How do I get my designs ready for screen printing.?

Question

I want to start screen printing some of my penciled drawings for t-shirts but I don't know how to go about doing it. Is there a program I can use? I have a MAC Computer is that helps. Thanks in advance

Answer 1

As much as the computer is important it is more important to  have a good screen or monitor so that you can adjust the contrast of your images and be sure that what you see on your screen is what you will end up with on your print.

Clean up your images as much as possible, remove any marks, spots or smudges digitally or you will have to  make adjustments on the screen itself which is more time consuming and tricky to do. You could use a basic graphics or paint style programme, but mostly Photoshop and/or illustrator are used as they also offer the ability to make separations if you need to.

If you are printing in a single colour then this is as much digital work as you need to do, two or full colour (3 colour) prints need separations - one screen for each of the colours- there is a how-to in the tutorial i posted below.

Once you have your image you need to print it onto either acetate/clear film, onto tracing paper or onto normal printing paper. If you use normal print paper you will need to oil it with something like 3-in-1 oil which will make the paper translucent. Acetate gives the lowest exposure time as the light passes through it most easily, but i have tried both the trace and oiled paper way and they give the same results, just requiring slightly longer exposures.

Have fun :-)