How To Select Your Artwork Process | Screen Printing Guide

Artwork Selection For Screen Printing: The generation of artwork is the first step in stencil making and the quality of the artwork produced will dramatically influence the quality of the finished job. Quite simply, you can produce bad prints from good artwork, but you cannot produce good prints from bad artwork. Artwork The final stage of artwork generation is the production of a mask (positive) to which the stencil will be exposed. As the name implies, a mask, literally masks out, or prevents, the UV light from passing through the image areas. The 7 main methods of prdocuing a mask or positive are: Hand drawn positives. Hand-cut masking films. Photographic films. Laser jet positives. Ink jet positives. Computer to screen systems. Whichever of the six methods used, a high quality mask must have the following requirements: Correct Spectral Absorption Most photostencil systems are sensitive to UV light in the region of 350-420 nanometers. Therefore in the order to be effective, the mask must block out or prevent light from these wavelengths from passing through. The UV absorbtion of a mask should be 4 or higher. Masks and positives with poor masking ability will result in you needing to under expose the stencil film or emulsion, compromising the durability and finished print quality. Maximum Transmission In Non-Image Areas The clear or non-image areas of the mask should have minimal UV absorption and must not scatter or diffuse light when it passes through. Please feel free to share this 'How To Screen Print' guide with your friends, on blogs and via social media. If you have any excellent screen printing hints and tips, please share them in the 'Screen Printers Of The World Unite Community' on Google+ or contact us via technical@cps.eu and maybe we can feature them in a new guide. For more screen printing guides visit our 'How To Screen Print' page. Legal Disclaimer

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