SCREENPRINT, EMBROIDERY & CUSTOM GARMENT SPECIALISTS
PrinTING
All The Inside Info To All Our Printing Techniques
We have All kinds of processes
TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE PERFECT FINISH WE NEED YOU TO PROVIDE YOUR ARTWORK IN THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE STANDARD. WE CAN ONLY BE AS PERFECT AS YOUR ARTWORK FILES.
THE BEST OF THE BEST SCREEN PRINTING & DIRECT TO GARMENT PRINTING
Screen printing is our passion, we love to do it and we do it perfect! With two automatic 8 colour presses and two 4 station manual carousells we have ample machinery for high throughput work. With 1000's of units done daily and trained printers to hand we can make sure your deadlines are hit for you. Worried about a turn around time; well give us a heads up and we will confirm if we can make it happen for you prior to quoting.
There is a lot more to it than applying your artwork to a garment, we have to make important decisions from artwork and films to screens and meshes but most importantly we have to select the inks we use to get the best results for your design. Each colour in your design require its own personal screen, screens are then layered up one after another to fit perfectly, thus producing your end design.
Woven Inc Ltd specialise in plastisol, water base and discharge inks but we also use special inks such as puff, gloss, reflective and glitter - if there any type of ink you would like us when screen printing for you just ask or if you would like to learn more about the types of ink we use below. It will give you a better understanding of inks.
DIRECT TO GARMENT PRINTING
If you are very specific about the look of your design, the Pantone colours within your design please do not hesitate to call us, and we will be more than happy to discuss the options available to create the finish you are looking for.
Screen printing can be quite complicated or hard to understand so check out some of the questions we have had before below or go to our FAQ’s to any other questions.
What are Screen Charges?
Every print shop charges for screens, but they are a one off cost. Because you pay for a screen charge it does not mean you own the actual screens, we do not release these. Screen charges are charged at a flat rate of £25 per colour, per size and design. This charge covers the set up and separation of your design from our artwork team to make sure that it is exactly the right size and position for print. It also covers the film, screen prep and machine set up.
Do you charge for colour Changes?
Yes we do, with small orders we need to charge these fees as we have to remove the screens from the machine, wash and clean them down. Followed by drying and setting the machine up again as you can imagine this can take quite a while. We only charge a £15 fee with a minimum of 15 units per change so it’s not that bad right?
Do you have minimum orders?
Printing all depends on the colours in your design, minimum orders are 20 pieces per design but we do have a colour break chart see below. You can mix your minimum orders between different garments and you can have a mixture of sizes.
20+ Units = Maximum of 4 Screens
50+ Units = Maximum of 8 Screens
150+ Units = 8 Screens Plus
How long do you take?
Generally anywhere up to 14 working day is a normal turn around from approving your artwork, obviously if they are ready any sooner we will ship them immediately. Although when ordering in busy season please leave up to 18 workings days to receive your order. Turn around times are not set deadlines they are estimated times for completion therefore your stock could be with you much sooner or slightly after this estimated date.
Can I see my design before placing an order?
We do not visualise orders before confirming and paying for the order. As you can appreciate it takes a lot of time and attention to visuals all artwork before it goes to a printing stage. Once you have confirmed and made payment on your order all artwork is passed over to our design team and they will visualise your order back to you for approval before anything goes to print.
***We need an approval directly to our design team before any production starts.
What size prints can I have?
Based on T-shirts see the maximum sizes and locations below, sizing will vary depending on the product and product size you choose, screens and prints are one size fits all. Check out our comparisons page for other varations, we do have oversized screens but they are price and sizing on application.
E.G if you have an Extra small Garment and a Triple Extra Large Garment the print can only go as large as a the Extra Small. Therefore it will look large on the Extra Small but on a Triple Extra Large it will look small in comparison to the garment size.
PLASTISOL INK
The Pantone matcher, plastisol inks are the go to ink, our industry standard, Plastisol is a traditional screen print ink that revolutionised the industry in the early 60s. Give a great coverage, leaving a satin- glossy like finish. You can use plastisol inks on the majority of garments for a full coverage, thicker and durable print.
This is an oil based ink that was purposely created for printing. It’s great if you want bright, solid colours that will barely ever fade. Plastisol also wins every time for tonal designs and can retain very fine detail. The main drawback is that it’s not as breathable and heavier to wear than its water based or discharge counterparts.
reflective
Tip 101 stir the reflective ink before printing: Reflective inks are made up of a carrier base and small reflective glass beads. The base ink itself is so thin, the beads will settle at the bottom if not stirred before printing, therefore you will not get an even distribution. Reflective ink if not printed with a base white will look different over different colour garments, it normally looks the best on white or black garments. Without a light beam on the produce it will look like a dull light grey, although when a beam of light hits the design it will shine bright. Not best on small intricate designs.
hd printing
HD Printing also known as high definition printing, is a process in where by you produce a 3D heavy deposit of ink. Therefore you print layer on top of layer to give it that definition. Almost like a rubber effect.
DISCHARGE INK
Discharge printing is a new great way of printing, it’s soft, and its sits in the garment rather than on top. We add a bleach based additive to the ink, this is were it gets tricky not every garment discharges well AND not all coloured garment discharges well (they will discharge but just not to the same effect). Coloured garments are not all dye the same way or with the same intensity/amount of the dye used to make the shirts bright and vibrant. The heat activates the bleach taking the printed areas back to their natural, un-dyed colour. We’d recommend only discharging onto 100% cotton.
We would say the following garment colours are a not the best to use discharge inks on (which includes our Premium Standard Ink): Kelly Green, Red, Royal Blue, Lapis, Cobalt, Purple, Forest, Teal, and Turquoise. If you are going to print on these shirt colours, please note that lighter colours like white and yellow will be influenced by the shirt colour remaining underneath.
WATERBASE INK
The Eco Friendly Option: Often the best choice on light garments the ink really penetrates most garments. Waterbased ink, like discharge will leave a very soft, durable finish. You can barely feel the print with it leaving a textureless finish as it’s super soft. Waterbased inks are mainly to achieve opaque whites as an under-base for vibrant colour prints on to dark garments.
PUFF ADDITIVE
Puff additive can be added to any colour to make it raise, it’s chemically designed to puff up when cured these inks become raised when they reach the correct temperature. Be careful with the designs you choose for this process if the artwork is too wide it will drop but if its too thin and intricate it will not have enough surface area to rise enough. Or why not just add another definition to your artwork to give it that extra impressive look.
glow in the dark
The light charged ink is a great alternative to mix up a design. The luminescent inks in natural light looks a creamy white we’d always suggested using a white base to make sure the design is seen in natural light so it gives it a good base to sit against. Although you can use any base colour but bear in mind the glow overlay will change the look in natural and dark scenes. Glow in the dark inks can be produced in a variety of colours but the human eye is most sensitive to green light so this will appear brightest.
Metallic INk
Metallic inks are similar to our glitter but they are on a smaller scale, the elements within the ink are crushed a lot finer so that its easier to use. These inks are made up of a mixture of pigment and a liquid resin. Easier to use for more detailed designs. Can be mainly used in Silver and Gold.
If you want to give other colours a little punch we can mix with our standard inks to give it that boost.
Glitter Ink
Looking for that full on glitter effect, we have it covered, we use our special screens with large open mesh counts. We wouldn’t recommend printing this method on anything detailed. Glitter Ink is the heavier brother to our metallic ink as it has larger flakes to give that full glitter effect.
Neon / Fluorescent
Looking for that electric finish, with a handful of colours available such as: Yellow, Pink, Orange Green & Blue are the top favourites. Works well in a UV charged environment.
Foil
One of our trickiest processes, with minimums of 50 units per design, our foil printing is only available in a select number of colours. Drop our team a message to check which colours we have in stock. Best way to reproduce this application, is to print a layer of glue, dry the product then press the chosen foil colour on top.
Best used on bold designs without small detail.
Screenprint
THE AUTOMATIC PROCESS: TWO IN HOUSE AUTOMATIC CAROUSELLS AND TWO MANUAL PRESSES.
Clear Inks
Exactly that clear, glossy, great for getting that tonal effect. Works great on light greys and coloured garments.
Direct To Garment PRINTING (DTG)
TWO BROTHER DTG MACHINES IN HOUSE
FULL COLOUR PRINTS DIRECT TO YOUR GARMENT.
Direct to garment printing also referred to as DTG, is another process we can offer here at Woven Inc Limited. This process does exactly what it says, it prints your full colour image directly onto your garment in a matter of minutes. Imagine a paper printer but instead of paper being fed through it would be your garment of choice.
DTG doesn't have any minimum unit requirements or set up fees, so it becomes extremely cost effective for one offs or short runs, even for multi colour designs.
What is direct to garment printing?
DTG means direct to garment, in a nut shell its a digital apparel printing process whereby you lay your garment flat on a printer bed and a specialised inkjet prints directly onto the garment.
With DTG you have unlimited access to colours, although please beware you will not get the same results as screen printing. Colours don’t tend to be as bright when using DTG process but we can get them to pop really well. Also printing the same design on both white and coloured garments may show a slight different shade.
DTG is great for all garment colours but be careful when picking your fabric content not all products can be DTG'd.
White garments tend to work out best as there is no need to pre treat the garment. Unlike coloured items you may find there is a press mark or varation between the where the garment is printed and has had pretreat to un touched areas.
Direct to garment printing sample
Why not get a sample made of your design in DTG to see how you feel about the placements and sizing we are sure you will love it.
PLEASE NOTE: MOST COLOURED GARMENTS need a pretreatment process, unfortunately it can be likely that you will get a haze or bleach effect of some products. This is out of our control and we can not do anything about this. Some items are fine and other can be effected.
Vinyl Transfers
FOUR AUTOMATIC FLAT BED PRESSES & SIX POCKET PRESSES
Like A Sticker That Stays On Your Garment
VINYL IS NOT DEAD
With no minimums transfers are ideal for Single runs or Safety wear.
Our specially designed Roland Versacamm machine prints CMYK solvent ink straight onto a vinyl sheet that can be heat pressed on to fabric. Our printer can cut to any shape to suit the logo, often not leaving a white border if the logo doesn’t need it, ideal for clothing transfers.
With digital transfers we do not charge for set ups regardless of how many colours are in your design, this makes it very economic for short runs and also fast turnarounds as there is no inks to mix or screens to make. Since this is a digital process it is very easy to make each garment unique with clothing transfers.
THIS IS NOT A LONG TERM PRODUCT AND SHOULDNT BE WASHED AT HIGH TEMPS OR IRONED.
You will have heat marks or press marks due to the nature of how this process is applied. Marks should fade although depending on the fabric contents these may be more noticable.
***please note that print or embroidery can not always be matched identically to transfer colours.
Transfers come from the ink jet printing process so they can not be matched exactly. Even with the best matches you will get a slightly different shade. Transfers can not be pantone matched unfortunately. Its always best to for straight black or white.
SPOT COLOURS
Vinly comes in all different colours ready made, what we call standard colours or straight pot shades. Can be easily added onto the machine cut and weeded to your design ready for application onto the garment. It ensures colours will not fade.
Felt/Flock Vinyl
Tough flock is fluffy to touch, it will hold it's quality for a few washes but then will fade and start to peel eventually. Not very good for intrecate designs, it's more of a one off fashion piece.
Glitter Vinyl
Glitter vinyl is soft and smooth with the shine effect to make sure you artwork sparkles away.
Metalic & Neon Vinyl
looking for bright colours, we have a wide selection to choose from.
3M or reflective
Used mainly for workwear or safety products. When the light hits the vinyl it will shine bright.
Printable Vinyl
White versacam is printed in full colour , it will have a cut line/white edging to it. Colours are likely to fade quickly and it can be quite thick and heavy.
