Logo for screen printing: separations, not a JPEG
A screen printer quotes in screens. Every ink is a physical mesh, every mesh is set up by hand, and every colour in your file has to become one of them. A logo built for a screen is a set of flat, separated shapes.
On a T-shirt, screen printing is still the process that gives the best colour and the longest life per print. It is also the least forgiving file format: what arrives as a soft RGB illustration has to be split into solid plates, and anything the printer cannot separate becomes either an extra screen or a compromise.
The good news is that the constraints are knowable before you send the file. If you know the ink count and the fabric, you can design something that prints the same way on the first sample as on the five-hundredth shirt.
How a screen-print file is built
- Each ink becomes a separate plate. The printer needs one shape per colour, in the same position, with no soft edges between them.
- Colours are specified as spot inks, not as an RGB or CMYK build. A spot ink is mixed to a reference; a process build is four inks pretending to be one.
- Transparency and blending modes are flattened. A screen does not know what is underneath it; the file has to decide before the plate is made.
- Thin gaps between touching colours are opened slightly (trapping) so that registration drift does not leave a sliver of shirt showing.
- A white underbase is planned separately for dark garments. White is usually a plate of its own, not the absence of ink.
Where files fail
- A gradient or photograph is quoted as four-colour process, which costs more and looks softer than a spot print on a garment.
- Hairlines below roughly 0.5 mm at print size break up on the mesh, especially on a textured shirt.
- Two similar brand colours become one screen because the printer cannot justify a setup for a difference nobody will see on fabric.
- A white logo on a white shirt has no plate at all; on a dark shirt it needs a white screen and possibly a base.
- Overlapping semi-transparent shapes create a third colour the file never named.
Ink count is the cost driver
| Inks | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cheapest and sharpest; ideal for workwear and one-colour marks |
| 2 | A strong default: one brand colour plus black or white |
| 3 | Still comfortable; useful when the mark needs an accent |
| 4+ | Each screen adds setup and a registration risk; ask whether a two-colour reduction would sell the same idea |
A logo does not have to be usable in one colour everywhere, but it should have a one-colour version that is not an afterthought. That version is what goes on the cheap shirt, the tote bag and the sticker.
Worked example: a two-colour run
The brief
A cycling club wants 120 cotton T-shirts. The mark is a winding road inside a shield, in three greens and a grey.
Three greens on a heather-grey shirt will not separate cleanly, and a fourth screen for grey is hard to justify. The reduction: the shield becomes the shirt colour (no plate), the road becomes a solid off-white, and the darkest green carries the outline. Two screens, better contrast, and the mark still reads from ten feet.
The file shipped to the printer is a two-page PDF: one page per ink, each shape solid and in register, plus a note naming the two spot colours. That is a quote the printer can price immediately, rather than a question.
What our pack ships
The Production Pack gives the mark as one-ink, mono and reverse SVG files — one ink per file, which is what a screen-print shop separates from. It does not do the separation itself: your printer sets the inks, the halftone and the trap, and does that better than a file you bought from a website could.
It does not choose inks for you. The printer's stock, the fabric and the light in the room all matter. The pack gives them clean one-ink geometry and the sRGB values from the spec, so the proof is a proof, not a negotiation.
Questions
Can you screen print a gradient?
Yes, with a halftone screen that turns the gradient into dots. It costs an extra screen and the dots are visible up close. For most small-business marks a solid reduction prints better and lasts longer.
Why did my printer ask for spot colours instead of RGB?
A spot ink is mixed physically to a reference. An RGB value has to be converted, and the conversion depends on the press, the ink and the fabric. Naming the ink removes that guesswork from the proof.
How many colours should a logo have?
One strong colour plus black or white covers most needs. Three is comfortable for screen printing. Beyond four, each added ink has to earn its setup cost and its registration risk.
Is white ink a colour?
On a dark garment, yes: it is usually a separate white screen, sometimes with a base layer underneath. On a white garment it may be no plate at all. The same file can need different screens depending on the shirt.
If the file is the problem, the pack is the fix.
The Production Pack is $149, one time: true vector masters, six lockups, a print PDF and EPS, one ink per file and unlimited parametric edits.
See the production pack Audit my current file
Free tools: vector check · 12-file audit · 16px legibility · CMYK shift · stitch estimate
For agents
The same pack is available to a machine: a structured brief, a JSON manifest, x402 in USDC on Base, and an MCP tool contract.
Agent access · OpenAPI · llms.txt · MCP
Agent API: the contract, the free endpoints and the paid x402 checkout are live. USDC on Base, no account, no API key.
Related guides
- Logo for workwear: the three-inch test
A uniform logo is seen at arm's length on fabric, not on a screen. The chest, back and cap each need a different version of the same mark.
- Logo for embroidery: what actually stitches
Why embroidered logos turn into blobs, the stroke and letter-size limits that matter, and exactly what artwork an embroiderer needs. A practical checklist.
- Logo print quality: why the colour changed when it went to print
Screens emit light and ink absorbs it. Why a logo looks different on paper, which colours cannot survive CMYK, and how to keep the brand consistent.