Discharge and Water Based Printing

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 derivative of petroleum products like plastisol - standard screen print inks. Water base inks have an ultra soft feel and the print often feels like it is a part of the fabric rather than the coarser 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 of gradients in it.

Gradients can be done with water base or discharge prints, but will typically require a lower resolution when done with water base inks. This is because fine gradients require the screen printer to use high mesh count screens and water base ink has a tendency 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

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 is formulated to work on garments with 100% cotton in the fabric content and that is one of the limitations associated with it's use.

While you can discharge a garment that is made up of a blend - ie. 90% cotton 10 polyester - only the cotton content of the fabric will retain the ink and the higher the polyester content the more of the ink that will not adhere to the garment after washing. Blended fabrics will not retain the full vibrancy of the print - for some applications this is desired; however, we recommend sampling to insure that discharge will work for your application if your garment content is not 100% cotton. 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 manufacturers 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 if a garment will discharge until it has been printed and run through the textile dryer! The textile dryer is typically set at 350 - 370 degrees Fahrenheit and it is the heat in the dryer that causes the discharge agent to discharge dye out of the garment. Discharge inks can also be pigmented to PMS colors which allows the ink to replace the discharged area with a color.

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, the costs are minimal and will allow you to get that retail look and feel, and often will demand a higher price at retail.

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