Screen printing is a printing process that makes use of a woven mesh to hold an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil outlines the open areas of the mesh that transfer ink in the form of a sharp-edged image on the surface that is to be printed and this surface is called substrate. On the screen stencil, a squeegee or roller moves and pumps the ink on the open areas that are to be printed with that particular color.
A stencil method of printmaking that imposes a design on the screen of silk surface, the ink is forced onto the printing surface through the mesh and the blank areas are covered with an impermeable substance is called silk-screen printing or serigraphy.
During the reign of Song dynasty in China, the screen printing appeared in the recognizable form. Japan and other Asian countries started using this printing method and advanced it further by using this in conjunction with paints and block printing. Asia introduced screen painting to the Western Europe in the late 1700s but screen painting was not used widely in the Europe due to unavailability of silk mesh here and it started gaining wider acceptance when silk mesh on trade with Asia became easily available and also, other mediums that could be used were developed.
In the United States, the screen printing was popularized by artist Andy Warhol, he screen printed actress Marilyn Monroe in’62. A rotary machine was patented by Michael Vasilantone in’60 to print logos and team information on bowling garments but shortly, started printing on t-shirts. It was soon licensed by many manufactures for screen printing of garments making the rotary garment printing machine as a popular device for screen printing. In the United States, screen printing on garments account for almost half of the screen printing activity.
The screen printing was developed as an industrial technology but it was adopted by the artist for expressing and as a repeating medium to duplicate their works before’00s. This is a very popular in both the commercial printing and also by artists and it is used to print images on different mediums like CD and DVD covers, glassware, ceramics, hats, woodwork, metals, t-shirts and hats.
Currently, graphic screen printing is used in creation of mass or large batch production graphics such as posters or display stands. The screen printing is more suitable for printing on non-porous surfaces like ceramics and metals, curved surfaces like bottles and cups and also for short print runs.
The Corporate have well utilized this option and have started giving their employees and clients corporate gifts that are screen printed with different ideas and also corporate logos. This is a good way in which the corporate can increase their presence. The Corporate gifts are usually given once or twice to the employees. The screen printed corporate gifts are like t-shirts made in different sizes and styles keeping in mind the different employees. The corporate gifts can also be in form of mugs, beer and wine glasses, and many corporate give their best employees fully paid vacations.
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