Today, the screen printed T-shirt is an American icon and a global means of expression. Here at Meme Tech we have over 3 decades of in-house printing experience. We stand behind our work and consistently strive to implement ecologically sound practices and products by using high quality, locally made plastisol inks for a durable, opaque print and soy based cleaning materials. We use our technology to be not only more efficient, but also more creative.
How it’s Done
To make a screen, we take a computer file and separate each individual color. Each color is output to a solid black opaque film. We take a clean and empty synthetic mesh screen and coat it with a photosensitive emulsion, and allow it to dry in complete darkness. We then position the printed film over the screen and expose them to a very bright light source. The area exposed to light will harden and the area blocked by the film, the image, will wash out. After drying the screen will be aligned on the press where we spread ink over the screen with a smooth plastic bladed squeegee, which will force the ink through the mesh onto the fabric below. Each color is a separate layer, or screen, so by setting up multiple screens, multiple colors of ink may be used in the design, up to 6 colors at a time. After heating the ink to a temperature over 300 degrees, it will then bond to the fabric permanently.
Art Specifications
Our pricing assumes that we are provided with “camera ready art”. This means that we can take your file as is, and produce films with which to burn screens. If your art is not camera ready, there will be a graphic design fee applied to your order. If your design is one color, we prefer the art to be in black, as that will be the easiest way for us to produce a film positive.
Provided art should be sized as you would like the design printed on the shirt. If your art is not sized as you would like, it is your responsibility to let us know the actual size you would like the art to be printed. We prefer to get the design dimensions by width dimensions (ie, 11″ wide). There are some terms which have a common meaning in screen-printing such as “full front” or “full back” which we take to mean 10-12″ across depending on the height of the design. A “front left chest” or “over the heart” design is generally no wider than 4″ unless the design is taller than it is wide.
We use a standard set of screen-printing distances from the collar. if you would like a custom location, please be as detailed as possible when placing your order.
For vector files, it is important that you either attach any font files used, or create outlines of your text.
For raster files, it is important that your design be at least 300 dpi. If you are working with a multi-color file, we request that your file be saved in CMYK color format and that each color be in it’s own layer for ease of separations.
If you would like us to check your art to see if it is up to camera ready specifications, send it to us and we would be happy to let you know.
