Screen Printing
Screen printing flat artwork is our bread and butter! It is what we have done since day one, and what we will continue to do for years to come. Whether you are a novice artist or a seasoned veteran we would love to work with you on your project to bring you the best prints possible!
There are many factors that go in to pricing a screen printing job.
For starters, here is a list of standard frame sizes for your reference:
8” x 10”
11” x 14”
16” x 20”
20” x 24”
24” x 36”
Our largest size we can print is 24X36 inches. Full bleeds at this size become a little tricky due to the output of our film only being 24” wide. If full bleeds are a must at this size we can special order films to accommodate you.
Typically we price screen printing jobs by press sheet. Smaller size prints often can be “tiled” out on a larger press sheet, but this is only recommended on the 18X24 format. For instance 4, 8x10 prints, tile really nicely on an 18X24 set up. They do not however lend themselves to 24X36 format.
Our minimum runs are 50 press sheets. No matter how small the print is we have to run 50 copies through the press. There is a certain amount of set up time involved with screen printing jobs and that is what dictates our minimum quantities. Our apologies if you do not require this many prints, but this is the least amount we can do.
One issue we battle with screen printing is paper expansion. As you lay down water based ink on paper, especially in flooded situations, the paper soaks in the ink and expands a bit. We have seen almost .25” of expansion in some instances. This makes registering on large format prints very difficult.
If you are working on the 24X36 inch format we recommend using plenty of bleed (3-5 points) to offset the expansion of the paper and make it easy enough for your job to register correctly.
Bleed and Trapping are a MUST in screen printing and letterpress. While we use the most advanced screen printing press available as well as up to date output systems, the screen printing and letter press processes are not perfect. It never will be. Our presses register very true and our press operators have many years of experience under their belt, but every one of them will tell you that a job that is set up well is much easier to print than a job that has pre-press issues such as not enough trapping or too tight of bleeds. We suggest that designers embrace the fact that this is a hand made process and craft that takes years to perfect. Allow for bounce, paper expansion, and any other slight variations that may occur during these print process and your prints will come out fantastic even if we had a little bit of expansion or registration problems. With the correct amount of bleed or trap gaps and white spaces can be avoided completely.
The most common format we print is the 18X24 inch poster. FINAL trim size is 18X24 inches and the paper usually comes in 19X25 or 20X26 format.
Art from Clients
Please do not set up trapping and bleeds on your own without discussing it with us first. While the concepts are the same for screen printing, many printers have their own tendencies or preferences when it comes to this. Nobody is right or wrong it may just be a preference on how to set up the job. There are artists out there who have PLENTY of experience setting up their own screen print files. If this is the case and you “know what you are doing” we will take a close look at your separations to make sure they are up to the specs that we prefer. If they are than we can usually charge a reduced art fee for removing this element of the process.
We, like most printers, would prefer to set up the files on our own because than our team is aware of areas of concern and we have better knowledge of your artwork.
Art should be flattened on one layer, fonts should be outlined, and strokes used in creating the art should be expanded.
