Screen Printing
Saturday, October 17th, 2009Screen printing is one of the initial methods used in printing process. In this process, the ink or any other printing medium is passed through a screen or ‘mesh’ that has been fixed on a frame, and a stencil has been applied to it. The image that needs to be imprinted is determined from the stencil openings. For the different colors, different screens are prepared and the process is repeated.
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.
The screen printing first appeared in China during the rule of Song dynasty. The Asian countries started using the screen printing process in thirteenth century and advanced it further by combining the screen painting with block printing and paints. In late 1700s, the Europe started using the screen printing process but it gained wider acceptance much later as the silk was not available in the Europe at that time.
In the United States, the screen printing was popularized by artist Andy Warhol, he screen printed actress Marilyn Monroe in 1962. A rotary machine was patented by Michael Vasilantone in 1960 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 business flourished and became a profitable industry. It was adopted by the artists to express and they used it to duplicate their works and they have been using it before 1900s. Currently, it is popular both in the commercial printing and fine arts industry. It is commonly used print images on the T-shirts, CDs, DVDs, hats, glass, ceramics, polyethylene, paper, polypropylene, wood and metals.
The first industrial screen printing process was patented in 1907 and many years later, John Pilsworth of San Francisco introduced the multi-color printing using the same screen. In this, the different screen areas were blocked for different color inks and a multi-colored image was produced. This technique is popular in printing signs and posters.
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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