How to print on tee shirts

Screen printing is the most common way to transfer a design on to a cotton tee.

For a design with different colours, the screen printing process involves separate ‘screens’ – one screen per colour. In the below image, the screen transfers orange dye through the stencil on this screen.

Another screen could then be used to layer a different colour over the top of the printed image.

This process is repeated with as many screen as are required to build the final image.  

Most tee shirts are screen printed on the front, or the back of the shit, or sometime on both.

Almost all the t-shirts that you see in shops with a design on the front or back are made in this way. Due to the shape of the tee shirt and shape of the screen, its not possible to screen print over the whole area of the shirt using this method.

Majority of  t-shirt sellers buy bulk blank tees from a third party for about $3-$5. The third parties are large garment factories, which are usually operated in India, Bangladesh or China.

At City of Antics, we print on rolls of cotton fabric and then cut and sew the fabric into tees. This allows us to create all-over print tees with fun and unique designs.