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For the production of printed garments for promotions, merchandise and fashion there are mainly 3 particular methods of screen printing employed. The method most commonly used and best suited for a large variety of graphics is called ‘Spot Colour’ t-shirt printing. The most suitable method used for the printing of graphics that are not photographic in nature is Spot colour printing.

A graphic design professional typically determines the exact Pantone colours that the ink will be matched to in order to produce a high fidelity image. In order to isolate the hues of the ink in the image, Pantone coated or noncoated references are selected. An international colour reference used in publishing, printing and design whereby each colour is identified by a unique Pantone name and number and is called the Pantone matching system.

This method of spot colour printing is particularly suited to the printing of branded promotional garments or merchandise where colour identity and uniformity must remain constant throughout a diverse range of products.

4 Color Process is an additional technique for screen printing. The type of printing that is used, relates mainly to images dealing with either photography or illustration, as well as having a large degree of colours, tones, and graduations used. Hard covers, paperbacks and periodicals all use the same four-colour process.

These inks allow light to flow through and then merge together on white backgrounds to make all the hues and tones of the orginal one. This is of course a rather more difficult process to achieve on a fabric than it is on paper. But the method used is about the same. This particular sort of printing will, obviously, only be effective on white cloth. It won’t work on coloured garments. ‘Simulated Process’ is a method used to reproduce full colour images onto colour fabrics. The costs associated with setting up the print are greater than those of simple spot colour designs. Therefore, they are only useful for larger print runs numbering more than 100. The artwork is divided into different hues and tones utilising a process that resembles spot colour t-shirt printing in order to obtain the overall appearance and style of the original picture.

This is a standard method used by all printers and most popular for example with the reproduction of heavy metal and fantasy imagery taken from CD cover artwork and reproduced onto black t-shirts for band merchandise. Colour separations and the number of colors necessary make this the most expensive t-shirt printing option, and the higher set-up costs mean it is usually reserved for larger runs.