your file matters enormously here: vector art (AI, EPS or layered PDF) separates cleanly and scales without losing edges, while a low-resolution JPEG pulled from the web forces the shop to redraw or trace the design, adding time and cost. Supply the highest-quality file you have, ideally vector with fonts outlined and each colour on its own layer.

Step 2: Making the films and coating the screens

Each separated colour is printed in solid black onto a transparent film positive. These films become the stencils. Meanwhile, a mesh screen — a fine polyester fabric stretched tight over an aluminium or wooden frame — is coated with a light-sensitive liquid called emulsion and dried in a dark, dust-free environment. Mesh count (threads per inch) is chosen for the job: a coarse 110 mesh deposits thick, opaque ink for bold prints on dark shirts, while a fine 230+ mesh holds crisp detail and halftones.

Step 3: Exposing and washing out the stencil

The film positive is placed on the coated screen and exposed to strong UV light. Where light hits the emulsion it hardens; where the black film blocks the light, the emulsion stays soft. After exposure the screen is rinsed with water, and the soft, unexposed areas wash away to leave an open stencil in the exact shape of your design. This open area is where ink will pass through onto the garment. Correct exposure time is critical — under-expose and detail breaks down in the wash; over-expose and fine lines close up.

“A screen print is only ever as good as its stencil. Most “printing” problems are really exposure problems hiding one step upstream.”

Step 4: Setting up the press and registration

The exposed screens are loaded onto a press — a manual carousel or an automatic machine — each in its own station. The printer then registers the screens so every colour lines up perfectly when printed in sequence. Registration is the alignment of one colour to the next; even a millimetre of drift shows as a visible misregister where colours overlap or gap. A test print on scrap material confirms alignment, ink colour and placement before a single garment is run.

Steps 5–6: Mixing the ink and printing the garment

Ink is mixed to match your specified colours, usually against a Pantone reference for accuracy. Plastisol, a PVC-based ink that sits on top of the fabric, is the vivid, forgiving workhorse; water-based and discharge inks soak into the fibres for a softer hand. On dark garments an underbase — usually a white layer printed first — gives the colours above something bright to sit on. With the garment loaded flat on the platen, ink is flooded across the screen and then pushed through the open stencil with a squeegee in a firm, controlled stroke. Each colour is printed at its own station, often with a flash-cure unit gel-setting the underbase between colours. The angle, pressure and speed of the squeegee all affect how much ink is deposited — this is where an experienced printer earns their keep.

Steps 7–8: Curing, quality control and finishing

A print is not finished until it is cured. The garment passes through a conveyor dryer that heats the ink to its curing temperature — typically around 160°C for plastisol — which fuses the ink into a durable, flexible film bonded to the fabric. Under-cured ink cracks, fades and washes out; over-cured ink can scorch the garment, so shops verify cure with a wash test or a temperature probe. Only then does each piece move to inspection and packing.

• Inspect each piece for registration, ink coverage, sharp edges and stray ink or pinholes.
• Stretch-test the print to confirm it flexes with the fabric rather than cracking.
• Check colours against the approved Pantone reference under consistent lighting.
• Fold, count and pack to the order’s size breakdown so the right quantities ship.

That sequence — separate, expose, register, print, cure, inspect — is the heart of every screen print, whether it’s twenty shirts or two thousand. The reason screen printing gets cheaper per unit as quantity climbs is that the slow, skilled part (making screens and setting up the press) happens once, then runs fast across the whole order. If you want bold, durable, true-to-Pantone prints produced this way, Velocity Wear runs full screen printing in-house on custom hoodies, tees, polos and more from a 20-piece minimum, with tiered bulk discounts and tracked delivery to the UK, USA, Europe and worldwide. Send your artwork for a free, no-obligation quote.