For apparel brands, uniform buyers and merch suppliers

Custom Screen Printing — Spot Colours Proofed on Your Own Cloth

Screen printing is a spot-colour process: artwork is separated into its colours and printed through a mesh screen, one colour at a time. In-house prints keep sharp edges and solid coverage after 40+ wash cycles, with colour consistency at ΔE ≤ 3.0 across repeat orders. We print up to 6 spot colours per design on garments we cut and sew in-house, from 100 pcs per colour. Every order gets a physical proof on your actual cloth before the full run, so bulk delivery holds no surprises.

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Spot Colour SeparationsProofed On The Actual ClothPrinted In-House

The four methods

Screen Printing Techniques, and What Each One Is For

Four techniques cover almost every decorated-garment brief. Which one you want is a decision about how the print should look and feel — not a default.

The technique is settled alongside the artwork, and it is what decides how the print reads after repeated washing.

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Specialty inks

Specialty Inks, When a Standard Spot Colour Is Not Enough

Four inks that change what a print does rather than just what colour it is. Each one is a decision about the base garment as much as about the artwork.

  • A black tee with a bright green glow-in-the-dark print beside a green butterfly graphic

    Glow-in-the-Dark

    Charges in the light, and reads again in the dark: the ink carries a pigment that stores light and releases it once the surroundings go dark.

    Best forNightlife, kids and event graphics — anything meant to be seen after dark.

  • Close-up of a silver metallic ink print across a dark garment

    Metallic

    Small flakes of metal carried in the ink give the print a reflective sheen, rather than printing a flat colour and calling it gold.

    Best forLogos and lettering where the metallic finish is the whole point.

  • A faded circular emblem discharge-printed onto a grey garment

    Discharge

    Takes dye out of the cloth rather than laying ink on top of it. The water-based paste is printed through the screen, and the dyed ground is lifted where it sits.

    Best forVintage and faded treatments on dark cotton, where the print should feel like part of the cloth.

    It leaves no raised layer — it is the cloth that changes colour, not a film printed over it.

  • A printing screen carrying vivid fluorescent pink ink in a dark studio

    Neon & Fluorescent

    Inks that read as a striking glow under bright natural light, taking colour further than a standard spot colour will go.

    Best forBold graphics that are meant to shout rather than sit quietly on the garment.

    The palette is limited to neon pink, yellow, orange and green.

Screen printing or something else

When Screen Printing Is the Right Call, and When It Is Not

Screen printing is not always the answer. Telling the two cases apart is the first useful thing a print programme does.

Run it on a screen

Screen printing is the right call when

  • The artwork is a logo, a wordmark, or a small number of spot colours.

  • The print sits on part of the garment — a chest, a back, a sleeve — rather than covering the whole panel.

  • You want a print the wearer feels as cloth rather than as a layer sitting on top of it.

  • The order runs in a colourway you can approve once and repeat.

Reach for a different process

Screen printing is the wrong call when

  • Sublimation

    Photographic artwork, or an all-over pattern with gradients and continuous tone. Sublimation dyes it into the fabric, not onto the surface; on a low order it routes to a print partner.

  • Sublimation

    Patterns that have to run edge to edge across a whole panel rather than sit inside one placement.

  • Embroidery

    Small, textural marks — a cap front, a crest, a monogram — where a stitched mark reads better than a printed one.

The two are not competitors — plenty of collections use both on the same garment. Send the artwork and we will say which process it should run on.

Artwork and colour

What to Send, and How the Colour Is Handled

The print is only as good as the artwork behind it. Three steps stand between your file and a garment that matches it.

  1. 01

    Send vector artwork, or a reference garment

    Vector artwork is the cleanest starting point. If all you have is a garment you like the print off, send the garment — the artwork is worked up from whatever you can give us.

  2. 02

    The artwork is separated into spot colours

    Each separation becomes one screen and one pass at the press. That is what decides the print, and it is what makes a spot-colour design cheaper to run than a photographic one.

  3. 03

    The print is proofed on your actual cloth

    Before the run starts, the print is proofed on the fabric your order is cut from — the same cloth, not a stand-in.

How it is priced

Screen printing is priced per spot colour per order, so you pay for the separations your design actually uses. There is no minimum print volume tacked on.

Questions

Frequently Asked Questions About Custom Screen Printing

01How many pieces does a screen-printed run start at?

From 100 pcs per colour. Colourways, not designs, are what the minimum counts — so putting the same artwork on a tee in three colourways is a 300-piece order rather than three separate minimums.

Ask how the minimum is counted
02How long does a screen-printed order take from artwork to delivery?

Count a 7–10 working-day prototype window from the tech pack locking, including 3–5 fit revisions, then a 7–15 working-day bulk run. Air adds 5–7 days and sea 30–45; every stage carries its own date on the quote.

Ask about lead times
03How many colours can you print on one garment?

The ceiling is 6 spot colours on one design. Screen printing runs one screen and one pass per spot colour, so each colour in the artwork is its own separation — and every separation is proofed on your own cloth before the run.

See customization options
04What do you need from us to quote a screen print?

Vector artwork, or a reference garment if that is all you have — the artwork is worked up from whatever you send, alongside your target quantity and size breakdown.

See how we work from a brief
05Which garments can the print run on?

Tees, hoodies, sweatshirts, jackets and workwear. The garment is cut and sewn in-house from your locked tech pack, so the print programme and the garment spec are one order rather than two.

See named client projects
06What does a prototype sample cost?

US$80–150 per style, and that fee comes off the invoice once a bulk order passes 500 pieces. On a smaller first run it stays a one-off cost, itemised on the quote.

Ask about samples
07What quality standard applies to a printed order?

AQL 2.5 at final inspection. Certificate cover follows the fabric you pick: OEKO-TEX 100, BSCI and GRS where it qualifies.

See the certifications behind the printing
08How do you keep the print consistent across a whole bulk run?

One approved colour reference and one QC standard cover the entire order, and the print is proofed on your own cloth before the run starts, so the last garment is printed the way the first was approved.

See projects we have run
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