Screen Printing Art Made Easy!
Screen printing art is the main drawback when starting up. There are a lot of unknowns to creating and printing it… but when you drill it down to the most important questions… Three main questions come to mind when I started and lucky for you, I’ve included the answer/solution to each.
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- Check out my new Cheap Screen Printing How To DVD on how to make rad tees and start a home Screen Printing Business
- Or consider my e-book How to Screen Print from Home Cheaply and Make Money Too!
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1. Do I need expensive screen printing software like Adobe Photoshop?
No, although it helps with screen printing art. I happened to have Adobe Photoshop so it was easy for me to turn pictures into a cool screen printing design. However, you can use just about any program to create your designs.
For example:
Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, OpenOffice.org, etc. – Use these to create block letters, clip art, etc.
2. How do I create cool screen printing graphics?
First, I recommend writing down every though you have to design screen printing art. My favorite one so far for me is “Rad T-Shirt.” I know, cheesy! But it makes me smile every time I think about it.
As mentioned above, you can used Photoshop or any of the above programs to print out your design, but what do you print it onto? A transparency. A transparency is one of those things your teacher used to put on the overhead and draw on it… and sometimes you or one of the other classclowns would draw funny little pictures on it.
The trick is to print your design (in black) onto the transparency. If you have an Inkjet printer… use transparencies for Inkjet printers. If you have a Laser printer, use transparencies for Laser printers. Trust me, it makes a difference.
After you print your design onto the transparency, hold it up to the light and see how much light comes through your design. Ideally, you don’t want any, but in reality a little bit is going to show through. If it’s a ton, take a permanent black marker and trace over your entire design making it as black as possible. This is crucial to get a perfect screen printing graphic for the next step.
See below for the next part.
3. How do I get my screen printing design onto the screen? (This is all within a UV-Safe environment!)
After you’re done printing, affix it to your dried emulsion screen with Scotch Tape. Here’s the tricky part… make sure it’s opposite of what you think you need to be… meaning, you’re going to affix your design to the backside of the screen. So when you turn the screen over and you’re looking at the front – which is also the front of the shirt – you want to make sure the design is facing you correctly. i.e. if you can read the design in the mirror… it’s wrong!
Ok, now you want to expose your screen printing art to ultraviolet (UV) light. How long and with what? About 15 minutes with two 500-watt worker lights. Don’t fall into the hype of needing to have some expensive diode-crazy-expensive-rare-light. I do all my work with an exposure unit I built for about $60.
