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East Coast Embroidery's screen printing process

Screen Printing in Rhode Island

The most cost-effective way to put a bold, vivid graphic on a large run of shirts — event apparel, staff tees, and any order where the design matters more than a small embroidered logo.

What Is Screen Printing?

Short answer: screen printing pushes ink through a fine mesh stencil directly onto the fabric, one color at a time. It's the standard for large, bold graphics at higher quantities.

Each color in your design gets its own screen — a stencil that blocks ink everywhere except where that color belongs. We layer the colors in sequence and cure the ink with heat so it bonds permanently to the fabric. Because each screen is a fixed setup cost, screen printing gets more cost-effective as quantity goes up and less so as color count goes up.

How Our Screen Printing Process Works

  1. Art separation. Your design is separated into individual colors, each becoming its own screen.
  2. Screen setup. Screens are burned with your design and registered for precise alignment.
  3. Proof. You approve a digital layout before we print — colors, placement, and sizing confirmed up front.
  4. Printing & curing. Ink is applied layer by layer and heat-cured so it bonds to the fabric.
  5. Quality check & ship. Every run is checked before it ships or is ready for pickup.

What Works Best for Screen Printing

Smooth, flat-weave cotton or cotton/poly-blend tees give the cleanest, most vibrant results — the standard choice for company picnics, 5Ks, staff onboarding shirts, and any large event run. Heavily textured fabrics can cause ink to sit unevenly, so we'll flag it if your garment choice isn't a great fit.

We source and print on our own blanks rather than customer-supplied garments, to protect fabric integrity and keep the final print quality consistent.

Color Count & Cost

Short answer: fewer colors and higher quantities bring the per-piece price down. Every additional ink color requires its own screen and setup.

A one-color logo on 100 shirts is inexpensive per piece because one screen's setup cost is spread across a large run. A five-color design on 12 shirts is a very different calculation — five screens' worth of setup spread across a small run. If budget is tight, simplifying a design to fewer colors is often the biggest lever. See our full pricing guide for how this compares across decoration methods.

Care Instructions

Compare With Other Methods

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you print on dark-colored shirts?
Yes — we can print white or light-colored ink underbases on dark garments so colors stay vibrant and don't get lost in the fabric color.
What's the minimum order for screen printing?
6 pieces per design placement per run, same as our other decoration methods.
Can I supply my own blank shirts for screen printing?
No — we print on blanks we source ourselves to protect fabric integrity and final print quality. We do accept customer-supplied blanks for embroidery.
How many colors can you print?
There's no hard limit, but each additional color adds a screen and setup cost — simpler designs are more economical, especially at lower quantities.

Have a design ready to print?

Tell us the garment, quantity, and color count — we'll get you a straight quote.

Get a Quote