What is the difference between vinyl and silk screen t-shirt printing?
Silk screen
If you are printing under 20 pieces, then vinyl would be your best bet as there are not any setup costs or minimum quantities.
Vinyl t shirt printing Pros:
The main difference is the cost
Very sharp look with vector images
Cheaper for one-off prints
Nice look, Comes in various effects, glitter, reflective and 3d effect.
Vinyl Cons:
Does not get much get cheaper when ordering high volume
Not good for photos and high detail images
Screen Printing Pros and texture:
It has an ink feel.
Silk screen printing inks usually sit on top of the fabric, and is very durable.
When choosing this process, you can take advantage of the background removal tools and processes available.
It is also cheaper than vinyl on bigger print runs
Looks great
Can hold allot more details
Great with multicolor images
Silk screen printing Cons:
Has initial screen setup costs to consider
Has a minimum of 25 pieces per design
T-shirt Vinyl is best suited for small runs (under 25) Because there are no initial screen setup charges.
This is usually used for one colour black style prints.
The limitations of vinyl prints are that Vinyl is not very good with highly detailed or photographic images.
vinyl is great with basic text and simetritcal shapes.
screen printing is more cost-effective for large runs.
Bear in mind, that the initial setup cost of making the screens can be considerably higher than vinyl printing
Once the screens are made your cost per print is much lower than a vinyl print.
There may also a minimum of 25 pieces for screen print.
Many tutorials on how to print screen, However, it does take some training to pull off successfully.