and where can i get quality paper stock for posters for a good price?
--Thank You
Are you already screening posters? If not, I wouldn't worry about the cost of the paper! That'll be the least of your concerns. That equipment is VERY expensive. It's not the same as screenprinting on garments.
We screenprint flatstock on our t-shirt press. It is actually easier than using a hinge clamp setup because we can register all screens at once. The only other expenses would be the ink and paper. Paper is cheap, and ink is comparable to ink used to print t-shirts. You can actually use waterbased ink for both t-shirts and paper. Drying racks are expensive but optional. We are actually printing christmas cards and envelopes next week.
We screenprint flatstock on our t-shirt press. It is actually easier than using a hinge clamp setup because we can register all screens at once. The only other expenses would be the ink and paper. Paper is cheap, and ink is comparable to ink used to print t-shirts. You can actually use waterbased ink for both t-shirts and paper. Drying racks are expensive but optional. We are actually printing christmas cards and envelopes next week.
Interesting. I was under the understanding that in order to print posters, or any other paper type product, there were several factors. 1. special inks of course (specifically a uv cured ink) which leads to 2. uv flash cure unit because you can't print wet on wet, it'll smudge the design 3. Of course a dryer for paper, not a normal conveyor dryer as used for garments.
Although it depends on the design. If it's a simple design, or a 1 color, sure you can screenprint on paper with waterbased inks and let it air dry. Or use air dry inks. How are you printing wet on wet with your set up?
We're not. You print one color at a time. You print the first color on all posters and set them on a drying rack, or hang them on a line, then go back with the second color, set aside to dry, third, etc. Waterbased and acrylic inks air dry.
We're not. You print one color at a time. You print the first color on all posters and set them on a drying rack, or hang them on a line, then go back with the second color, set aside to dry, third, etc. Waterbased and acrylic inks air dry.
I see. That's what I figured. I've always thought about trying that, but again, it seems to me that you'd be limited with the intricacy of the design. Once you've removed the paper, how do you put it back on the platten and get precise registration? I know you can mark the plattens and get really close, but really close is not at all precise (especially with some designs). Very interesting, though. I always wondered if anyone did this? Thanks for sharing.
You make a L shape jig for the 2 back corners and use some adhesive spray to hold those to the platen. The beauty of poster printing is that it looks good even if the registration is off a bit. Most people don't do photorealistic prints using this method, although it can be done with expensive machinery. There are companies that make art prints from paintings, etc. and they can over 100 screens to achieve a realistic reproduction of the original artwork. I have a friend that was a printmaking major, and one of his prints for his thesis had over 80 screens. It wasn't even photorealistic, but he was creating tons of layers. It would be similar to test prints created by poster printers. They reuse paper to check registration, and it creates a unique piece of art in itself. Aesthetic Apparatus
Nice. I went to a tradeshow in Berlin a few years back and saw an automatic silkscreen press printing posters. Amazing!! It had something like 16 heads, with uv flash cure units in between each head so after one head printed it flash cured the ink so the next could be printed right on top of it. So it was able to print posters with many colors and process colors without having to remove and dry. So registration was perfect and the ouput was AMAZING! It was doing probably 150-200/hour! It was a gargantuan piece of equipment. The screen frames were around 3' x 5'. I can't imagine the price of that thing. I didn't bother to ask. Probably several hundred thousand dollars. I guess if the market is there though....... I just wonder why, for that money, you wouldn't just use a printer? I know it wouldn't be as fast, but you could probably buy several printers for the cost of that beast to match its production output. But anyways, I always thought about trying that. Good luck to you. Thanks for the info.
screen printing posters need help..... 
Joshua Perez
