Pocket Printing Tips for Screen Printers

Posted by Ryan Bolin - Outside Sales on 8/22/2016

Printing on shirt pockets can be a bit of a pain for those new to screen printing.  Here are some easy tips to help.

As a screen printer we always try and find ways to make our lives easier when it comes to printing t-shirts. Any shortcut that we can use that will speed up the screen printing process always helps. In my opinion the number one thing on everyone’s wish list would be to find screen printing ink that you only have to print once when printing on dark garments and being able to avoid a ‘print - flash - print’ process. Well, this is the real world and the reality is that it’s not going to happen (at least not any time soon).

However, there are some tricks and tips that screen printers have learned throughout the years to help with this issue, and today ill share one of mine. In the correct application my tip will allow you to be able to print white ink on a black garment with just one stroke, no flash and your print coverage will be great. Although, I have found that this only works with left chest prints, pocket prints, small linear designs or small-bodied designs.


                    adding Puff Additive can help you with whit-on-black prints

My tip is, Puff Additive! Just add a small percentage (5% or less) of Puff Additive to yourwhite ink, print it once and your shirt will be ready for the dryer. By adding the puff additive it causes your design to rise slightly (and I mean very slightly) off the shirt giving your design a good ‘pop’ and vibrant look to it. Whereas before, printing normally without the puff additive and with printing one stroke you loose the nice bright white and your design looks dull. By using this tip you eliminate having to flash cure your design after your first squeegee pull as well as skipping the second stroke, thus allowing you to save a lot of time and money. It is very important though to make a couple test prints or strike-offs FIRST before printing an entire job! This is key for getting the correct percentage of Puff Additive added to your ink and for your finished product to look perfect. No one likes having to eat a hundred shirts after the customer refuses to take them. This handy tip can help!

Ensuring Ink Color Accuracy on the Web

Posted by Josh Gilbert - Outside Sales on 8/8/2016

Many visitors to the Texsource website may be concerned with the accuracy of the color swatches in the ink section - here are some step that we use and that you can use to ensure that what you are seeing on your screen is as close as possible to the product that you receive. 

It always starts with the actual screen printing ink manufacturer.  In the case of Texsource, we carry more brands than any other distributor in America - brands that you know and have an established reputation for quality.  Names like Rutland, Union, QCM, Triangle, International Coatings, and our own highly regarded Texsource GEN ink line.  These manufacturers provide us with the most accurate color samples that they can generate.  From there, an accurately sampled hex code is generated for that particular sample, which we use to generate a larger, more convenient color swatch to post on our site.  A sample of these can be seen here - 

We have here 2 different brands of screen printing ink (International Coatings and Rutland).  The new color swatches we are using indicate the manufacturer, the series, and present the color.  If you were to go to our site and perform a search for Orange Ink, you can now more easily find not only our entire selection of orange inks, but can also quickly tell the manufacturer and ink series that you may be looking for.  

In addition to this, we are now providing the most accurate Pantone match for each ink color (when available).  Again, these are taken directly from the manufacturers own documented information.  If you have a Pantone color chart available while you are browsing our inks, you can easily see the Pantone value for all available inks and can easily cross reference your chart to see if your screen or display settings are varying the color in any way.  

Speaking of this, how exactly do you setup a screen for accurate color?  Well, for us in the states, monitor calibration is generally done to the accepted NTSC standard color temperature, which is 6500k.  Generally, this is the 'warm' setting on most monitors when asked for the 'color temperature' setting.  Any other color enhancements should be disabled for the most accurate color representation that you monitor is capable of (this will vary among monitor manufacturers, of course).  

So there you have it - how we ensure the most accurate ink color shopping possible.  Of course, if you do not see an ink that quite fits the Pantone color you are looking for, we offer customer PMS ink mixing for any color imaginable, shipped out same-day if ordered by 2pm. 

Brace Yourselves - Winter is Coming

Posted by Ronnie Cannon - Outside Sales on 8/3/2016

In late summer and early fall, many screen printers can look forward to some of their busiest times of the year.  But waiting until the last minute can be costly both to productivity and to the bottom line.

Usually when a screen printer thinks of this time of year the first thing that comes to mind is 'jerseys', as just about every school, university, and YMCA league in America will be looking for football jerseys.  But you also have to consider the numerous opportunities that come with that time.  Sports has long been a huge driver of business for screen printers, so be mindful of the plethora of football and sports-related team items that can be printed and sold by schools for fundraisers, booster clubs, school stores, etc.  Everything from t-shirts to umbrellas and everything in between.  

If you are new to screen printing, you may be wondering what the absolute best way to be productive with such opportunities.  Fortunately with regards to numbering and jerseys, there are several excellent options.  One is to use simple numbering stencils.  These products are easy to use, versatile, look great, and come in a variety of sizes.  Best of all, they work with most any screen printing press that is available.  Make sure that you use a proper type of athletic ink when printing and you should have no problems at all.  

When you are ready to move up from that (for shops who may do a LOT of jersey numbering) you should consider a special press attachment like the Vastex DiGIT Numbering System.  This special attachment for your manual screen printing press is designed to make printing numbers easy and foolproof, and will easily pay for itself in increased productivity.  Once properly setup on your press, the system can be adjusted for any number configuration for either single or double-digit prints.  

Have your screen printing equipment ready to go, have the proper screen printing ink in stock and on the shelf, and be ready to take advantage of one of our busiest times of the year!

Proper Screen Printing Curing Techniques

Posted by Harvey Cole - Outside Sales on 7/11/2016

With so many different types of inks and so many different types of substrates it can be difficult as a relatively new screen printer to find good information on curing techniques - these tips are here to help you get started.

Find any old-school screen printer who has been around the block a few times and a large percentage of them will likely tell you 'just get your dryer good and hot - we never touch the temperature, we just speed the belt up or slow it down'.  Well, if you are printing pretty much the same shirts and same inks over and over and over, this technique may work.  For the rest of us, we might want a more scientific and researched method of curing.  

At one of our recent How To Screen Print classes an industry rep from Rutland Group (manufacturer of Rutland, Union, and QCM ink lines) had a question on general guidelines on dryer temperature.  His answer was, of course, that there was no set number, temperature, or belt speed.  However, for most general purpose inks he recommended a temperature of 320 degrees for 60 seconds.  This number was supported by research from their own chemists and R&D department.  The problem comes with the vastly different quality of substrates and screen printing equipment that you use.


When your screen printing dryer is running and set to a temperature of around 300, running many shirts through quickly can dissipate the heat and make it difficult for your dryer to maintain a consistent temperature.  Spacing your shirts out and running a slower belt speed can help maintain a constant temperature.

The next logical question may be 'what about polyester substrates and polyester inks?'  Indeed, high heat can be the enemy of polyester material, as at a temperature usually required for standard plastisol inks, polyester material will tend to release the actual dyes in the shirt and cause dye migration issues.  Well, one of the big innovations happening in the screen printing industry right now is the introduction of silicone screen printing ink.  These are a brand new type of ink that are sold and fully supported by Texsource that are formulated to cure at a lower temperature than most polyester materials will typically release their dye at.  Recommended curing temperature for silicone inks are in the 260-280 degree range.  Silicone inks also offer the advantage of being extremely elastic, making them perfect for athletic wear.  

dye migration issues that typically plague polyester materials and inks can be remedied by using new Silicone screen printing inks.

What about substrates that are not designed to be heated to the temperature required for a certain type of ink?  What about plastics, nylons, or other materials that might melt, burn, or otherwise be damaged by such heat exposure?  For those materials, Texsource recommends using an Air Dry Ink such as those from ColorFX.  Air Dry Inks, as the name implies, does not require heat to cure, and has excellent adhesion to a variety of materials including plastics, woods, glass, and metals.  An exact list of supported materials can be found on the subsequent product pages for those inks.  They offer an excellent alternative to standard screen printing inks when heat curing may not be advised.  

All of the screen printing inks that Texsource sells typically include a product spec sheet located on their product page.  This sheet can offer help with topics such as curing, mesh count, additives, application, and more.  Following the manufacturer specified guidelines is always the most important advice, but hopefully some of these tips will be able to stay in your memory and help as well.