SCREEN Textile printing


Wear it with pride


There is no better example of the power of print than the humble T shirt, which can increase its value a hundredfold with the application of designer decoration. Who makes this possible? The printer


By Peter Kiddell


Lightyear’ baby grow to the socialite with their Karl Lagerfeld T shirt, purchasers pay a premium to be associated with certain images. To achieve this, the printer has to meet the exacting standards of the company's who own the brands. With some brand owners the cost of using their licensed images can be staggering. License cost per printed image can range from pence to pounds. A cost not recognised by the general public is the initial investment in the design specifications that are minutely detailed and can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. This insistence on maintaining the correct imagery can be challenging.


Licensors have specifications that detail Lab values for colour, line thicknesses, gloss levels and even the number of button holes on a tunic. These details are backed up by proofed images on flat white paper and digital images. When translated onto textiles they have to have identical characteristics and this can really challenge the printer particularly when the feel of the garment is taken into account.


here are billions of them throughout the world and they can demonstrate love, anger, solidarity, division, fear, sadness, happiness, abuse, arrogance - in fact any opinion or emotion that can be printed on a mixture of cotton and polyester. In fact, there is no better example of the power of print than the not so humble T shirt. Take a simple white T shirt apply a simple, single colour logo and its value leaps twenty fold. Make decoration a


T 14


little more iconic and identifiable with a fashionable brand and the multiplier is one hundred and upwards. Whose imagination drives the inflation? The designer. Who makes it possible? The printer.


Clothing costs range enormously but there is no doubt that print technology, particularly screen printing, is increasing in importance as a means of determining perceived quality and status. From the toddler with his ‘Buzz


SCREEN PROCESS AND DIGITAL IMAGING l October/November 2010 The right kit


It is easy for some high end industrial printers to get a little snooty about printing onto T shirts and garments, but you only have to look at the complexity of the designs applied to fabrics to realise there is a great deal of skill, technology and expertise required to achieve top end results.


One of the main exponents of this market sector is NJ Screenprints in Leicestershire,


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