Convert Images for Screen Printing

Screen printing applies one ink color at a time through mesh screens. Each color needs its own screen, so a 4-color design requires 4 separations (4 screens, 4 printing passes).

Process Colors (CMYK): Use Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black inks to simulate full-color images. Vectorr separates your design into 4 layers (one per CMYK channel).

Spot Colors: Use exact Pantone or custom ink colors. Vectorr separates your design by unique color, creating one layer per distinct color in your artwork.

1. Upload your design: Works best with vector art (SVG, PDF) or high-resolution images (PNG, JPG at 300 DPI or higher).

1. Choose separation type: CMYK for full-color designs, photos, gradients. Spot Color for logos, text, and designs with 6 or fewer solid colors.

1. Export separations: Vectorr generates one SVG file per color/layer. Each file contains only the artwork for that color.

1. Print films: Print each separation onto transparent film (inkjet transparency or laser transparency). Make sure to print in black ink only at high density.

1. Burn screens: Place each film on a mesh screen coated with photo emulsion, expose to UV light, wash out the unexposed emulsion.

1. Print: Register all screens, apply ink, and print each color in sequence.

Simplify colors: Limit your design to 4–6 colors to reduce screen costs. Merge similar colors where possible.

Use high-contrast artwork: Clean edges separate better. Avoid soft shadows or blurry edges.

Check registration: Ensure all layers align perfectly. Use registration marks (crosshairs) at the corners of each separation.

Print films at 100% black: Set your printer to maximum ink density.

Color Separation Guide File Formats Explained Convert JPG to SVG

A screen printer builds one screen per ink color. Artwork that arrives as a single flattened image has to be split by hand, which is slow and error-prone. Color separation does that split in one step: each distinct fill becomes its own layer, and each layer becomes one screen. The printed result is the stack of all layers in register.

Separation by fill color works because screen printing is a spot-color process. Each screen lays down one opaque ink, and there is no blending at the edges. That is also why process (CMYK) separation exists as a separate mode — it reproduces continuous color by halftoning four screens, which is the right choice for photographic art and the wrong choice for a three-color logo.

Every layer must align exactly, so the geometry stays in the same coordinate space across all outputs. Any per-layer shift produces halos of the wrong color along the edges. The practical fix at print time is trapping: expanding each ink slightly so adjacent colors overlap by a hair, hiding registration drift. That adjustment usually happens in prepress software, but it relies on layers keeping their original positions.

Ink spreads on fabric. A 0.5 pt line that looks crisp on screen becomes a blurred 1 pt line on a shirt. Minimum line weight for textile printing is generally 1 pt, and small text below roughly 8 pt fills in solid. Check the vector before output: if the artwork relies on hairlines, thicken them at the design stage rather than on press.

Use RGB separation when the design has a fixed set of spot colors — a logo, a badge, a simple illustration. You get one clean screen per color. Use CMYK when the artwork is photographic or has gradients that must reproduce continuously. CMYK gives you four screens and a printable approximation of the original, at the cost of the vibrant, flat look that spot color provides.