Screen Printer Machines vs Digital Printing

A number of companies and businesses in the T-shirt printing industry use both screen printer machines and digital printers. Even though digital printing has been gaining popularity in the recent past, the truth is that a good number of companies are still using the traditional screen printing for a good number of their products.

Of course, the two printing techniques are very important in the T-shirt printing industry since each technique has its unique advantages and disadvantages. What are the main differences between these two techniques?

Principle of Operation:

The Screen printing machines use a stencil to apply layers of ink on the printing surface. This stencil is referred to as “screen” by professionals in the printing industry. To obtain the desired output, several stencils are created for each color is applied using a different stencil. It does this one at a time after which they are combined to give the desired design.

On the other hand, the digital printer mainly depends on the use of computers to process the artwork with the help of various graphic design software.  The desired design is printed directly on the surface of the product.

All these techniques have their unique strengths and weaknesses. As a customer, you must not insist on using a particular process; you need to consult professionals in this industry.

Type of Project:

The screen printer machines are mainly used in applications where the design requires a high level of vibrancy; that is, when you are printing on either special products or dark shirts. Normally, the ink is thicker than that of the digital printers which makes the final design to be brighter even when a darker T-shirt was to be printed.

Although this printing technique has proved to be versatile and flexible; the process is time consuming and has a limited number of colors which can be printed.

In most cases, the digital printing techniques are mainly used for products with very intricate designs and for orders of a smaller quantity. Initially, printing small quantities was not economical using the traditional printing techniques. These printers do not use screens, thus, they can allow for photographic print. This technique is mainly used for light colored shirts since the ink applied is thinner. High production rates can be produced due to their high accuracy and precision. They are not time consuming since the process does not require setting up screen physically.

The screen printer machines are still being used in the printing industry, despite the numerous advantages which the digital printers come with such as efficiency, accuracy and faster printing speeds. A number of companies have been focusing on digital printing processes.

As you plan to hire any company for your T-shirt printing business, you need to be sure that it has the required experience and expertise. You try to get the worthwhile information about the company through referral programs or customer reviews. The outputs of both screen printer machines and digital printer machines pass through the same process which basically involves reviewing the final product to check for any forms of defects. All these defects must be corrected before handing over the product to the end user.

Discover the main differences between the screen printer machines and the digital printer machines at


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