To Help you better understand what we do at GETBENTpress, here is a compilation of industry lingo and procedures.

  ARTWORK for design.
This can be a picture, drawing, cartoon, or words you want to put on your t-shirt. This is the starting point of screen printing your t-shirt. This can be done in many different ways using many different software packages. What is key is that the art must be done in vector format. The the main programs professionals (and amateurs) use are Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. Here at GETBENTpress, we prefer if the artwork we use be a PDF.

  CAMERA-READY ARTWORK
 Is a file created using pr to take these digital files and create printing plates from them without use of a camera and negative. Despite this, the term camera-ready continues to be used to signify that a document is ready to be made into a printing plate. a digital file is usually considered camera-ready if it meets several conditions:

1. It is created with a software program commonly used in the printing industry, such as LaTeX, InDesign (Adobe), Illustrator (Adobe), Freehand (Adobe/Macromedia), and exported in a commonly used file format, such as EPS, PDF and sometimes TIFF. JPEG images are usually considered not camera-ready, as the compression used in the JPEG format deteriorates the quality of the image.
2. The document uses the correct color setup. If printing a (full) color document, all graphics should be converted to CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). If it is a spot color document, the color(s) to be used by the printer must be specified in the digital file.
3. The layout is created at the correct and final size to be printed, and the document size in the desktop publishing program matches the size of the final printed piece.
4. Text or graphics that are intended to bleed off the page of the final printed piece should be extended off the document boundary in the digital file. The amount varies depending on location, but is usually 1/8 inch in the US, and 3mm in metric systems.
5. Fonts used in the digital file are converted to vector graphics (usually defined by the software as "convert to paths" or "outline text"), or alternatively, the fonts are included in the final digital package sent to the printer.
6. Raster or image files are originally created at high resolution settings, such as 300 DPI (dots per inch). This ensures a high quality image. Images saved from Internet web pages are usually low-resolution, 72 dots per inch JPG or GIF files and are not considered camera-ready.

 
SEPARATIONS or "SEPS".
Once your art is created, each color must be printed on clear film called separations. These will be used to burn the images for each color into the screen.

 THE SCREEN.
This is a square metal (usually aluminum) or wooden frame with a screen made of mesh material very tightly stretched over it. It will be used to burn your seps into and to print on the actual shirt.

 MESH.
This is the material which is stretched over the silk screen frame itself. This woven material, as its name suggests, has holes in it that can vary in size. (MESH COUNT) The holes allow ink to flow through onto your fabric, in varying quantities depending on your t-shirt design. Different screens have different mesh counts. The lower the number, the more ink it allows in. (IDEA COUNT IS BETWEEN 100-380)

 Screen printing 
Is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil.

 EMULSION.
This is a substance that when put into the screen, and dried in a dark room it blocks the mesh, preventing the ink flowing through onto your fabric. In areas where the emulsion hardens (by exposure to bright light), the screen is blocked so no ink can pass through. This is imperative to ensure that nothing other than the image you intend to print appears on the final print.

 COAT THE SCREEN.
This simply means putting the emulsion onto the screen before you begin to burn your artwork to the silkscreen. See number 

 SCREEN EXPOSER / BURNING A SCREEN.
This is the process of using a halogen light (or very high wattage light bulb) to burn your artwork image to the silkscreen. In areas where the emulsion is kept soft (by your image blocking the light) and is eventually washed out of the screen, the ink will pass through to produce your print.

 EXPOSER UNIT - HALOGEN OR HIGH WATTAGE LIGHT BULB.
These lights are used to permanently dry the emulsion onto the screen, so no ink can flow through to the screen. It's used to burn the artwork image onto the screen, so only holes where the artwork blocked the hardening of the emulsion as in 7 above, ink can easily flow through onto your t-shirt creating your design.

 SQUEEGEE.
This is a tool with a flat rubber blade on one side used to pull ink evenly across the screen mesh.

 PLASTISOL.
The type of ink used for screen printing. The ink has unique properties, for example, it will not dry even when left out until it is cured under a heat source of 320 degrees.


  PALLET or PELLON
A piece of rounded wood or metal that you place the shirt on to be printed. There are various sizes to fit various jobs.


  DIRECT to GARMENT PRINTING:   
   Also kown as DTG printing, digital direct to garment printing, digital apparel printing, and inkjet to garment printing, is a process of printing on textiles and garments using specialized or modified inkjet technology. The two key requirements of a DTG printer are a transport mechanism for the garment and specialty inks (inkjet textile inks) that are applied to the textile directly and are absorbed by the fibers.


  DISCHARGE INK & DISCHARGE SCREEN PRINTING:
Discharge inks require an activator/catalyst to work; there are two different systems available. The predominant system relies on active ingredient Zinc-Formaldehyde-Sulfoxylate (ZFS). The newer, and less used system relies on Thiourea Dioxide as its active ingredient. There are different name determinations dependent on what the ink company calls it, in most cases formaldehyde is the active ingredient. In both systems, the ink has a limited discharge life once the activator is added. There are two methods of discharge printing, both systems can be used.

1.       The first and most traditional printing method is to discharge every color in the print; there is no need for an underbase screen. This method saves a screen and does away with flashing between colors. The exception to this rule is when a black-ink screen is needed. There’s no need to use discharge if the black will cover without it. When printing on black, any black that is on the design is reversed, that part of the design will use the shirt color itself.

2.       The second method is to use discharge strictly as an underbase. With this method, you can use either white discharge or natural discharge, which contains no pigment and reveals the natural color of the fabric. The following colors are printed with regular plastisol with or without flashing. Some prefer not to flash the discharge underbase. This saves the head used for the flash and any cool down heads. The end result is that printers can increase the amount of colors they can print on dark shirts by one or two.

The undwhite discharger base works well for most design types, especially spot-color work. Even though the other colors are printed using plastisol, the overall print has a less heavy feel because the underbase is a water-based product. If a design contains halftones or other areas with very thin ink deposits, then a natural discharge would work much better. The pigment in the white discharge underbase might mix with the process inks and shift their color. This is usually a problem with spot colors.

Discharge ink underbasing makes true 4 color process printing on dark fabrics possible. For process printing do not use a white discharge underbase. When the white pigment mixes with the transparent process inks, they will turn pastel and muted. Work with a natural discharge underbase that will reveal the natural cotton background color using a highlight white to make the design pop. Process-ink systems can be beefed up using triple-strength versions to compensate for the natural background thus overcoming the off-white background color. Again if the design contains any white color of its own, print a white highlight that is designed to print with the process inks using this application.


  AUTOMATIC SCREEN PRINTING PRESS: 
This screen printing press is a very large piece of equipment that once set up properly, will print up to 14 colors automatically. All you have to do is put the shirts on the pallets and take them off.


 CONVEYOR DRYER:
A large heating element with a belt that automatically moves the printed substraight thought the heated area in order to cure the imprinted ink. 


 FLASH DRYER / FLASH UNIT.
1: A device used to dry ink enough to print another color on top of it, but not enough to completely cure it. It is essential when printing colors on top of each other.
2: A small heating element that is used to cure imprinted ink between color layers. The printed substraight is left on the platon and placed under the flash unit in order to cure the imprinted ink, allowing the next color to be printed without residual ink imprinting on the back of the corresponding screens.


HEAT PRESS:
a machine engineered to imprint a design or graphic on a substrate, such as a t-shirt, with the application of heat and pressure for a preset period of time. While heat presses are often used to apply designs to fabrics, specially designed presses can also be used to imprint designs on mugs, plates, jigsaw puzzles, caps, and other products.