So, you have this great idea for a t-shirt design for your company. Or maybe you want to get some themed t-shirts for your family just in time for that staycation. Perhaps you just want to get a design done for yourself. Either way, you’d have to find a t-shirt printing company to do the printing for you. You have everything in mind, from the design, to the base color, up to the budget. The t-shirt company you’ve found offers you 2 methods of printing your design, heat transfer and silk-screen printing. So which do you choose? What are the pros and cons of each? Is one better than the other? Rest easy, let us at Partum Kreatif Utama walk you through it all.

Let’s start with heat transfer. The heat transfer, or heat press (we’re going to use these interchangeably, but it’s essentially the same thing), is a method of printing that  involves printing a design onto a sheet of something called heat transfer paper using a laser or inkjet printer with special ink. Once printed, the design/paper goes through a plotting process to cut out the exact outline of the design.  Once the design is plotted out, the transfer paper is then peeled off and placed on the t-shirt to be heat pressed to allow the design to adhere to the t-shirt. The heatpressing process has to follow the exact temperature, pressure and duration to transfer and adhere to our high-quality standard. The temperature, pressure and duration differ based on type of fabric, and surface of the object.

Now, what about silk-screen printing? Silk-screen printing, or simply, screen printing is the process of forcing ink through a stenciled mesh screen to create a printed design onto a surface or fabric. Before we get further into the mechanism of screen printing, here’s a fun fact! Silk-screen printing first appeared from as far back as 1279 AD
in China during the Song Dynasty. Of course, they didn’t have the technology we have today, but the general method remains the same. Bonus fun fact: the silk-screen method was also popularized by the late, great Andy Warhol!

The silk-screen process requires a silk-screen and wooden frame, a special light-reactive ink called an emulsion coater, a Squeegee (which is similar to the tool that you use at petrol pumps to clean your windscreen) and your design, printed on transparent paper. Now, since this is meant to be a surface-level article, we won’t dive too deep into the mechanics and science of how everything comes together, but let’s understand the steps first.

Once the screen is coated, the design (printed on transparent paper or an acetate sheet) is laid onto the ink-covered screen and exposed to bright light, which hardens the emulsion except the parts which are covered by the design on the acetate sheet.

First, the special ink is spread onto the silk-screen with the help of the squeegee. The ink is light-reactive, which means it will harden when exposed to bright light. This also means that this part of the job has to be done under minimum light.

After the screen has been exposed for a set time, the unhardened emulsion (the parts not covered by design) will be washed off. This leaves behind a clear stencil for the designer to touch up and make any adjustments necessary. Lo and behold, you have your imprint ready to use!

Now, you can lay the stencil over the surface you want to print on, add another color of ink (the color you want to have printed) over the stencil, and have another go with the Squeegee. Get the movement right, and you have your design on the surface underneath. The great thing about this is, the same stencil can be used multiple times for the same design. Which means, if you want 50 t-shirts made, all you need is that one stencil! Well, that and the skill of the designers at Partum Kreatif Utama. 😉

So that’s the key difference between heat transfer and silk-screen printing methods. “But wait!” we hear you say, “That’s all well and good if I want to open my own printing shop, but I want t-shirts for an event in 2 weeks! Which should I choose?” We hear you. Let’s take a look at a couple of pros and cons between the two. To make this fun, let’s have a gauntlet style duke-out between the two, winner takes all. Let’s go.

Round 1 : Costs

We’re gonna go for the jugular with this category. Printing designs via the heat transfer method is one of the least expensive methods for starting out. Your start-up costs involve getting a printer, a heat press, heat transfer paper and the garments you’re going to print on, like t-shirts. Get all this, a way to make designs, a reliable power source and you’ve got yourself a pretty decent set-up to get printed garments out via heat transfer. Because of this, getting a t-shirt printing company to print designs for you via this method is pretty inexpensive. In fact, you can get your designs printed here at Partum Kreatif Utama starting at just RM 20.00 for one t-shirt! What’s more, you get premium quality t-shirts (200 grams weight) for this price!

On the other corner, we have silk-screen printing. Now, for this method, you’ll need all those items that we talked about in the process explanation, including the special ink, silk-screen, Squeegee and more. Due to the items required and the complicated process of the printing itself, silk-screen is more expensive in essence. However, we have to remember that the stencil we create can be used multiple times! Therefore, when going for large orders, the economies of scale favors the silk-screen method and it can end up costing less per t-shirt compared to printing jobs via the heat press method.

Now, since it seems pretty neck-and-neck here, especially with the consideration that silk-screen printing is more cost-effective for larger projects, it’s going to be hard to announce a winner for this round. We might give this round to the heat-press method due to the simplicity of the process paired with the relatively low cost. Although, when it comes to customizing large batches of fabrics and bulk orders, silk-screen printing comes bouncing back and delivers a great right-hand uppercut! After all, corporate clients who want large-scale orders would get the most bang for their buck from the silk-screen method! Heat press reels from the impact, but is saved by the bell and their suitability for small orders! We’re going to have to call this one a tie! Ding ding!

Winner : DRAW!

Round 2 : Durability and Feel

If you remember the process of both heat press and silk-screen, you’ll recall that heat press involves getting a heat transfer paper to essentially act as an extra layer on the fabric while silkscreen involves getting the ink to be absorbed in the fabric itself, instead of an extra layer on top. This additional layer can be felt on the garment and is less durable than designs done by silk-screen. If you’ve had old t-shirts in your closet, you’ve likely seen the cracks and fades in the printed design that can happen over time. This will not happen with the silk-screen method, in fact, the design usually lasts as long as the fabric itself. Also, silk-screen printing produces a softer feel as opposed to the slightly stiffer feel of heat transfer designs. The winner of this round, by a swift knockout, silk-screen printing.

Winner : Silk-Screen Printing

Round 3 : Speed of Process

Let’s now look at one of the key considerations that our clients always have, time. With the heat press method, you can get a design out fairly quickly, due to the ease of the process. Just choose your design, pick a few customizations, and we can get rolling!

With silk-screen printing on the other hand, there’s a lot more tender loving care that needs to go into the process. From preparing the emulsion ink, to working in a darkened room, silk-screen printing is so much more of an art.

Although we do love the art and are passionate about the process, we are writing this article with the customer’s needs and wants in mind. So, given that most of our customers value speed, we’ll have to give this round to the heat transfer process.

By the way, the standard turn-around times for us at Partum Kreatif Utama are 2 business days  for heat press printed t-shirts and 10 business days for silk-screen printing, in case you were wondering!

Winner : Heat Press

After a juggernaut of a match, the judges tabulate the points, carefully considering all parts of the fight. Cost, durability, feel, and speed of process. They love the old school method of screen printing and how it pays homage to the printing methods of yesteryear, but they can’t deny the effectiveness and utility of the heat transfer method. The judges’ call, by a very slim margin:

CHAMPION: HEAT PRESS!

So, the heat press method takes the championship here. But that doesn’t mean silk-screen printing is down for the count! Like we always say at Partum Kreatif Utama, it depends on what the customer wants. At the end of the day, which method you choose for printing depends entirely on what you need for that specific order. If you need a simple t-shirt that is meant for a one-day event, you might want to go for the heat transfer method. If you need a bulk order of long-lasting t-shirts that is meant for your teammates or department at work, and ones that you will need to use nearly every week, then silk-screen might be the way to go! As the age-old adage goes, “the customer is always right!”.

So if your mind is still not made up on the method you’d like to use for your t-shirt design printing, drop us a message at +6012 3645 222 or +6016 9464 219 or +6018 6626 155 and our friendly designers will talk you through the whole thing and make the perfect recommendation for you!