Screen Printing

From armed forces to art form; Traditional Silk Screen Printing has certainly proved its timeless reliability over the last thousand years.

  • Great for bold colours and crisp designs
  • Ideal for designs with up to 6 colours
  • Amazing colour accuracy
  • Very cost-effective in larger quantities
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Process

Traditional screen printing, or serigraphy, is essentially the process of applying ink through a stencil. 

The 'screens' are a fine-mesh that’s stretched over a rectangular frame and coated in light-sensitive emulsion. The design is split into colours, with each colour printed onto transparent film and exposed onto a separate screen. Exposing the screen makes a stencil of the design, only allowing ink to pass through the exposed design. 

A screen is then placed onto the print surface, and ink is pressed through the mesh, forming the print. This process is repeated for each additional colour, with the use of a high-temperature flash in-between. 

After the print is applied in each colour, the item is placed through a heat tunnel to cure and dry the ink onto the garment. 

Imagine for a second that the mesh stencil is a flour sifter, and you’ve glued over some of the holes in the sifter, so that flour only comes out of certain holes, this is exactly the same principle for traditional silk screen printing.

This method is used commercially to print paper, fabric, garments, glass, ceramics, and also superfine computer components like circuit boards.

Pricing

Prices vary greatly depending on the garment you're printing on, the number of print locations, and the colours involved. For 20 one-colour, one-print location screen prints on AS Colour Staples, you can expect to pay $17.20 each, however the price drops a lot if the order is bigger, down to $9.90 each if the order is over 250 in quantity. These prices are for both the garment and the screen printing, and we also offer a BYO service if you have specific garments you'd like to print on.

Tips

Screen printing is really great for block colours and certain illustrative styles, colour accuracy and bold shapes. To get the most from screen printing, we recommend that customers:

  • Supply a vector image with ideally 6 colours or less (vector images are completely scalable and transfer to screen printing best)
  • Convert all vector images to outlines
  • Specify all colours as PMS spot colours for accuracy

Volume Discounts

Buy more and save up to 55% off! See an example of our volume discounts below for a 1-colour screen print on an AS Colour Staple (including GST):

1 colour

(cost included)

20 units

$17.20 each

50-99 units

$13.95 each

100-249 units

$10.85 each

250-499 units

$9.90 each

500+ units

$9.65 each

Print quality, feel and durability

Screen prints provide bold, retail-quality colours, and the detail is super crisp. The print itself sits just on top of the garment (depending on the ink), and is mostly soft to touch.

The prints will age well beyond the life of the garment as long as they're cared for and washed appropriately:

  • Cold wash on delicate settings
  • Wash garments inside-out
  • Air-dry out of direct sunlight
  • Do not iron over print (only iron on the reverse if you must)
  • Do not tumble dry

Vibrant Screen Prints in 3 simple steps

choose an item custom printing

1. Choose an item
from our range

customise your t-shirt printing

2. Customise it
with our online designer

checkout and delivery shipping printing

3. Checkout 
& we'll print, pack & post it

Start with one of our most popular blank items:

  • HeavyCottonâ„¢ Tee Thumbnail
    Digital Printing from *
    Embroidery from *
    Screenprinting from *
  • Mens Staple Tee Thumbnail
    Digital Printing from *
    Embroidery from *
    Screenprinting from *
  • JB's Wear Fitted Men's Tee Thumbnail
    Embroidery from *
    Screenprinting from *
  • Women's Maple Tee Thumbnail
    Digital Printing from *
    Embroidery from *
    Screenprinting from *
  • Next Level Mens Fitted Cotton T Shirt Thumbnail
    Digital Printing from *
    Embroidery from *
    Screenprinting from *
  • Gildan Hammer Heavyweight Tee Thumbnail
    Embroidery from *
    Screenprinting from *
  • Gildan Hooded Sweatshirt Thumbnail
    Digital Printing from *
    Embroidery from *
    Screenprinting from *
  • Mens Slimfit Crew Neck Tee Thumbnail
    Digital Printing from *
    Screenprinting from *
  • Gildan Crew Neck Sweatshirt Thumbnail
    Digital Printing from *
    Embroidery from *
    Screenprinting from *
  • Mens United Crew Thumbnail
    Digital Printing from *
    Embroidery from *
    Screenprinting from *
  • Gildan Youth Hooded Sweatshirt Thumbnail
    Digital Printing from *
    Embroidery from *
    Screenprinting from *
  • Cotton Coloured Tote Bag Thumbnail
    Screenprinting from *
* 10.0% GST included in prices.

Or browse our full Screen Printing range:

Workwear
Aprons
Sportswear
Caps & More
Totes & Bags
Tea Towels
Specials
Bring Your Own

Delivered or pickup-ready:

standard shipping 7 to 10 business days

Standard Order
minimum 14 days

standard shipping 7 to 10 business days

Shipping via 
Australia Post

Corporate responsibility.

  • Garments from ethically-accountable manufacturers (no child labour)
  • 100% plant-based, home-compostable packaging
  • Eco-friendly, water-based inks for digital printing
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