Photostencil Process

Screen printing

General Stuff

Screen printing is a print process that is based on using stencils

The screen mesh supports the stencil, so that stencil can be more complex
The general principle is that you take a frame and stretch a polyester
mesh material over it, attaching the mesh to the frame using staples or
glue. This is your screen. After attaching a stencil to the underside of the
screen and positioning the whole assembly over a sheet of paper you
spread ink along the nearest inside edge of the screen. Using a squeegee
you then push the ink over the whole inside surface of the screen. Where
there are holes in the stencil, the ink goes through onto the paper
underneath, making the printed image.
Stencils can be indirect in this case the stencil is made away from the
screen or direct in this case the stencil is made on the screen
Photostencils are direct stencils that are suited to printing complex
images.
Other stencil materials include paper, glue, acrylic mesh fillers, wax, chalk
and adhesive plastic sheets. Some of these are painted directly onto the
mesh others are cut with a knife and attached using glue, printing ink or
hot iron.
You might make a photostencil and print with one colour then change the
stencil using another method to print other colours on top or you might
use one photostencil for each colour.
The first step is make a full colour original design or upload a digital photo
to a PC/Mac

Three Colour Process

If you wanted to make a screen printed colour copy of a coloured

photographic image, you need to use a 3 colour process. Even though its
called three colour process, there are four colours if you include black. The
others are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, the three true primary pigments. These
inks are called Process Inks
In this case you start with the photo open in photoshop. You choose a
CMYK colour mode. In photoshop you go to view on the toolbar, then
Proof Set Up ,select a colour channel, then save as labelling the file
appropriately. You do the same thing for all the four CMYK channels
(K=Black). This is a colour separation.
Compose each layer into a black version of the original image. Expand the
bottom layer by a few pixels, then go up the stack of layers, leaving the
topmost one alone. You do this to ensure that the layers overlap a bit, so
when you print there is less chance of any gaps appearing due to small
errors in registration.

You arrange the layers from the brightest at the bottom and the darkest
one at the top
You make sure that registration marks are placed on the layers
You then apply a halftone screen to each layer. Resolution of this depends
on how fine the mesh is in terms of threads per inch of material. There is a
ratio that has to be observed to avoid any interference caused by the
mesh and halftone dots.
Then you print out each layer at the requisite size onto acetate using an
inkjet printer preferably. The printed acetate is called a Positive.
You need one positive for each screen, one screen for each colour. Thats
four screens.
To prepare the screens, you need to make sure they are clean by
scrubbing them in detergent and dry them

Half Tone Screens

If you are intending to make a print from a photographic source the image
needs to be broken up in half tone dots
These dots make printing continuous tones possible
First digitise your photo and open it up in photoshop ensure that the file
resolution is at least 400 dpi
Go to image>mode>CMYK
Now click on the channels tab in the layers palette
At the top right of the window you see an icon which is like a stack of lines
with an arrow. Click on this to release a drop down menu. Click on Split
Channels
Photoshop will open a document for each colour channel cyan, magenta,
yellow and black (thats K for key)
Click on the cyan tab and go Filters>colour half tone
A dialogue box opens and it asks you for a value in pixels of more than 4
for the dot radius.
At 400 dpi for the source file, 4 pixels dot radius this leads to a screen
resolution of 50 lpi.
Half tone screen resolution should be between 45 lpi for basic designs and
65 for more hi res images.
The printing screen mesh count is important, for general purpose spot
colour and half tone printing a mesh 200-255 tpi should be OK.
There is a relationship between half tone screen res and print screen mesh
count. This is approx. 3.5xhalf tone screen res=mesh count
Therefore, for a 200 tpi mesh the HT screen needs to be about 59 lpi
Avoid directly divisible HT screen res/mesh counts like 75 lpi screen on a
300 tpi mesh
To avoid moire patterns forming when you print all four colours one on top
of the other, the HT screens are placed at different angles from the
horizontal, when the rows of dots are parallel to the edges of the paper.
You specify a screen angle of 0 ( or 90 ) degrees for Yellow
45 for black ( or 135)

15 for cyan ( or 105)

75 for magenta ( or 165)
By doing this you will see the less objectionable form of moire pattern ,
rosettes become visible. If you look closely at commercial advertising on
billboards you will be able to see these rosettes.
Black and white half tones screens are used at 45 degrees.
If there are less than 30 degrees between the orientation of two screens,
you will tend to get some kind of moire interference pattern. Yellow is
arranged at 15 degrees from cyan so a moire is inevitable, but because
yellow is less dominant in terms of covering other colours, you can get
away with it.

Colour Separation for a Colour Design

Open the file in Photoshop

Go to Select and then Colour. You click on a specific colour in the design
and all areas of the print with that colour will become selected.
Copy then paste the selection onto a new layer. Label the layer according
to the colour.
Repeat this for all the different colours in the design
Re-order the layers in order from brightest colour to darkest in the order
that they will be printed. You might want to print in order largest
smallest. Just dont print light colours at the top of the stack over darker
colours.
Select the gradient tool and set the foreground and background colours to
black.
Lock transparency for each layer and drag the tool across, now the
coloured shape is turned black. Do this for all the layers.
Print each layer onto acetate. These will be the positives for each colour.
Its usual practice to expand the selected shapes at the bottom of the stack
to compensate for small errors in registration.
You can check by putting a brightly coloured background layer into the
bottom of the layers stack, then you can see any gaps in the image when
all layers are visible.

Photostencil Process

The photostencil comes in two bottles. One is an acrylic medium and one
is a photosensitive chemical. You need to mix them together thoroughly.
Using a coating trough, you apply the stencil emulsion to the whole lower
surface of the screen. Aim to ensure that the stencil layer is even and thin.
Put the screen in a dark, dry place away from dust. You can use a fan
heater to accelerate the drying process. Leave it to dry. Its always best to
use the coated screen as soon as you can, the stencil material will get
more insensitive over time.
When its dry you can expose the stencil. Place your positive on top of an
exposure unit. This is like a very powerful lightbox. Then place the screen
on top of the positive, close the exposure unit lid and switch the vacuum

on. Exposure units have a rubbery lid that is formed around the screen by
the vacuum to hold the screen firmly in place on top of the positive.
Now set the timer to go, the light comes on and the timer counts down 3
or 4 minutes.
After exposure remove the positive and take the screen to a wash out sink,
spray low pressure water over the whole of the screen.
Where there are clear shapes in the stencil and the light has impacted on
the stencil material, the stencil is hardened. Where the light is shielded by
the black shapes, the material stays soft. So after a few minutes the water
washes away the soft areas, exposing the screen mesh.
When all the material that will wash out has done so, then stop and leave
the screen to dry. You will notice that the areas of bare mesh correspond
precisely with the black shapes of you positive.
Now do the same thing for the other three colours. If you have a screen
thats big enough you can expose two or three or all four positives on the
same screen. This saves time and avoids tying up too many screens.
Remember to leave at least 5 cm clearance around the edges of your
stencils.

General Stuff About Registration

You need to print each image onto the same place on a series of sheets of
paper (this is called stock in printmaking circles). You do this by registering
the first print you do.
Careful registration is vital to make a good print. You make use of the
registration marks, small crosses in the four corners of the image, to
ensure that you print the colour layers in exactly the same place on all the
sheets.
The principle of registration is that you line up the stencil with the first
sheet of paper, then mark the position of the paper on the screen printing
bed, using masking tape and thin card.
You mark the bottom below the two corners and one side. You print your
images, lining the stock up with your markers each time, so the image is
printed precisely in the same place on each sheet. You do this each time
you do a run of prints, an edition. Always do at least 10-20 prints in your
edition, preferably more.
There are different ways to register. You can do it by eye, moving the
stencil and viewing from above until its positioned where you want it to
be before clamping it into position in the print bed frame. You can also do
it by taping a sheet of drafting film or acetate to the left of the printing
bed so it covers the whole printing area, taking a print onto the acetate
then sliding the paper into position under the acetate. You then mark the
paper on the printing bed as before and continue with your print run. The
advantage of this is that its a precise way of registering your second, third
etc colours and you can check up that things arent going adrift if youre
doing a longer run.

A More Hand Made Approach to Photo Originated Prints

If you want your print to be more hand-made looking from a photographic

source, take a copy of your photo blown up or reduced to the size you
want and convert it into a colour design, using inks or paint
Now cover it with a transparent sheet, such as acetate, and trace the
colour shapes. In this case you need to decide how many colours you are
going to print. So make black positives on acetate for each colour. Label
each hand made positive with the colour. When youve done all the
positives, layer them up on a light box to ensure that all the colour shapes
mesh properly, leaving no gaps.
This is hand-made colour separation
Now make exposed photostencil screens for all the colours, making full
use of the available screen area as before. Again print them from lightest
colours to darkest, that way any overlaps will be less conspicuous.