Anatol Blog

A quality screen print requires a quality stencil. That means using the right screen printing emulsion for your job. So what types of screen printing emulsions are there? How are they different? How do you determine which type of emulsion to use?

Almost nothing poses as big of a challenge for screen printers as printing white ink on black or other dark-colored shirts. White-on-dark prints can come out rough, splotchy or blurry, and they can be challenging to fully cure.

To create a photorealistic image in screen printing, most printers rely on four color process. That involves printing the four basic print colors — cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) — in fine, half-tone dots.

Water-based inks have grown in popularity due to their soft hand feel and lower environmental impact. For printers accustomed to plastisol inks, printing with water-based inks can provide some challenges because water-based inks don’t apply and react the same way plastisol inks do.

A screen printing shop needs a good air compressor, one that can fully power its screen printing presses and other equipment. Without the right air compressor, your machine can jolt and bounce. That can affect the quality of your prints and cause undue wear on your screen printing press.

For newer screen printers, choosing the right screen mesh count often presents the most concern and confusion. Because of that, many newer screen printers – as well as some more seasoned ones – often use the same medium-grade mesh counts for all jobs. While a mid-range 160 mesh screen will get you far with your printing, you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t learn about and experiment with different screen mesh counts for different projects.

When you’re running a small business, you need to take advantage of the technology and techniques that will help you increase efficiency while still providing quality products to customers.

Your screen printing business is nothing without its customers. However, from time to time you’ll come across some clients that are more difficult to deal with than others. Some might be impossibly picky; others may have unrealistic expectations for what you can deliver. The key to keeping customers happy is communication.

Feeling squeezed by the restrictions of a standard-sized screen print? If your creativity can’t be contained in your usual print size, you may want to give oversized printing a try. To really push the envelope, you can print whole backs and fronts of shirts, or even try all-over printing.

In a recent blog post, we covered seven screen printing tips to improve the quality of your products. Today, we’re expanding upon that by exploring seven screen printing mistakes to help you avoid saying, “I will never make that mistake again.”

Are you finding poor quality and misaligned prints in your production? The most probable cause is how your pallets are leveled on your screen printing press.

If you’re shopping for an automatic screen printing machine, you’re probably seeing lots of different configurations to choose from. Not only do you have to figure out how many colors and what size area you want to print, you’ve also got to pick what type of power will drive your press. There are so many options, it can be overwhelming! Let’s break it down as simply as possible.