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Pretty arrogant title, right? With graphic design and t-shirt screen printing going hand in hand these days, you possibly know a few of these terms. We think it’s important that we go over them as an introduction or possibly a refresher. The more terms and knowledge you put in your designer toolbox, the better you will be when it comes to designing your own promotional t-shirts or working with a client.

Now I am not saying t-shirt printers are shady (I am a printer myself), but knowing the lingo will make sure no corners are cut and your t-shirts will come out looking great. Here goes:

Flashing
Have you ever seen the t-shirt color coming through an ink that is supposed to be solid? This is a result of skipping the process known as flashing during the print. Flashing is simply printing every ink twice so that the color comes out strong and solid. This process is only necessary on dark t-shirts.

Underbase
An underbase is an added step on dark t-shirts as well to make sure the colors are accurate. This can be used in addition to or in place of flashing. A true underbase is printing a whole layer of white underneath every part of the design that is going on the t-shirt.

Trapping
Trapping should be done during the design phase, and it is putting a very small stroke around certain colors of the artwork. The reason for doing this is twofold. One is to make sure the artwork completely covers an underbase and two is to prevent gaps in the registration. That simply means that the artwork will touch in all the places that it should.

Mesh
Mesh is something that you have less control over, but need to be aware of. We are referring to the material in the screen that allows ink to come through on to the shirt. If you have a lot of small detail in your artwork, then insist that the t-shirt printer uses screens with a higher mesh count.

Color Matching
Yes, color matching is exactly what it sounds like. We had to use it on here because we want to talk about particular colors. Almost all T-shirt printers use the Pantone Matching System or PMS for short when it comes to spot colors. Provide the printer with the PMS colors that you want by using them in your artwork.

I hope these terms come in handy for your next t-shirt screen printing project. It is certainly not rocket science, but knowing the lingo can help the t-shirt print come out as good as the artwork.

This was a guest post by: Blake is a t-shirt designer and printer at You Design It. His goal is to spread love in the world one t-shirt at a time.