Screen Printing Guide

New To Screen Printing?

Is this your first time ordering screen-printed goods from one of the screen printing companies Raleigh, NC turns to? Kahne Screen Print is here to help guide you. Read on to learn more about screen printing and various answers to important questions regarding your custom screen-printed order. When you're ready to purchase one of our prints, we'll be prepared to help. Call today for more information.

1. Why Can’t I Order One Screen-Printed T-Shirt?

Screen printing is an application that is designed to print many apparel items at one time. Almost all the time associated with your order is spent setting up the job. The printing process is actually the fastest part of the job. That's why it’s not really possible to print just one shirt for an order.

Much time goes into getting a shirt order ready to print, and it requires almost every employee from every department within the company. Artwork has to be proofed, and screens have to be created. After this, the screens department Burns the screen positives. Then, the screens need to be carefully taped. Next, the printers set up the presses and screens to run the shirts. Strike-offs are printed as a form of testing to ensure the final print matches the order proofs.

Four team members check colors, spelling, garment types, placement, and quality to ensure that the order is printed in the order that was requested. Because of all of these time-consuming steps, it would be very costly to screen print one t-shirt. That's why our minimums are 25 for screen printing.

2. How Much Does It Cost?

A lot of different variables go into the final cost of a screen-printed T-shirt order. We have made things as simple as possible, starting with providing free screens and setup fees. You just need to decide what garment you would like to print on, how many shirts you want for each design, and how many ink colors will be in the design.

Check out our screen printing pricing charts, or drop us an email, and we can send you a full quote.

3. Picking Out a Brand and Style of Shirt

Picking out a brand and style can sometimes be overwhelming. There are so many different options specific to various situations and preferences. We’ve attempted to help eliminate some of the confusion on our brands and styles pages to make selecting your garments and printing.

4. Ink Colors

Pick any color; we can print it! The hardest part is deciding. The only true way to do this is by providing us with a PMS Color #. To do this, you need a coated Pantone book. Find the color you want and give us the number. Some processes like discharge and water base are color estimates only as the process is less accurate than some of our other printing methods, AKA plastisol printing.

If you don’t know exactly which color it is you’re looking for, we can match it for you. This process is more of an art than a science and isn’t exact every time. Every computer monitor, cell phone, and tablet is calibrated differently, so the colors on your screen won't necessarily look like the colors on our artist's screens.

5. Artwork Requirements

All files need to be at least 300 dpi or vector formatted and sized to the specifications for which they should be printed.

6. What Are Screens, and Why Don’t You Charge for Them?

Most companies charge per screen as part of a setup fee. Instead of charging per screen, we usually dictate the difficulty of the work and determine how long/how many screens it will take, and that is figured into the total cost of the job. We try our best to make the ordering process as easy as possible, whether you have ordered dozens of screen-printed items before or this is the first time you are ordering a screen-print job.

7. Our Standard Inks

At Kahne Screen Print, our standard inks are plastisol inks. While most companies use lower mesh screens to make it easier to print, we choose very high mesh screens to allow for very fine details and a softer-than-usual hand.

8. Printing Over Seams and Other Uneven Surfaces (Pockets, Zippers, Tags, Folds)

In order for a print to be smooth and not blotchy, you need a fine, smooth printing surface. Any print that goes over a seam, collar, or any other uneven surface will never be perfect because the screens cannot lay flat on the garment. We always recommend choosing the shirts that have the smoothest print surface; however, if you must buy a coarse shirt, we can do so at your request, but the result will be less than perfect.

Note: KSP does not print on customer-provided garments as there are too many unknown variables to contend with, and we want your shirts to turn out great!

9. All-Over Printing

All-over printing, or something known as cut-and-sew printing, cannot be replicated at KSP. All-over printing requires special belt printers, and KSP uses in-line printers.

10. What Is Spoilage?

Due to the manual handling and manufacturing of T-shirts, we cannot guarantee that every garment that you order will be perfect. Sometimes, a few of the shirts come from the manufacturers with small holes in them, mismatching, and slightly miss-aligned seams. While these manufacturer issues are out of our hands, we will be happy to refund any shirts that have these defects.

11. Printed Tags and Other Finishing

Want your custom merch to have an even more professional look? Ask about our machine folding and custom labeling; they really can help bring your products to the next level! If you'd like to know more about our screen printing options, please give us a call today and learn what makes us one of the preferred screen printing companies in Raleigh, NC.