# Color limitations of silk screen printing



## babygodzilla83 (Dec 19, 2010)

Hi,

I'd like to ask what are the color limitations for silk screen printing? Is silk screen able to print anything and everything in the entire color spectrum? If so, do you need to manually mix inks or something to achieve a certain color? If not, is there a list of safe colors for silk screen printing?

Thanks!


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## RobertG (Oct 13, 2010)

Generally speaking, you will need a screen for each color that you want.
There is however another way that some people use; process colors is a way to trick the eye by using small dots of four different colors (cmyk).

You could also use indexed colors, which seems to be a little bit more course.

Regards, Robert


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## babygodzilla83 (Dec 19, 2010)

Thanks for your reply Robert. But my question is, how do you get the color that you want? For example, perhaps I want a very specific shade of blue or gold. Are all colors sold in a bottle or something? Or how does it work?

Thanks!


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## fabricprinter (Jun 4, 2008)

Greetings babygodzilla83. 
This is a subject that is covered by the ink suppliers and that is where I think you should start.

Each ink manufacturer has their own system for colours and colour matching. Most will have a mixture of pre-mixed colours and a method for creating other colours, either from the pre-mixed inks or from a seperate ink system designed especially for colour matching.

Talk to your ink supplier and look on the manufacturers web site. You should find all you need.

Happy Printing!


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## fabricprinter (Jun 4, 2008)

Greetings babygodzilla83. 
This is a subject that is covered by the ink suppliers and that is where I think you should start.

Each ink manufacturer has their own system for colours and colour matching. Most will have a mixture of pre-mixed colours and a method for creating other colours, either from the pre-mixed inks or from a separate ink system designed especially for colour matching.

Talk to your ink supplier and look on the manufacturers web site. You should find all you need.

Happy Printing!


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## babygodzilla83 (Dec 19, 2010)

thanks a lot for your reply!


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## BroJames (Jul 8, 2008)

babygodzilla83 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I'd like to ask what are the color limitations for silk screen printing? Is silk screen able to print anything and everything in the entire color spectrum? If so, do you need to manually mix inks or something to achieve a certain color? If not, is there a list of safe colors for silk screen printing?
> 
> Thanks!


1) Screen printing inks can be mixed to print most colors in the color spectrum if printed on a white fabric or a white base. The pantone matching system (PMS) has only a few thousand recipes of various colors in the color spectrum(does anyone know?) but most colors outside the PMS can be mixed by people who are experienced in mixing inks.

2) Inks are (often?) manually mixed. 

You can mixed about 17 or so pigment colors to a mixing base to get the basic colors. You can combine 2 or more pigments to get other colors. Often, the pantone matching system(PMS) is used and manufacturers have a software giving you the recipe of what percentage of each pigment to mix to get the desired color in the PMS swatch. However, you can also adjust the percentages of each pigment to get the shade you want.

An alternative is to use and mix some pre-mix PMS colors, excalibur ink has 10 colors. The colors are ready to use but at the same time, manufacturers have a recipe on how to mix these pre-mixed colors to get the PMS color you want.

Non-PMS colors can also be mixed to get a desired color.

3) If by safe, you mean readily available colors, the answer is yes in the paragraphs above. Manufacturers have basic pantone and non-pantone colors that are ready for direct printing onto fabrics. There are also a few metallic colors, neon or fluorescent colors, etc. you should get more ideas here Plastisol Inks for Textile Screen Printing - LancerGroup.com


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## babygodzilla83 (Dec 19, 2010)

Thanks for the great reply! Appreciate it very much! Do these facts hold true for both plastisol and water-based ink?


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## tpitman (Jul 30, 2007)

Get a Pantone swatch book. You can't use the formulas listed on them because those are for offset ink, but Union ink and several others, including Matsui for waterbased inks, have a program that runs on Windows that will tell you which of their mixing inks and in what proportion to get the colors from the swatch book. The only down side is that it's a bit of an investment on the front end, and in general use, you'll probably just use some standard ink colors like Bright Red, Golden Yellow, Royal Blue, Black, and some premixed Pantone shades. Some can come pretty close to a Pantone mix by eyeball, but it's easy to keep adding color back and forth to match a shade, and end up with far more than you need for a job. If you forsee a lot of custom mixing, get a system and charge customers for custom colors to make it worthwhile. A lot will settle for on the shelf premixed inks rather than pay for the custom mix.


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## foot print (Jun 2, 2010)

The pantone mixing system is great BUT, they have a funny way of getting the mixing formula to use funky colors to get to your desired color. And the system is not cheap neither are the mixing inks you will need to replace as they run out. If you are comfortable color matching by eye do that instead and save yourself some money and head ache. PMS. uses weight as a way to mix the ink you add not enough of one or to much of another and your color will go south in an instant. Major headache just waiting around the corner..LOL


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## kc6789 (Mar 28, 2010)

I mix all my colors from Red, Blue and Yellow. They r all custom colors. It's easy to make colors. And fun!


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## babygodzilla83 (Dec 19, 2010)

Thanks everyone for the great answers! I've learned a lot.



kc6789 said:


> I mix all my colors from Red, Blue and Yellow. They r all custom colors. It's easy to make colors. And fun!


You don't start with RGB?


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## BroJames (Jul 8, 2008)

The RGB you see in graphics program are RGB models for lights. The same RGB ratio applied to inks will yield a different color. 

The RYB or red yellow blue model is for inks. It is a variation of CMY.

If you need a mixing software, visit this link http://www.t-shirtforums.com/asia/t115790.html. The PMS is not very accurate for several reasons among which is the fabric. But these software are still a great way to get the color you need quickly (versus trial and error ang guessing) and to learn color mixing.

Kacie, do you mix the various colors from the RYB model straight from some graphics program?


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## kc6789 (Mar 28, 2010)

U can't make any colors out of green other than green-ish colors.... or a yucky brown I guess.


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## tpitman (Jul 30, 2007)

Secondary colors, like green, purple, and orange don't really make anything else. The tertiary colors, like red-orange or yellow-orange are simply orange with a little more or less red in them pushing them towards one of the primary colors.
Regarding the RGB/RYB difference, RGB is an additive color space used with monitors. When you add RGB together on a monitor, you get white. RYB are the primary colors used to mix, although the particular color you use will have a great effect on the end result. If you want a nice pink, don't add bright red to white. You'll get an orangy pink. Use magenta. There's a lot of yellow in bright red.
I would think that if you wanted to do a lot of color mixing, you'd need to to tint tests to see which direction colors tended to run, like the bright red above.
Although I've got a complete Mixopake set from Union, truthfully, I normally can find what I need without any mixing by using a few stock colors. It would have cost me less to buy a couple of extra blue shades, a purple, and a nice lime green.


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## BroJames (Jul 8, 2008)

Ahhh. I do not seem to have a knack for remembering details like colors to mix to get another color and rely on notes which often get misplaced.

If you plan to mix colors that require red for example, also try to find out more about the red pigment. Some colors have a certain tint to them. For example, some pigment colors have a blue shade or a red shade to them.

As to stock colors, I did notice that manufacturers(or at least their suppliers) are encouraging the use of certain ready to mix colors which can be use for direct printing as well as for mixing pantone colors. They seem not to be enthusiastic in selling pigments.

Tom, what do you know about the CMY color model in relation to mixing inks?


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