Heat Press Vs. Screen Printing: Which is Best for Apparel Printing?

T-shirts, athletic shorts, hats, and even socks are becoming popular printing surfaces for entrepreneurial artists around the world. More and more traditional artists are stepping into apparel printing, as well as anyone looking for matching shirts for their teams. If you’re looking to grow a business or bring people together with apparel printing, then it is important to explore the two different t-shirt printing processes.

Screen printing and heat press printing are two completely different forms of apparel printing, each requiring different materials, tools, and skillsets. Before you jump headfirst into whichever method is easiest for you, you should consider these three factors.

Color Preference

Your preferred printing preference will heavily rely on your design vision. If you have a design that is only one or two colors, then screen printing with transparencies will be perfect for replicating your design on apparel. If you have more than three colors or feature a gradient in your design, then heat press printing can give you as many colors as you would like. Before you assume that heat press printing is always the best option, however, let’s examine the quality of each print.

Print Quality

When it comes to durability and precision in apparel printing, screen printing always comes out on top. Since it utilizes methods of direct ink placement, screen printing produces a more clean, detailed image. Using a transparency for exposing your screen is the tried and true method, as lamination has been used for decades. Transparencies provide a crisp design and can be printed right from your home printer. While heat press printing gets the job done quickly, it is at the price of quality.

Ease of Replication

When you are choosing an apparel printing method, one of the biggest considerations is batch size. Gathering the right transparency paper for screen printing and setting up your screen can be time-consuming for only a few shirts. However, if you have a batch of over 100 that you need to make, then screen printing is hands down the fastest option. Heat press printing requires transfer paper and an ironing process for each shirt, so this method is recommended for when you need less than ten of a t-shirt design.

Printing on shirts can be made easy when you choose the right method for you. Heat press printing is best for smaller batches and designs with several colors, while screen printing is best for large batches of 2-3 color prints. If you have any questions about how you can get started printing on shirts, give Filmsource, Inc Inc. a call today!