Spreading Ink

Spreading Ink offers all over printing which we do on a large rotary that was designed from the ground up to do this - it has 40x50 inch printing platens.

The shirts must set on top of the platen, not over it.  If more than a one color design is needed, then you should have a design with loose registration. These garments have to be hit with a shot of waterbased adhesive on the inside of the shirt so that the shirt does not shift around too much during printing.

All over prints are not perfect, you will see some areas that don't print perfectly due to folds in the shirt. There will be some inconsistencies where the print goes over seams, collars etc. If you look at most prints in mid tier department stores you will see a good sampling of what to expect. If you are expecting Affliction style quality be prepared to have a larger percentage of rejects and you might also consider printing the shirts as a blank before the side seams have been sewn.

We offer up to 3 colors on all over prints and we reserve the right to not print a design if we don't think it will print well. You can submit designs as a .jpg, but final art should be vector. Halftone gradients can be used, but should be limited on all over prints. We do offer one color prints with an over the top design in plastisol inks if the artwork can be accomplished this way. We reserve the right to determine how a design will print best though, and will make recommendations based on our experience in doing this work.

We can print up to a 2XL, although there are small areas on a 2XL right at the tip of the sleeves that will not print (approx 1 by 3 inch triangle), we can print all over on any sizes smaller including womens designs. The unprinted small triangle area on a 2XL is generally not noticed.

All over printing is such that if your artwork is not a repeating pattern it will not lay on all shirts the same and there needs to be a defined focal point. That focal point should hit in the same area of all shirts and shirt sizes. With this method some of the art will fall off of a small shirt, but will mostly cover the XL. We have an illustrator template that we use that includes a bleed area that is good for all sizes up to a 2xl.

Almost all of this printing is done with waterbase or discharge inks. If plastisol is used (where a specific color is requested and cannot be matched with a waterbase system) plastisol is used with a soft hand base added. There will be no underbase when this is done. It can still work on dark garments as long as muted colors are ok, final output depends on the look you are going for.

Please feel free to give me a call to discuss your needs, our customer service hours are 9-5 PST. We look forward to hearing from you!

Spreading Ink provides custom screen printing to help organizations of all sizes and types fulfill special needs. Whether you are small company looking for a cost effective uniform solution, or a large corporation seeking to get a commemorative item done for the annual employee picnic. We also provide custom screen printed numbering and player names for athletic teams and leagues, and shirts for any number of occasions. Some other uses include: family reunions, high school reunions, sorority and fraternities, inexpensive company marketing products, event shirts, shirt to identify event staffs at larger events, and shirts for business owners who want to provide them for resale. This is just a small sampling of the many different uses for our product.

At Spreading Ink you don't have to be huge to use us. Our minimum orders start at only 36 pieces and our equipment gives us capacity to meet orders in excess of 2000 pieces and more per day. We offer specialty color mixing and can match any color you have or mix any special color you desire. We offer up to 10 color printing and with our graphics ability and software magic you might be surprised just how realistic and detailed we can make your design look on a shirt! We also offer the latest looks using foils other specialty inks to get that custom retail look!

Spreading Ink strives to maintain a 7-10 day turn around (from time of final art approval), and we work hard to build lasting relationships with our customers and the community. Give us a try - we will be your printer of choice!

Please take a minute to browse some of the photos of our print quality to get an idea of what Spreading Ink can do for you!

Contract Printing

In addition to servicing our local community and business needs, Spreading Ink prides itself in providing the same great service and printing to our contract customers! We offer great printing, reliable service and competitive pricing to enable the brokers and design houses to deliver a superb and reasonably priced product on time every time. Our state of the art equipment can deliver thousands of shirts daily and there is no job too big or two small. We strive to maintain a two week turn around time from art approval to final pickup or shipping. Need it faster? We can often do the job in as little as a day or two (rush charges could apply), please contact us for details. We also offer on press art approval with advance notice. We will set up your job and give you a 15 minute window to view the print on press prior to production if you require a press proof.

The following is a list of some of our contract printing features:

• Production capacity of over 4000- 6000 garments per day.
• Custom ink mixing
• 10 color capability on dark shirts - 11 to 12 colors on light garments
• Simulated Process and True Process printing are our specialties.
• Specialty inks and printing processes on request.
• Reliable and quick service.
• Shipping direct from our production site to your customer, we will even ship in your packaging, please call us to make these arrangements.
• We will print your garments or help you get the right garment to meet your needs if you prefer.
• Net 10, 15, and Net 30 billing on approved credit (some restrictions apply).

Lastly, if you need folding, bagging or tagging for your retail customers, Spreading Ink will ensure that your product will be delivered in the manner required to meet your specifications. Preparation for retail is no problem and most any service desired or required can be met for an additional charge. Simply make sure we know what your requirements are and we will do our best to meet your final customer's needs.

For more information regarding our contract printing policies please contact us at info@spreadingink.com . Upon request we will provide you with Spreading Ink's contract printing qualification requirements. Once we have verified your qualifications, we will send or fax you our contract pricing with all of the details.

Please take a minute to browse some of the photos of our print quality to get an idea of what Spreading Ink can do for you!

Spreading Ink also offers a full array of promotional products to help our business customers and community organizations with their marketing and advertising needs. We have found that promotional products can be the perfect complement to our core business of screen printed garments, and our aim is to help our customers meet as many of their needs as possible in one convenient stop.

Whatever product you seek, it can be printed with your corporate logo! Whether it's golf umbrellas and golf balls for your company golf classic, commemorative watches to celebrate an employee's service to your organization, simple key chains to pass out to your potential clients, or water bottles you can get them all with your company or organization's name and logo printed on them! There is a myriad of products available, and Spreading Ink is here to help! The possibilities are truly endless! Contact us as we have suppliers for thousands of different promotional products and can help you find that special item that will fit your company, image and occasion and get it to you in a timely fashion. The promotional products industry has over 300,000 products available and we can help you obtain any item you are looking for.

If you are interested in finding that special something for your business or organization please contact us. The lead time for most products runs about 2 - 4 weeks from art approval to final delivery, so please keep this in mind when planning your next big event or advertising blitz, and we will ensure that you have the products you need to make your endeavor a success!

Many people are looking for water based printing and discharge printing to get the ultra soft  'no hand' feel that plastisol inks cannot typically match.

Water based printing is also touted as being eco friendly and it is not a derivitive of petroluem products like plastisol. Water base inks have an ultra soft feel and the print often feels like it is a part of the fabric rather than the courser feel of plastisol inks which typically lay on top of the garment and have a feel or 'hand' to them. Water based printing is perfect for vector graphics and other art that does not have a lot gradients in it. Gradients are harder to do with water base printing. Fine gradients require the screen printer to use high mesh count screens and water base ink has a tendancy to dry in this type of screen. Other limitations of water based printing include that the inks do not typically have enough opacity for the colors to remain true when printed on a dark substrate. In order to get the same soft hand feel that water based inks provide on a dark or colored shirt (IE: red, black, etc...), the printer must use discharge inks.

Discharge printing is a specialty process that uses a water based ink product as it's base and has a discharge agent added to the ink. The purpose of the discharge agent is to "discharge" the dark colored dye out of the cotton and leave the cotton in it's natural state which is usually a cream or tan color. Discharge only works with 100% cotton fabrics and that is one of the limitations associated with it's use. In addition, discharge ink has the same limitations as water based inks when it comes to gradients since it is simply a water based ink which has had a discharge agent added. Another important factor when deciding to use discharge inks is the shirt itself. In order for the dye to properly discharge out of the fabric, the fabric must have been dyed with a 'reactive' dye. Most manufactuerers of garments can tell you whether or not their garments will discharge and it is important for you to know this as the screen printer will not know for sure a garment will discharge until has been printed and run through the textile dryer! The textile dryer is typically set at 350 - 370 degrees farenheit and it is the heat in the dryer that causes the discharge agent to discharge the garment dye. Discharge can also be pigmented.  This allows it to replace the discharged area with a color. This is typically used for dark garments and is printed with water based inks.

Because the processes used to print water based and discharge inks are not as production friendly as standard plastisol inks prints, using this process is typically more expensive. While we do charge extra for this service, however these are the products that will give you that "special" look, and are often higher priced at retail.

For specific questions or concerns about this type of printing please feel free to call our knowledgable staff - we are here to help you.