A guide to technical screen printing terms

Angle

The angle of the dot is the angle at which the dots chain together. The problem with most computer graphics programs is that the angles of the halftones are generally great for offset printing but not good for screening. A lot of computer programs use 45 degrees as the default angle. Actually, 20 to 25 degrees is good for basic halftone work. If you are doing a process color job you can try Cyan 15, Magenta 45, Yellow and Black 75, or Cyan 22.5, Magenta 52.5, Yellow and Black 82.5.

DPI (Dots-per-inch)

Generally used to describe printer resolution and often used to describe scanner resolution. Obviously the higher the number the better the resolution of the image. By doubling the number the resolution actually becomes four times larger. In the old days (a few years ago) 300 dpi was the norm for a laser printer. Unfortunately, at 300 dpi, the edges of the image were still a little ragged and at 300 dpi a halftone will only generate around 16 gray levels. A 600 dpi halftone will give you over 300 gray levels. DPI is also used as the designation for a scan. Like printers, the higher the number the higher the resolution. Most scanners default to 300 dpi when they should really be set
much higher when scanning line art.

Flash-Curing

Most screen printing on garments is done with wet ink going onto wet ink. Certain jobs and most dark garment prints need to have key colors (such as white) dried or cured before another color can print on-top of it. On an automatic press a flash-curing heater replaces one of the print heads. Some jobs also need a short cool-down period before the next color is printed. Therefore, what appears to be a simple six color design with one flash-cure would need a minimum of eight printing stations – six for the colors, one for the flash heater and one for the cooldown. Flash-curing will often slow the production cycle of the job.

Halftone

A series of large and small dots that represent image areas of a continuous tone image. Continuous tone artwork can be converted into printable halftone dots using a process camera or by scanning into a computer and outputting onto film or paper as a series of dots. Even the photos in magazines are printed as a series of halftone dots. They are just smaller than we use in garment printing.

LPI (Lines-per-inch)

This actually refers to the number of dots-per-inch in a halftone but the term is LPI and NOT DPI. You can see where LPI and DPI can get confused. This term is also known as the frequency in computer graphics (frequency of lines-per-inch). The standard LPI of a screen printable design is 35 lpi to 45 lpi for cartoon type work and from 55 lpi for manual process prints to 65 lpi for automatic process prints. The higher the number the smaller the dot and the harder it is to put on a screen.

Moiré Pattern

A moiré is an interference of two patterns. It generally has a checkerboard pattern to it. You get moiré’s when using patterns on patterns – as you do when you put halftone dots on screen mesh and/or halftone dots on screen mesh on a shirt pattern. Moiré patterns can be reduced or even eliminated by using a different angle (see Angles) and using a higher mesh count in relation to the LPI of the halftone. The
general rule of thumb has been that to reduce moiré patterns use a mesh that is 4 to 5 times the LPI. In example, when using a 50 LPI halftone, a mesh count of 200 would be a good start. There have been lengthy articles written about moiré.

Percentage

The amount of coverage in a halftone dot is called Percentage or Tint. A 10% dot is much smaller than an 80% dot. When screen printed, a dot grows in size. This is called dot gain and it can be as much as 30% when printing on an automatic press and 40% when using a manual. For this reason you should try not to apply any tints in designs above 70% (they will just grow and be a solid). It is also important to take into account dot gain when using tints. Always use a smaller tint percentage than you think because in most drawing programs you cannot specify the dot gain (you can in Photoshop!).

PPI (Pixels-per-inch)

This is actually what a scanners resolution should be referred to. PPI is the same as DPI and you see the terms used interchangeably.

Process Color

Commonly used in offset printing, Process Printing uses the four pigment colors of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black – called CMYK. On garments, many “simple” process jobs are actually more than four colors. Designs with lots of specific color matches and heavy text need separate “spot colors.” If the shirt is a light or pastel color, white is also needed. Good process color is much more difficult to do than normal spot colors.

Screens

A screen is like a printing plate. One screen is needed for each color to be printed.

Separations

Color separations of the art are needed when making screens for the job. For each printable color – a film or mechanical separation is needed. A simple two-color design requires two separations and may take only a few minutes to create with computer graphics. For a process color job a set of separations is generally done by a professional separator who may charge £100 to £400. Separations for dark garments can range from £300 to thousands depending on the complexity.

Shape

Dots are also used in various shapes than range from diamonds, to squares, circles and ellipses. An elliptical dot is the best to use because it tends to chain together and is easier to burn on a screen and the dot gain will not be as noticeable in the midtone range.

Simulated Process (or Fake Process) Color

Real Process Color only works successfully on light shirts. Fake or simulated process color is a photorealistic look on dark garments. They usually are a minimum of six colors and generally eight. Most designs require one or two flash-cures and the artwork is separated specifically for this process since designs separated for light shirts will not work on darks without extensive modification. This process is much more expensive for the art and separations and harder to print correctly.

Special Effects Inks

These are inks that puff, feel like suede, glitter, sparkle, reflect and glow. They are generally harder to use and cost more money.

SPI (Samples-per-inch)

This is the same as PPI and again is really how we should talk about a scanner’s resolution. You see SPI in some scanner ads. It is the same as PPI and DPI.

Spot Color

Solid and halftone dot printing of specific ink colors. Generally used for cartoon type designs with broad coverage of inks.

Underbasing

When printing on dark shirts, the print normally needs a white layer of ink under the colors to allow the colors to be bright on the garment. This layer of ink is called an Underbase. Most underbases are white and need to be flash-cured before another color can be printed on top. Some designs have more than one white underbase.

Kindly reproduced from USSCREEN with permission of Scott Fresener, the Daddy of t-shirt printing.