Pulling a squeegee on a manual screen-printing press and transforming a blank T-shirt into a colorful piece of commercial art is one of the most ubiquitous starting points for jobs in the decorated apparel industry. 
Whether it is a basement- or garage-operated shop, or a large-scale industrial printer, manual printing always is in high demand. It seems so easy, but not everyone can do it. 

there's a basic mixture of crafsmanship, technical skill, science and, of course, some old-fashioned elbow grease. What are the key traits and skills that a rookie printer should know to be transformed into a seasoned, highly skilled master of the craft?
Below is a guideline to master the "Zen" of manually printing T-shirts and making a big mark in any shop.

A customer recently complained that when printing a low-bleed white ink onto a dark blue fabric, the ink changed color - but not to the expected blue hue. 
Instead, the white ink turned ... wait for it ... pink. The customer then sent us a sample of the fabric and we got the same results upon printing a while-ink design.

Here is the third part of Kieth’s article about the importance of using the right tool for the job and knowing what the tool can do.  If you missed the previous blogs, here you can read Part 1 and Part 2.  You can also read the full article (PDF) from here. 

The term workwear covers a large range of imprinted clothing. Everything from industrial uniforms, outdoor wear, safety, and specialty clothing all fall under this category. However, although these diverse end uses are technically the same, the requirements of each industry can vary drastically. Here, we will try to break these specific industries down and look at printing, curing, and other common differences to help you be successful in printing these garments. 

Are you happy with the way your shop runs every day?  Every facet of how you print or embroider a shirt?  For the most part, probably yes.
However, I’ll bet that there are some aspects of your company that you don’t like.
Customer challenges when entering orders, too many misprints, rampant thread breaks, screens where the emulsion doesn’t wash out correctly.  Rising consumable costs.  Problems with the building.  Dye migration. Digital pretreatment woes.  Not enough time in the day to get it all completed.

Click here to read the full article from Marshall Atkinson of atkinsontshirt.com