We sometimes get asked by customers if we can do all over prints across seams on t shirts. There are boundaries within which screen printers have to work with T shirt Printing . Screen print designs cannot be done across seams of t shirts. Screen printers can usually print 1cm from the seams of the t shirts. With T shirt Printing, screen prints are also limited to screen size which is usually a print size of 400 x 290mm.
You will find that it’s rare to get a screen printer to do all over prints for T shirt Printing. A screen printer who can print all over prints would have a belt screen print machine. However, most screen printers don’t have this machine as it’s often not viable to their business. Why?
1. Belt printing machines are much more expensive to run than your standard screen printing machines. This translates into higher price tags for belt printed/all over print designs.
2. Belt printers have high production minimums. The average minimum for all over prints on belt print machines is a couple of hundred t shirts.
3. Belt printer designs are often more difficult to create and time consuming. Usually, prints are done on panels of the t shirt before the t shirt is sewn together. This increases the costs of t shirt over printing and makes the turnaround times longer than your usual screen printing.
4. On a belt printer, you have a lot of fabric movement in between screens. So belt printing only works best with 1 color designs or designs that don’t have pieces that hold tightly together.
However, you can get an all over effect of your t shirt prints through standard screen printing by creating designs that print multiple locations, for example, a print that goes from shoulder to shoulder plus a text reaching down the side plus some scroll across the bottom which would require 3 print locations. Alternatively, dye sublimation can be done. PromosXchange can work with you to create a design that’s going to be practical for print, look good and won’t break your bank account.
