You have asked for a quote, been given two prices with two different printing methods, and now you have to pick one. Here is the plain English version of what you are actually choosing between.
SCREEN PRINTING, IN ONE PARAGRAPH
A stencil, called a screen, is made for every single colour in your design, and ink is pushed through it onto the item. Set up once, and the same print can then be repeated very quickly.
That set-up is why screen printing has a minimum order. It is also why it gets dramatically cheaper the more you order.
DIGITAL PRINTING, IN ONE PARAGRAPH
The design is printed straight from the file, a bit like a very good office printer that can print onto fabric, paper, vinyl and board. No stencils, and no set-up per colour.
That means almost no minimum, and full colour photographs and gradients are no problem at all.
SO WHICH ONE IS CHEAPER?
It depends almost entirely on quantity and on how many colours you have.
- Small runs: digital wins easily. Twenty shirts, fifty flyers, one banner.
- Large runs of a simple design: screen printing wins, and the gap widens the more you order.
- Full colour or photographic designs: digital, nearly always.
- One or two solid brand colours across a lot of units: screen printing.
WHAT ABOUT HOW IT FEELS AND HOW LONG IT LASTS?
Screen printed ink sits as a layer on the fabric and is famously durable. It is the reason band t-shirts from twenty years ago still have a readable print on them.
Modern digital printing on fabric has closed that gap considerably. On light cotton it is soft, detailed and holds up well. On dark garments it needs a white underbase first, which changes the feel slightly.
For workwear and uniforms that get washed several times a week, we usually steer people towards screen printing or embroidery for exactly this reason.
WHERE EACH ONE MATTERS MOST
For flyers, posters and business cards, digital is the standard and the quality is excellent. Screen printing on paper is now mostly a specialist, textured, deliberately artistic choice.
For t-shirts and apparel, both are common and the right answer genuinely depends on your order.
A QUICK WAY TO DECIDE
- How many units? Under about fifty, digital is usually the sensible answer.
- How many colours? More than three, and screen printing starts getting expensive to set up.
- Is there a photograph, a gradient or a lot of fine detail? Then digital.
THE PART NOBODY TELLS YOU
Whichever method you choose, the artwork decides the outcome. A clean vector file prints beautifully on both. A logo saved off a website prints badly on both.
If you are not sure what you have, send it through. We will tell you honestly, and fix it if it needs fixing. Get in touch and we will match the method to the job instead of the other way around.