Digital imprinting offers viable alternatives to silk screen printing.
Silk screen printing is often the most cost effective method for producing large quantities of printed items, but digital imprinting is rapidly becoming a preferred method for producing closely registered, full color graphics or for limited production runs. Digital imprinting is done directly from digital files. It is fast and does not require the interim preparation steps, materials and labor necessary to make screens for each color.
Silk Screen Printing: One Color at a Time
The silk screen printing process can only apply one color at a time. Each color requires a separate screen, set-up and associated labor charge. You can have as many colors as you want including metallics, fluorescents and glow-in-the dark material. Large silk screen presses sequence each screen rapidly, to apply all the colors to print the image. The presses must be stopped to load new screens, however. Silk screen presses require continuous tone images, such as photographs, to be converted to halftone dots that match the screen's density.
Digital Imprintin: Four Process Colors at a Time
Digital imprinting combines tiny dots of each of four process colors. Entire image files are converted to the supplier's highest resolution for the object being imprinted. The four colors are laid down over or next to each other to create other colors. Process colors are sometimes not as vibrant as their "flat" color equivalents. Digital imprinting requires no screens, minimal physical set-up and the presses do not have to be stopped to make image changes.
Sublimation Printing
Sublimation printing is an increasingly popular type of digital imprinting. Images are first digitally printed with special inks or dyes, at high resolution, onto flat transfer sheets. The images are then heat transferred onto surfaces like T-shirts, magnetic vehicle signs, mousepads and coffee mugs. There are even heat transfer kits for hobby and craft use.
Direct to Garment Printing
DTG is relatively new technology and works similarly to personal or large format inkjet printers. A garment or roll of fabric is passed under the machine's print head, where colorfast dyes are jetted onto it at high resolutions so the dots comprising the image are not visible.
Cost Considerations
Silk screen printing is still more cost effective for most large-quantity jobs. There is usually a minimum required order, though, so you must order enough items to justify the cost of the screens, set-up costs and labor. Digital imprinting is usually offered with no or very low minimum purchase requirements and, therefore, with little cost benefit to ordering in quantity. You don't have to carry inventory or guess at sizes of things like T-shirts with digital imprinting.
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