Spreading Ink

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.