Silk Screen Printing

Looking for silk screen printing services in Singapore? Silkscreen printing, also known as screen printing process is one of the popular and commonly requested fabric printing techniques used to custom print on T-Shirts, Polo T-shirts, towels, and other apparel. It is known for its unrivaled printing quality that produces vibrant colours that can withstand hundreds of washes over the lifespan of the garment. The durability is because fabric ink is printed directly and absorbed by the fabric.

At Innov Enterprise, we believe in delivering quality silk screen prints at great value. Thus, the satisfaction that you get from the products that you buy from us is our utmost priority. Let us know your requirements and we will advise you on how to fulfill your needs with the best solution at affordable pricing.

Below are some of the most common questions and answers about silk screen printing Singapore that we hope you can have a better understanding of how it can apply to your requirements.

How Does Silk-Screen Printing Works?

For a simple explanation, silk screen printing is a printing technique that uses a mesh to transfer layers of ink to the substrate, except for those areas that are impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil or mould to protect it from any leakage of unwanted ink onto the substrate. First, ink is poured onto the screen then a squeegee or scraper is used to move across holes in the mesh screen, filling the ink evenly over the open mesh. With that step, the added pressure from the squeegee causes the screen to touch the substrate (that comes with a layer of light reactive emulsion), causing the ink to wet the substrate and pulled out of the mesh aperture as the screen springs back after the squeegee past through. Once the ink is forced onto the fabric through the mesh openings with ink, it absorbs, transfers, and integrates into the fabric to create the graphic on the garment.

This process can only print one colour at a time, every color of printing requires a new screen. Thus if your design has multiple colours, the screen will have to be applied times with different screens and colour. The silkscreen ink can be mixed to attain the specific Pantone colours of your choice. This is useful for companies or organisation that has to adhere to their company’s corporate colours.

What kind of products is suitable to use silk screen printing?

Silk screen printing press can be applied to shirt printing, polo tees, jackets, singlets, caps, and most of the products that are available in our online catalogue. It works best with 100% cotton, single jersey, polyester, and microfibre fabrics. If you are not sure if a particular product or fabric is suitable for this printing method, please feel free to contact us for more information.

What is the artwork graphics requirement for silkscreen t-shirt printing?

For the best optimal silk screen shirts result, other than having the required equipment and processes in place from our side, the next most important thing is to have high-resolution images. The images that you need to provide should be created and saved at a high resolution of between 150 to 300PPI (Pixels Per Inch) in various formats such as .PNG, .JPEG, .GIF, and BMP. Please refer to the table below for a preview of suitable files.

Artwork Graphics

It should be in Vector Graphics or Hi-Resolution images with 300 PPI or above.

General Specifications

Description	PPI(Pixels Per Inch)	Color Mode	Remarks
Vector Graphics	300 PPI	CMYK	It is very important when saving a vector file to convert the text to outlines or curves depending on the program, EPS (vector files), Adobe Illustrator(Text converted to outlines), CorelDRAW (Convert to curves).
Photo Images Files	150 – 300 PPI	CMYK	If you wish to use a digital photo, they usually come as .jpg .bmp .png files and will need to be a minimum of 150 – 300 and saved as CMYK. Always set your digital camera to quality level High or Best.
Hi-Res Images	300 PPI	CMYK	High quality TIFF files at 300 PPI or more at actual image size or larger. Some PDF files work, Please submit for evaluation.

The silk screen printer is most suitable if you require a custom print of large quantities of t-shirts and with less than 3 colours to be at its most cost-effective. The best order quantity is from 50 pieces onwards. Send us a photo or the image of your design and we will be able to advise on the feasibility

What are the sizes that we can print?

The printing size can be done as a small area over a pocket within 10cm x 10cm or used to print images that require covering a large area of Tee Shirts such as within A4 and A3 sizes.

Please note that the pricing is based on the print size within the dimension for easy calculation. We will indicate the actual dimension in the layout before the sample printing.

Small Print: 10 x 10cm
A4 Size Print: 21 x 29.7cm
A3 Size Print: 29.7 x 42.0cm

Our Screen-Printing Guidelines are meant to make your design look amazing, so once you see your artwork, we will be able to know the best placement.

Full Front: 5 cm down from the base of the neckline and center.
Full Back: 5 cm down from the base of the neckline and center.
Men’s Chest: S – XL: 8 cm Down from Shoulder at Neck Point 2XL – 3XL: 9 cm Down from Shoulder at Neck Point.
Women’s Chest: S – XL: 4 cm Down from Shoulder at Neck Point 2XL – 3XL: 7 cm Down from Shoulder at Neck Point.
Short-Sleeve: 1/2 cm above and centered.

How do we determine the pricing for silk screen printing?

The pricing is determined based on the following attributes:

Is the size of the printing base on the small print, A4 size print, or A3 size printing?
The bigger the print size, the price will be higher.
The number of colours the image contains?
Price will be higher for images with more colours within an image
The total number of the same prints required?
As the initial setup cost is the same for printing (E.g. 1 or 100 pieces). Thus, it is cheaper to print in larger quantities from the minimum order (MOQ) from 30 pieces onwards.

Please refer to our online apparel catalogue for the ready-stock apparel for your selection that may suit you and your designs. Lead time for silkscreen printing is generally between 2 weeks. However, the lead time may vary based on the complexity of the design and the quantity required.

Tips:

T-Shirt Printing in Singapore using this method can be costly if your desired image for print consists of full colours with low quantity. Hence if you are doing mass apparel printing to create a corporate identity with 1 or 2 colours, this printing technique is the most cost-effective one to use for your custom requirements.

If you are constantly involved in organising sporting events or occasions or you are a student looking custom printed t-shirts for your class, CCA groups, school, or organisation, we have the experience and know-how to turn your original ideas into reality with our apparel and t-shirt printing services. We offer quality t-shirts at great prices!

Other than T-Shirt, you can also screen print on other merchandise items such as caps, windbreakers, towels, safety vests, and more.

In conclusion, silkscreen printing is suitable if:

You print in large quantities (Minimum 30 pieces), where the cost of printing per piece is lower.
Your image does not have many colours as more screens will be required to produce a multicoloured image(It is recommended not to have more than 4 colours)
You require printing an image over a large area of the Tee Shirt such as A4 or A3 size.

For more information on the suitability of your logo to be imprinted onto the apparel, do send us an email at enquiry@innoventerprise.com and our friendly team will work on your request.