T-shirt screen printing is one of the most durable manual printing processes. While many forms of print production have moved into the digital age, garment textile screen printing has stood the test of time as the most cost-effective method of printing on t-shirts.

With the advent of heat transfers and direct-to-garment digital printing, and the ever-improving ability to print digitally on dark t-shirts, it would be easy to assume that the manual screen printing process will disappear. While digital methods are a fantastic and cost-effective solution for short runs of T-shirts with high color content, it is still much more cost-effective to screen-print larger runs of T-shirts.

Instead of seeing advances in digital t-shirt printing as a threat, screen printers should see them as an additional opportunity to offer services and engage customers that they may not have been able to before. When that kid comes in with a full-color photo of his favorite band and wants to print it on a T-shirt, in the past we would have had to turn him down. With the advent of digital processes, we can now offer you that one-of-a-kind t-shirt service in full color and with the right gear, even on a black t-shirt!

So rather than fear these digital advances, I believe screen printing professionals should take advantage of the additional revenue they can bring to their existing businesses and the plethora of new products they can now offer.

I think it will be a long time before a digital print on 1,000 t-shirts is a cheaper and more durable option than a screen-printed image.