We now offer Screen Printed T-Shirts and Full Colour Printed T-Shirts, so what's the difference and how do you choose? Each printing technique offers its own advantages and ideal use cases. Use this table as a guide to decide which technique is best for your client: 

	Screen Printed	Full Colour
Low Volume (Quantity 1-50)
High Volume (Quantity 50-500)
Single Use
Multi-Use
Workwear/Uniforms
Pantone Colours
1-4 Colour Logos
CMYK Photo Printing
Gradients, effects, overlapping colours
Budget	££-£££	£

Full Colour Printing

Full colour t-shirt printing directly applies the ink to the t-shirt fabric using digital inkjet printing technology, similar to how an inkjet printer apply tiny drops of ink directly to paper. The inks are waterbased and absorbed into the t-shirt fibres.  Just like when printing with an inkjet printer, all CMYK colour combinations are possible, making it ideal for printing photos, effects, and artwork with gradients or overlapping colours. All coloured textiles will be printed with a white underpin, so the printed colours are the same, regardless of textile colour. After printing, the garment is dried by going through a heated air tunnel.

Unlike screen printed t-shirts, full colour t-shirts require very little printing prep, making them the cost-effective option for low volume orders (quantities 1 to 50). 

Printing: CMYK Inkjet directly onto fabric

Colours: CMYK 

Quantities: 1-50

Cost: £

Artwork requirements: Always create in CMYK

Suggested uses: Stag/hen party shirts, t-shirts as presents, printing photos or complicated designs

Screen Printing

Screen printing is the process of pushing ink through a woven mesh stencil onto the t-shirt. The stencil, or screen, is made from the customer's artwork and then the colour printed through the stencil directly onto the t-shirt. The ink is then flash dried, and this process is repeated for each colour in the artwork.

Since one screen is required for each colour in the design and the artwork is recreated layer by layer, this process is considerably slower and more expensive than the full colour t-shirts. This process is ideal for logo designs with less than four colours and when ordering higher quantities. Screen printed t-shirts are available in quantities as low as 1, but due to the prep cost, it is more cost effective to order higher quantities.  

Printing: Pantone matched ink applied directly to the t-shirt

Colours: Pantone/spot colours (Learn more about spot colours here)

Quantities: 1-500

Cost: ££-£££

Artwork requirements: Vector files and PMS colours (100% of the colour, no overlapping colours). Not suitable for gradients or tints of colour. 

Suggested uses: Team or work uniforms, events/tradeshows, company branding