Plastisol Inks

Plastisol Ink is essentially liquid plastic. Plastisol is the dominant ink of choice because it is user friendly. It is the classic print feel on garments. It allows for various additives like puff, Metallic, stretch, and foil (More on these in the Specialty Inks below).

Plastisol also has a high opacity. The ink covers the shirt color well and is more forgiving.

Specialty Inks

To add a different look and fun aspect to your print, try adding in some of these ink additives to your products!

Puff - for a 3-D look that will pop from the garment and add an extra feature in any color!

Metallic - for a shine in silver or gold that stands out. Add Metallic prints to garments to give that shining feature!

Stretch - for athletic type fabric to enable the prints to form with the poly spandex type fabrics found in athletic wear.

Foil - for a smooth metal look to printed areas.

Glitter - for an extra pop from a metallic print. This is a step up from the metallic flake that has larger flakes and is mainly used for sports like cheerleading.

Water-Based Ink

Water-based is an up-and-coming ink in the screen-printing world. The primary type of water-based ink we’ll be talking about is high-solids (HSA) ink, like Green Galaxy. HSA water-based ink provides a softer feel and is widely considered better for the environment. 

Water-based ink lays down a thin, soft, flexible layer of ink on the garment. You can print a thin ink deposit that will still hold up after countless washes. Thanks to the little to no chemical usage, you’re able to reduce your eco footprint. 

Printing with water-based inks isn’t a walk in the park. Since water-based inks contain water, the ink begins to evaporate once it’s exposed to air. It is a more technical printing ink, which reflects in its higher price points, but in some cases benefits greatly over other methods.

Discharge Ink

Discharge ink is a water-based ink that you use on dark garments to give it a soft hand feel. It’s created by adding a discharge agent to water-based ink that removes the dyes in the fabric and replaces them with the desired ink color. It is a recently developed ink that provides a different and neat ability to screen printing.