Separation Techniques

Unlike traditional offset printing, screen printers must employ a wide variety of techniques to satisfy the range of customer needs. If more than a few colors need to be reproduced offset printers generally will use 4 color process. Garment screen printed 4 color process is so unpredictable that other techniques involving the use of more than 4 colors yield better results. This is why it is not unusual to find 8-14 color presses in this industry. What follows is a summary of the procedures used to deal with the variety of reproduction requirements.

• Simple Spot, A separate screen for each color.
• Complex Spot, Mixing custom colors with halftones.
• 4 color Process, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black mixed to create all colors.
• Duotones, Tritones etc., Multiple colors combined to expand the tonal range of monochrome images.
• Photographic spot, Continuous tone separations that use the palette of the image to be reproduced.