New to screen printing? Here is what every box above asks for, where to find the number, and a typical example. Tap any ? next to a box to jump to its explanation.
- Source file
- Drop or pick the file for one color of your design. A separation is one color pulled out of the art, in black and gray. You can also use a PNG, JPG, TIF or PDF.
- Art size
- How big the design will print, width × height in inches, for example 12 × 14. It fills in from the file; change it if the size is wrong.
- PDF page
- If your PDF has more than one page, pick which page to use. It only shows up for PDFs with several pages.
- Color art
- Only for color files. "Grayscale" makes 1 film. "CMYK process" splits the art into 4 films: cyan, magenta, yellow and black, which mix to make full-color prints.
- Black generation
- In CMYK mode, how much of the dark parts get printed with black ink instead of a mix of the other three. 60% is the default. Most beginners can leave it as is.
- Underbase
- Tick to add a 5th film for a white underbase. That is a white layer printed first on dark shirts so the colors on top stay bright.
- Underbase strength
- How heavy the white underbase is, from 50% to 150%. It only works when "Solid underbase inside design" is unticked. 100% is the default.
- Underbase fill
- Ticked makes the underbase solid white everywhere inside the design's outline. Untick it for art that fades into the shirt, like soft edges.
- Frequency (LPI)
- LPI means "lines per inch": how tightly packed the halftone dots are. A halftone is shading made of tiny dots. Pick a number your mesh can hold (see our Mesh & LPI Chart). 55 is a common choice.
- Dot shape
- The shape of the tiny halftone dots. Elliptical (oval) is the default and gives smooth middle tones. Round, square and line are other looks.
- Output resolution
- How many printer dots per inch (dpi) the film is made at. Match your printer's setting. 1440 is common on Epson inkjets.
- Choke / spread
- Makes the edges of the art a little smaller or bigger. A minus number shrinks them (choke). A plus number grows them (spread). It is measured in points, and 1 point is 1/72 of an inch. The main use is to shrink a white underbase so it does not peek out past the colors. Try the presets, like 1.5 pt for a medium design.
- Solids
- Leave this ticked so areas that are fully black in your art print as solid black on film, not as dots.
- Plates table
- One row per film. Angle is the tilt of the dot rows. Giving each color its own angle helps avoid moiré, a wavy pattern like a screen door seen through another screen. Min and max dot % are the smallest and largest dots allowed (5 and 95 by default). Dots spread a bit when ink hits the shirt. Gain comp % makes the middle dots smaller on film to make up for that. 0 means off.
- Page size
- The size of the film sheet you print on. "Art size + margins" fits the sheet to your design; pick Letter, 11 × 17 or 13 × 19 to match the film in your printer.
- Orientation
- Which way the image reads on the film. "Emulsion up" is the default. Choose "Mirror" only if you put the film face-down on the screen.
- Registration marks
- Small target marks printed on each film. You line them up so every color lands in the right spot.
- Crop marks
- Small corner lines that show the edges of the art.
- Label strip
- A line of text on the film with the color name and settings, so you know which film is which.
- Invert (negative)
- Flips black and clear on the film. Normal screen printing uses positives (black where ink goes), so leave this unticked unless you know you need a negative.
