# How to do small-run silkscreening?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-small-run-silkscreening/158847>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 3, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-small-run-silkscreening/158847 "2003-03-03T21:32:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-small-run-silkscreening/158847/1 "2003-03-03T21:32:58Z")

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Are there inexpensive kits with which you could make a silk screen of a logo, and print it on t-shirts in small batches as needed? Say 10 or 20 at a time?

This is for a restaurant owned by some friends – they wanted to see if there was sufficient interest before having a zillion of them printed up.

Mods: I wasn’t sure whether this question belonged in GQ, or the art/craft angle it thread appropriate for CS – move as you see fit.

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**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-small-run-silkscreening/158847/2 "2003-03-03T21:49:14Z")

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That last sentence should read:

Mods: I wasn’t sure if this question belonged in GQ, or whether the art/craft angle made it appropriate for CS – move as you see fit.

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-small-run-silkscreening/158847/3 "2003-03-03T21:57:03Z")

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Never done it myself, but [this](http://www.desiredcreations.com/howTo_PhotoEZ2.htm) looks like it might be pretty easy to do. If you want to do tri-color work, you’ll need to do a separate stencil for each primary color.

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**Author:** ![oceans\_11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b2d939/32.png) [@oceans\_11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oceans_11)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-small-run-silkscreening/158847/4 "2003-03-03T22:07:33Z")

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In my experience, it’s best to just bite the bullet and pay a screenprinting shop for the small run.

There are “craft” type kits, and even transfer papers for inkjet printers out there, but generally, you get what you pay for.

And if they’re going to be using the shirts for advertising, they’ll probably want decent quality- it’ll definitely show.