How do you separate art and burn screens for screen printing?

Screen printing is all about turning your design into bold, long-lasting prints — but before the ink ever touches a shirt, there’s an important step: separating the artwork and burning the screens. This behind-the-scenes process is what ensures your design prints clean, sharp, and in the right colors.

Step 1: Separating the Artwork

When your design has multiple colors, we break it down into separations:

• One Color = One Screen – Each ink color gets its own screen.

• Vector Art Preferred – Clean vector files (like AI, EPS, or PDF) make separations easier and sharper.

• Spot Colors vs. Process Colors – Most t-shirt designs use spot colors (solid inks), but we can also create halftone separations for gradients or photo-style prints.

Step 2: Creating the Film Positives

Once the colors are separated, we print each layer on a transparent film. These films act like stencils, blocking light where the ink should go.

Step 3: Burning the Screens

• Coating Screens – Screens are coated with a light-sensitive emulsion.

• Exposure – The film is placed on the screen, and UV light hardens the emulsion everywhere except where the artwork blocks it.

• Washout – The blocked areas wash away with water, creating open spaces for ink to pass through.

Step 4: Printing the Layers

Each screen is aligned on the press, and inks are pushed through one color at a time. When combined, the separated layers create the full design.

Why It Matters

Proper art separations and screen burning are what make the difference between a crisp, professional print and a blurry one. At [Your Business Name], we use precise methods to ensure your artwork is prepared correctly before it ever hits the press.

Final Takeaway

To screen print a design, we separate the artwork by color, create film positives, burn each layer into a screen, and then carefully align them during printing. This process may be technical, but it’s what makes your custom apparel look vibrant and professional.

Contact us today to get started with custom screen printing, and let us handle the technical details to make your designs shine.