What is the difference between screen printing and embroidery? Perth business owners often ask this question. They are two completely different techniques, each appropriate for certain promotional items. Here’s what you need to know about screen printing and how it provides an advantage for producing promotional products that are cost effective forms of advertising.

What is Screen Printing?

Screen printing is so named because it involves passing ink through a screen stretched over a frame. The screen has a stencil on it with openings to represent where the ink should be placed, thus creating the design of your choosing.

This is an ancient form of printing first used by Chinese artisans nearly two thousand years ago. It is the Japanese, however, who are best known for creating beautiful designs using woven silk as the screen; this is why screen printing is sometimes referred to as silk screen printing.

Today, modern technology has taken over the screen printing process to make it much more accurate and the quality finer. Computers are a big part of the technology and a vital component in screen printing machinery. Screens are still an integral piece of equipment, but today, they’re using photosensitive material to create a crisp image.

Screen Printing or Embroidery?

Whether you decide to create promotional items with screen printing or embroidery depends on several factors. Perhaps the most important is what type of material your items are made from; screen printing can be applied to almost any type of material while embroidery is limited to those which can be stitched. Examples of common items that are screen printed include CD covers, some upholstery fabrics, T-shirts, posters and often watch dials. This just goes to show how versatile the screen printing process is; chances are that any promotional product you want to include your corporate logo, artwork and text can be screen printed.

Advantages of Screen Printing

Outside of the fact that nearly any item can be screen printed is the quality that results from using this process. These items will last a long time and look beautiful through hundreds of cleanings. Screen printing is also a very cost effective form of marketing; it is quite inexpensive to produce a large quantity of promotional products. It is also very versatile; there is almost no kind of design you can’t screen print onto a shirt, bag, ball cap or other items. And lastly, the process is very fast; you will find a quick turnaround time when ordering custom designed screen printed promotional items, Perth business owners.

For companies with a small advertising budget, screen printed promotional products represent a very cost-effective way to put your logo and message on nearly anything-–and that’s quite an advantage!