Just recently, I received an email saying straightly like this:
Heat Transfer -
good quality of print
Silk Screen - not good
quality of print
Now I’m writing this article
not to correct that email but just to share my thoughts base on my experience
about Heat Transfer and Silk Screen Printing.
For those who still don’t know
what I am talking about here, Heat Transfer and Silk Screen Printing are the
two most common ways to print t-shirt.
Silk screen printing is the
classic way while Heat Transfer could be the new generation’s way of printing
t-shirt.
The easiest way to differentiate
this two type of printing is to compare them on foods that you ate every day.
Screen prints could be those foods you cook from raw ingredients while the heat
transfer could be the instant noodles you’re holding right now while reading
this post.
Screen printing uses screens
in different mesh, textile paint mostly known as Tulco here in the Philippines.
Chemicals for the photographic process and lots of time to do the whole
printing process.
On the other hand, Heat
transfer printing uses printing machines with pigment inks, cutter plotters
vinyl stickers, foils and heat transfer papers.
If you compare the products
of these two types of printing, you could easily determine whether it is a
screen print or a heat transfer print, since screen prints uses paints directly
on the shirts you could not see unnecessary colors on the designs unlike the
heat transfer you could notice some colors outside the design trying to mimic
the color of the shirt, to understand what I’m saying about, try to imagine
putting an automotive sticker on a shirt. See it’s not too nice to see. Screen
prints are more comfortable to wear since air can still pass through the paints
unlike heat transfer prints the air are trapped on the designs causing you to
sweat like your swimming on the desert’s sand.
Now let’s talk about the
quality of the prints. Screen printing last unlike the heat transfers. Since
heat transfer prints where printed from the computer printer, although it uses
waterproof pigment inks it still fades after washing. After washing you’re
shirts for times, you could notice that the designs of the prints are fading. Unlike
silk screen printing, the designs last regardless on how many times you wash your
shirt. That’s why branded t-shirts used screen printing method instead of heat
transfer.
Screen printing needs to be practiced to perfect you’re prints.
Some amateur printers still don’t know the whole method that results a poor
quality prints. The one who emailed me could maybe a victim of those kinds of
works. When you decide to have you’re shirts for printing, make sure you know
the right people to work for your prints. A good high resolution designs is a
must. Don’t put to many shades on your design, complicated designs are harder
to print, try to do simple but nice designs. Limit you colors or else printers decides
to use CMYK color halftone method. Solid colors are better than halftone
colors. Later, I will explain the differences between Solid color prints and
the Halftone prints on screen.
Overall, I could say that Heat Transfer method is faster that
Screen Printing method, if you’re in a rush use Heat Transfers but if you’re considering
the quality of prints, screen prints last longer than the heat transfers. The
design depends on the resolution of the illustrations to be processed, the
choose of colors and the mastery of the person that prints the t-shirt.
