Printing
Screen or digital: choosing a print method
Cotton Collection
Most print questions come down to three things: how many colours the design has, how much fabric you need, and how soon you need it. Screen printing and digital printing both produce good results. They suit different orders.
How screen printing works
In screen printing, each colour in the design gets its own screen. Ink is pushed through the open areas of the screen onto the fabric, one colour at a time. A six-colour design needs six screens, each made and aligned before production starts.
The screens are a one-off cost for each design. Once they are made, every additional metre is quick and inexpensive to print. That is why screen printing suits larger runs, solid areas of colour and designs that repeat season after season.
How digital printing works
Digital printing works like a very large inkjet printer. The design is printed straight from the artwork file onto the fabric, with no screens. There is no limit on the number of colours, so gradients, watercolour effects and photographic detail print as drawn.
With no screens to make, a design can move from artwork to printed fabric in days. The cost per metre is higher than screen printing at volume, but there is almost no set-up cost. That makes digital the sensible choice for short runs, sampling and designs with many colours.
Side by side
Screen printing | Digital printing | |
|---|---|---|
Colours | One screen per colour; cost rises with each colour | Unlimited at no extra cost |
Detail | Strong, solid colour and crisp outlines | Fine detail, gradients and photographic effects |
Set-up | Screens made for each design | None; prints from the file |
Cost per metre | Lower at volume | Higher at volume, lower for short runs |
Best quantity | Larger runs and repeat orders | Short runs and sampling |
Sampling speed | Slower; screens come first | Fast |
Repeat orders | Screens are kept and reused | Reprinted from the same file |
What this means for a typical order
Our minimum is 200 pieces per style, per colour. A midi dress uses roughly 2.5 to 3.5 metres of fabric, so 200 dresses need around 500 to 700 metres of printed fabric. At that quantity, digital printing is usually the better value, especially for designs with many colours.
As quantities grow, or when a design returns season after season, screen printing becomes more economical. Reusing the screens also keeps the print consistent from one order to the next.
Colour and approval
Whichever method we use, nothing goes into bulk without your approval. We print a strike-off, a short length of your design on the production fabric, and send it to you to check colour, scale and placement. Colours are matched to your references or to the Pantone shades you specify.
The fabric matters as much as the method. Cotton, linen, viscose and silk take ink differently, and a colour that looks right on one may shift on another. We test on the fabric you have chosen, not on a substitute.
How we advise
Send us your artwork, your quantities per colourway and your delivery date. We recommend the print method that fits, explain the trade-offs, and produce strike-offs for approval before bulk printing begins. Where a design suits either method, we price both so you can choose.