WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OFFEST PRINTING vs SCREEN PRINTING?

Silkscreen vs Offset

No matter silkscreen printing or offset printing, they are all a kind of craft to printing ink onto an object. The main difference lies in the way of printing.

Silkscreen Printing

Silkscreen printing is to individually make a film for the areas which have the same color in the design, and then apply the corresponding ink on the screen and scratch it onto the product.
Since each color of ink is printed independently, the color can be indicated to pantone color number. When you want to change the color of the artwork, as long as the color on the same film changes together (the same color), there is no additional charge for the film.

Process of silkscreen printing

Offset Printing

Offset printing, also called CMYK printing, applies 4 layers of ink: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black) printing into a picture.

The four colors printing films are made by analyzing the CMYK color point distribution of your design through software. Since the printing films are made according to the distribution of color points, if you want to change the color, we can only adjust the overall darker or lighter. There is no way to change the color of a certain part separately, and the darker and lighter adjustment will affect the overall color presentation.

Process of CMYK printing

CMYK 4 layers of ink distribution

Which printing way is better?

Screen printing and offset printing both have their own advantages and disadvantages depending on the process.
The feature of silkscreen printing is that it is suitable for block solid color design. A separate printing film is opened for each color, so you can specify the color according to pantone color chart. If you have requirements for indicated printing color of the pattern and the number of colors is small, then silkscreen printing will be very suitable for your choice. However, if your design has a gradual pattern, or if there are more than four colors, it is not recommended to do silkscreen printing, because silkscreen cannot show the gradation effect, and too many colors will increase the cost of the set-up fee.