Custom Screen Printing for Clothing

Popular clothing for screen printing

Choose a suitable garment below, then request your quote through the Expert Service. Every product shown supports printed decoration on real, configured print areas — final screen-printing suitability is confirmed by our team when they review your artwork and quantities.

• Performance Aircool tee
• Freestyler Vintage (STTU073)
• Freestyler relaxed heavy t-shirt (STTU788)
• Softstyle™ women's v-neck t-shirt
• Women’s vintage cropped tee
• Long John roll-sleeve tee
• B&C #E190 /kids
• Men's Marinière coastal short sleeve tee

Why choose screen printing from teeone?

Consistent across the run: Once a job is set up, every garment in the run receives the same print in the same position.

Bold, solid colour: Screen printing lays down strong, opaque areas of colour that suit logos, slogans and graphic designs.

Efficient repeat production: After setup, printing each additional garment is efficient — which is why the method suits larger runs.

Single or multi-colour artwork: From one-colour designs to multi-colour separations, each colour is printed as its own layer.

Events, uniforms and merch: A proven choice for event T-shirts, staff clothing, team kits and merchandise ranges.

Expert artwork preparation: The teeone team reviews and prepares your artwork through the Expert Service before anything is printed.

Is screen printing right for your order?

Screen-printing suitability depends on your specific order. Before requesting a quote it helps to know roughly how many garments you need, how many colours your artwork uses, the garment type and colour, how many print positions you want, when you need delivery, and whether every garment carries the same design.

Likely suitable — Screen printing is usually worth quoting when: The same design is used across a meaningful quantity; The artwork has a controlled number of colours; The garment has approved print areas; There is sufficient production time.

Needs review — Our team should look more closely when your order involves: Several artwork colours; Mixed garment materials; Multiple print positions; A tight deadline; Detailed halftones; Coated or technical clothing.

Another method may be better — A digital print or embroidery is often the stronger choice when: You need one or only a few garments; Every garment has different artwork; The design is a full-colour photograph; The artwork relies on many gradients or complex colour changes; Individual names are required on every garment.

This guidance is advisory only — it isn't a pricing or production decision. If you're unsure, send your order through the Expert Service and the teeone team will recommend the right method and confirm what's possible.

What is garment screen printing?

Screen printing pushes ink through a fine mesh screen onto the garment. Each colour in your design has its own screen: the areas that shouldn't print are blocked out, and ink passes only through the open areas, building the design up one colour layer at a time.

Because each screen has to be prepared before any garments can be printed, there's a real setup stage to every screen-printing job. That's why the method rewards quantity — once the screens are made and registered, printing each further garment is fast and consistent.

The result is a bold, flat layer of ink sitting on the fabric — strong solid colours with crisp edges. It's a different look and feel from a stitched embroidery logo or a full-colour digital transfer, and each method has designs it suits best.

When should you choose screen printing?

Choose screen printing when you're ordering a meaningful quantity of garments that all carry the same design, the artwork uses a limited, defined set of colours, and you want strong, consistent solid-colour results across the whole run — typical for event T-shirts, uniforms, club kit and merchandise.

It's usually not the right route for one-off garments, designs that change from garment to garment, or full-colour photographic artwork. For those, DTF printing prints full colour with no per-colour setup, and embroidery gives a premium stitched finish for logos and crests.

If you're not sure which method fits, request a quote — the teeone team compares the options against your actual artwork and quantities and recommends the best route.

How quantity and setup affect screen printing

Every screen-printing job starts with setup: preparing a screen for each colour in the design, mixing inks, and registering the screens on the press so the colours line up. That work happens once per design, regardless of how many garments follow it.

This is why quantity matters so much. On a very small run, the setup effort dominates and another method is often more sensible; across a larger run, the same setup is spread over many garments and screen printing becomes efficient. The number of artwork colours matters for the same reason — each extra colour is an extra screen to prepare and print.

We don't publish a fixed minimum quantity here, because the right answer depends on your artwork, colours and garments. Request a quote and we'll tell you honestly whether screen printing makes sense for your run — and suggest a better route if it doesn't.

How to order screen printing: our Expert Service

Screen-printing suitability and price depend heavily on your quantity, artwork colours and chosen garments — so screen-print orders at teeone always go through our Expert Service rather than the self-service design tool.

Choose your garments, upload your artwork, tell us screen printing is required along with your quantities, positions and any deadline, and the teeone team takes it from there: checking suitability, preparing the artwork and confirming everything with you before production.

- The teeone team checks your artwork and confirms suitability

- One Expert Service charge per order, however many garments

- You approve the prepared layout before production

Which clothing suits screen printing?

Screen printing suits smooth, stable fabrics with good flat print areas — classic cotton and cotton-rich garments most of all. These are the garment families customers screen print most; each links to the live range so you can see exactly what's available.

Screen-printed T-shirts: The classic screen-printing garment — events, promotions, band and brand merchandise, campaign tees and staff shirts.

Screen-printed hoodies: Bold front or back prints for teams, societies, leavers' hoodies and merchandise ranges.

Screen-printed sweatshirts: A smart, hard-wearing canvas for consistent chest and back prints across a uniform or club run.

Screen-printed polo shirts: Suitable polos take a clean printed logo for staff and event clothing — our team confirms compatibility per product.

Screen-printed vests: Lightweight event and sports vests with strong single or multi-colour prints.

Screen-printed workwear: Consistent company branding across work T-shirts and sweatshirts — printed identically on every garment in the run.

Screen-printed aprons: Hospitality and retail branding printed boldly across suitable apron panels.

Screen-printed tote bags: Where the live range includes suitable totes, screen printing is a classic route for event and promotional bags.

Screen-printed jackets: Some jackets take a printed back or chest design well — coated and technical fabrics need review first.

Print colours and colour separation

Screen printing works in spot colours: your artwork is separated into its individual solid colours, and each one gets its own screen and its own layer of ink. A two-colour logo is two screens; a five-colour design is five.

That's why the number of colours in your artwork directly affects setup and cost — and why screen printing rewards designs with a controlled, deliberate palette. Bold flat shapes separate cleanly; subtle gradients, photographic tones and designs with dozens of colours don't, and usually suit a full-colour DTF print instead.

Gradients and shading can sometimes be reproduced with halftones (fine dot patterns), but this needs review of the actual artwork — send it through the Expert Service and we'll tell you what will and won't work.

We match your artwork to the closest achievable ink colours. On-screen colours, printed proofs and ink on fabric can all differ slightly, so an exact match to a specific brand reference can't be guaranteed.

Screen printing onto dark garments

Printing light inks straight onto dark fabric can leave colours looking dull, because the fabric shows through the ink. Dark garments are usually printed with an underbase — a base layer (typically white) printed first, with the design's colours printed on top so they stay bright and opaque.

An underbase is effectively an extra screen and an extra pass, so dark-garment jobs can involve more setup than the same design on white or light fabric. It's routine, but it's one of the factors our team weighs up when quoting — and one more reason to tell us your garment colours when you request a quote.

Print positions and sizing

These are common example positions — not universal options. The positions actually available depend on the product you select: each product's configured print areas determine where a design can go, and our team confirms placement and maximum sizes when preparing your job.

Example positions: Full front, Centre chest, Left chest, Full back, Upper back, Sleeve, Apron panel, Bag panel.

Every additional print position is a separate print — with its own screens and its own pass on the press — so the number of positions affects setup and price. Positions come from the same product area configuration used across teeone, so nothing shown here can disagree with what's actually orderable.

Preparing your artwork for screen printing

The best screen-print artwork is bold and deliberate: solid shapes, clean edges and a defined set of colours. Vector artwork (SVG, EPS, PDF, AI) separates most cleanly into colour layers; a large, high-resolution PNG or JPEG can also work, but may need more preparation.

Very fine lines, tiny text and subtle colour blends are the usual trouble spots — fine detail can fill in or break up on fabric, and blends may need converting to halftones or simplifying. The teeone team reviews all of this when preparing your job and will flag anything that needs adjusting before you approve it.

If your design includes text, check spelling, capitalisation, phone numbers, web addresses and dates carefully before ordering — we print exactly what you approve. And you must have the right to reproduce any logos, artwork, badges or trademarks you upload.

- Vector files (SVG, EPS, PDF, AI) separate into colours most cleanly

- High-resolution PNG or JPEG also works, with more preparation

- Bold shapes and solid colours print best

- Avoid hairline strokes, tiny text and subtle gradients

- Double-check all spelling, names and numbers

- Only upload artwork you have the right to use

Specialist and complex artwork

Some artwork sits at the edge of what screen printing does well: photographic images, designs with many colours, fine halftone shading, or very intricate detail. These jobs sometimes can be screen printed — with simplification, halftone separation or a reduced palette — but often a full-colour DTF print reproduces them more faithfully with no per-colour setup.

Rather than guessing, send the actual artwork through the Expert Service. The team will tell you whether it can be screen printed as-is, what would need simplifying, or whether another method will give you a better result.

Inks and finishes

Standard screen printing produces a smooth, flat layer of ink with strong, solid colour — the finish most people picture on a printed T-shirt. How the print feels depends on the fabric, the ink coverage and the design: large solid areas have more presence on the garment than fine linework.

If your project has particular ink or finish requirements, mention them when you request your quote. We'll confirm what's available for your specific job rather than promising specialist inks or effects here — capabilities are confirmed per order, not assumed.

Screen printing compared with DTF printing and embroidery

Each decoration method has genuine strengths — the right choice depends on your artwork, quantity and the finish you want. Here's how they compare in practice:

Best for: Screen printing — Bold solid-colour designs repeated across a larger run; DTF — Full-colour, detailed or photographic artwork at any quantity; Embroidery — Logos, crests and text wanting a premium stitched finish

Colours: Screen printing — Separated spot colours — each colour is its own screen; DTF — Unlimited full colour, gradients and photos; Embroidery — Solid thread colours; gradients simplified

Quantity sweet spot: Screen printing — Medium to large runs of the same design; DTF — From a single garment upwards; Embroidery — From a single garment upwards

Setup: Screen printing — Per-colour screen setup before printing starts; DTF — No per-colour setup; Embroidery — Digitising converts artwork into a stitch file

Finish: Screen printing — Flat, bold ink layer with strong solid colour; DTF — Thin, flexible full-colour transfer; Embroidery — Raised, textured stitched thread

Per-garment variation: Screen printing — Same design across the run; DTF — Easy — names and variations per garment; Embroidery — Names and text per garment supported

None of these methods is universally better — if you're unsure, request a quote and the teeone team will recommend the right one for your artwork and quantities.

How is screen printing priced?

There's no single universal screen-printing price. Your quote depends on the garments you choose and their quantities, the number of colours in the artwork (each colour needs its own screen), the number of print positions, the garment colours (dark garments may need an underbase), artwork preparation, the Expert Service, and delivery.

Because these factors interact, screen-print pricing is quoted per job through the Expert Service rather than calculated in the online design tool. You'll see the garment prices on each product page, and the team confirms the full decorated price with you before anything goes into production.

As a general rule, the more garments in the run, the further the setup is spread — which is why the same design is usually more economical per garment at higher quantities.

Pricing factors: Garments and quantities; Number of artwork colours (screens); Number of print positions; Garment colour (underbase for dark fabrics); Artwork preparation and Expert Service; Delivery method.

How a screen-printing order works

From quote to delivery, every screen-print order follows the same expert-checked path:

Steps: Choose suitable garments, colours, sizes and quantities → Start an Expert Service order and upload your artwork → Tell us screen printing is required, with positions and any deadline → The teeone team checks suitability and prepares the artwork → You review and approve the prepared layout → Screens are made and the job is set up on press → Your garments are printed, checked and dispatched.

Samples, proofs and approval

Nothing is printed until you've approved it. As part of the Expert Service, the teeone team prepares your artwork and layout and confirms it with you before production begins — so the design, colours, position and sizing you approve are what goes on press.

If you have questions about seeing your design before committing to a full run, raise them when you request your quote and the team will explain what's possible for your specific job.

Production and delivery

A screen-printed order moves through artwork preparation and approval, screen making and press setup, printing, quality checking, dispatch and carrier delivery. Because screen printing has a real setup stage, build in reasonable production time — especially for larger runs, multiple colours or multiple positions.

Timings depend on garment availability, your quantity, the number of colours and positions, artwork readiness, approval speed and current production capacity. Delivery options are on our delivery information page; if you have a fixed event date, tell us when you request your quote and we'll confirm honestly whether it's achievable.

Timing factors: Garment availability and quantity; Number of colours and print positions; Artwork readiness and approval speed; Current production capacity; Chosen delivery service.

Caring for screen-printed clothing

A well-cared-for screen print keeps its colour and shape wash after wash. Follow the garment's own care label first, and treat the printed area gently:

Care tips: Wash inside out at a low temperature; Avoid bleach and harsh detergents; Don't iron directly over the print — iron inside out or cover the print; Avoid tumble drying on high heat; Follow the garment's own care label.

Who orders screen-printed clothing?

Events, festivals and promotions — crew shirts, campaign tees and giveaway garments where one bold design repeats across the whole run.

Businesses and staff uniforms — consistent printed branding across work T-shirts, sweatshirts and suitable polos for the whole team.

Clubs, societies, schools and universities — society hoodies, leavers' garments, club shirts and team kit printed identically for every member.

Clothing brands and merchandise ranges — bold graphic prints across a production run, with artwork prepared and checked by our team.

Charities and campaigns — high-visibility campaign messages printed strongly and consistently for volunteers and supporters.

Agencies and trade customers — client merchandise runs handled through one expert-checked process from artwork to delivery.

Screen printing FAQs

What is screen printing on clothing?

Screen printing pushes ink through a mesh screen onto the garment, one colour layer at a time. Each colour has its own screen, giving bold, solid, consistent prints — it's the classic method for event T-shirts, uniforms and merchandise runs.

How many garments do I need for screen printing?

There's no fixed number published here — it depends on your artwork, colours and garments. Screen printing rewards quantity because the setup is spread across the run; for small quantities another method is often more economical. Request a quote and we'll advise honestly.

Why does quantity matter so much for screen printing?

Every job needs screens made, inks mixed and the press set up before the first garment prints. That setup happens once per design, so the more garments it's spread across, the more efficient each garment becomes.

How many colours can be screen printed?

Each colour in your design is printed from its own screen, so more colours mean more setup. Designs with a controlled palette of solid colours work best; full-colour or photographic artwork usually suits DTF printing instead. Send us your artwork and we'll confirm what's practical.

Can photographs be screen printed?

Photographic artwork rarely suits standard spot-colour screen printing — it usually needs many colours and fine tonal detail. Our full-colour DTF printing service generally reproduces photographs much more faithfully.

Can you screen print onto dark garments?

Yes — dark garments are usually printed with an underbase layer first so the design's colours stay bright and opaque. It adds a screen and a pass to the job, which our team accounts for in your quote.

Can I set up a screen-print order in the online design tool?

No — screen-print pricing depends on quantity, colours and setup in a way the self-service tool doesn't handle. Screen-print orders go through our Expert Service: upload your artwork, tell us what you need, and the team prepares and confirms everything with you.

How do I get a screen-printing quote?

Choose your garments, start an Expert Service order, upload your artwork and tell us screen printing is required along with quantities, positions and any deadline. The teeone team reviews it and confirms suitability and pricing with you.

Where on the garment can you print?

Common positions include full front, centre chest, left chest, full back and sleeves — but available positions depend on the specific product's configured print areas. Each extra position is a separate print with its own setup.

Can you match my exact brand colours?

We match your artwork to the closest achievable ink colours. Screen, proof and fabric colours can all differ slightly, so an exact match to a specific brand reference can't be guaranteed — flag critical colours when you request your quote.

Can each garment have a different name or number?

Per-garment variation doesn't suit screen printing, because every change means new setup. If you need individual names or numbers, DTF printing or embroidery handle variation much better — we'll recommend the right route when you get in touch.

What artwork file should I supply?

Vector artwork (SVG, EPS, PDF, AI) separates into print colours most cleanly. A large, high-resolution PNG or JPEG can also work but may need more preparation. Upload the cleanest version you have and the team will take it from there.

Will I approve the design before printing?

Yes. The teeone team prepares your artwork and layout through the Expert Service and confirms it with you before production begins — nothing goes on press until you've approved it.

Should I choose screen printing or DTF printing?

Screen printing suits bold, solid-colour designs repeated across a larger run. DTF printing suits full-colour, detailed or photographic artwork and works from a single garment with no per-colour setup. If you're unsure, ask — we'll recommend based on your actual artwork and quantity.

Should I choose screen printing or embroidery?

Embroidery gives a premium, textured, stitched finish that suits logos and crests on workwear and uniforms. Screen printing gives bold, flat printed colour that suits graphic designs across larger runs. Many organisations use both across their range.

How durable is a screen print?

On a suitable garment and cared for properly — washed inside out at low temperature, no direct ironing over the print — a screen print holds up well to regular wear and washing. No decoration method is indestructible, so follow the care guidance.

How long does a screen-printing order take?

It depends on your quantity, colours, positions, artwork readiness and current production capacity — screen printing has a genuine setup stage, so allow reasonable time. Tell us your deadline when you request a quote and we'll confirm honestly whether it's achievable.

Can I reorder the same screen-printed design?

Yes — contact us or start a new Expert Service order referencing your previous one, and the team will set up the repeat run for you.

Ready to get your screen-printing quote?

Choose your garments, upload your artwork and let the teeone team confirm suitability, prepare everything and quote your run. Not sure where to start? Contact us or ask Dougal.