First of all, what are water-based printing and plastisol printing?
Both of them are screen printing. Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate. One color is printed at a time, so several screens can be used to produce a multi-colored image or design. Therefore, we suggest screen printing when your design has no more than 5-6 colors.
But what’s the difference between water-based printing and plastisol printing?
We normally use water-based printing when the design color is darker than the fabric color. Because the fabric absorbs the ink, the lighter color is hard to show on the dark fabric. However, we can use plastisol printing when the design color is lighter than the fabric.
Generally, we will use water-based printing on a white t-shirt and plastisol printing on a black t-shirt. Apart from that, the most obvious difference is the hand feeling. As the ink is absorbed into the fabric when we make water-based printing, we can hardly feel the design when we touch the fabric. But the design is on the top of the fabric when we make plastisol printing.
Now I think you already know which printing method suits your design. Let’s start your clothing journey here.