Screen Printing is a process where ink is passed through a 'screen fabric mesh' . Items most commonly Screen Printed are: T-Shirts, Vinyl Stickers, Transfers for heat pressing on garments and caps. Decals (Ceramic inks used for Firing on Mugs and Glassware) or decals to be applied to products before varnishing (logos on guitars etc). There are also special screen printing machines for printing on plastic bottles and other irregular shapes.

Refer to the diagram below to get an idea of how the process works.

CREATING ARTWORK FOR SCREEN PRINTING:
The programs most commonly used to prepare artwork for screen printing are Corel Draw and Illustrator. Both of these programs allow you to prepare film separations; that is a separate film positive for each separate color printed in the design. A new screen has to be exposed by the printer for each color.
Both programs also allow you to set traps and bleeds, essential when preparing art work for screen printing.
You can find Tutorials and Lessons on our Illustration Page.

What are Traps and Bleeds? and where would you use them? Traps and bleeds are needed when you print more that one color on an object. They are needed when printing inks that dry between each color being laid down. For instance Vinyl Inks for car stickers. Plastisol inks for Garments and Decals. This sort of printing is called Dry on Dry.
The need for traps and Bleeds comes about because Screen Printing is not as accurate as other forms of printing and the printer needs an area of overlap between on color and the next so as he can line up the design easier. Refer to the diagram below.
If the screen printer is using wet water based inks which don't dry between the application of each color (typically on garments); he will not need traps and bleeds. This kind of printing is called Wet on Wet and traps and bleeds will cause the color to run. The ink however spreads into the garment a little forming a small area of trap naturally.

Click HERE to see how to set traps and bleeds in Illustrator


Click HERE to see how to set traps and bleeds in Corel Draw

Se how to Step and Repeat and artwork using Corel Draw HERE.

Great Tutorial at Inkscape tutorials.net our sister site:
Create Separations for Screen Printing (or Spot Color Printing) We use the artwork created in Tutorial 6. I will also show you how to set Traps and Bleeds.