The process: a stencil on a mesh

Screen printing is a stencil process. A fine mesh (once silk, now almost always polyester) is stretched taut on a frame and coated with a light-sensitive emulsion. The artwork is exposed onto the coated screen, hardening the emulsion everywhere except the image; the unhardened emulsion washes out, leaving open mesh in the shape of the design. On press, ink is flooded across the screen and a squeegee drives it through the open mesh onto whatever sits underneath: fabric, paper, board, glass, timber, metal. One screen per colour, printed in sequence.

The mesh count (threads per centimetre or inch) is the process's main tuning knob: a coarser mesh passes a heavier ink deposit for bold, opaque coverage, while a finer mesh holds finer detail with a thinner deposit. As a reference point, Permaset's own starter kit ships with a 43T mesh, a common all-round choice for garment work; its technical data sheets carry the full mesh-range guidance per ink type. That heavy, controllable ink film is the whole commercial argument: no other mainstream process puts down as much pigment in one pass, which is what makes white ink cover a black shirt.

Where it wins in 2026

  • Textiles and merch: opacity on dark garments, stretch and wash durability, and unit costs that fall quickly once screens are made. For one-off personalised garments, digital direct-to-garment wins; for a run of fifty band shirts, screens win.
  • Signage and industrial work: ink on substrates offset and digital presses cannot feed, including timber, glass, metals and formed plastics.
  • Special effects: the heavy deposit carries metallics, fluorescents and textures better than thin process films (see our specialty inks guide).

The Australian ink story

Colormaker Industries, at Brookvale on Sydney's Northern Beaches, has been manufacturing since 1958 (it marked 65 years in 2023) and states its operations run on 100 per cent renewable energy. Its Permaset Aqua range is a water-based, phthalate-free textile ink line the company describes as non-toxic, low-odour and cleanable with water, positioned squarely against solvent-based plastisol systems. The range runs from standard and opaque (Supercover) colours through water-based CMYK process inks to glow and metallic lines. Those are the manufacturer's own product claims, linked so you can read them as published; the wider point is verifiable from the catalogue itself: a screen shop can now run genuinely water-based across most garment work, from an Australian supplier, without importing.

The safety framework is WHS law, not a printing standard

Screen shops handle inks, emulsions and wash-up chemistry, and a persistent trade myth says there is a dedicated Australian screen-ink safety standard. There is not, as far as we can establish; the governing framework is work health and safety law, and the practical document is Safe Work Australia's model code of practice for managing risks of hazardous chemicals in the workplace: safety data sheets for every product, labelling, risk assessment, controls and ventilation. Water-based systems reduce the chemical load; they do not remove the obligations.

Screen versus the rest, in one sentence each

  • Versus offset: offset wins fine detail and long paper runs; screen wins ink weight and non-paper substrates (how offset works).
  • Versus digital: digital wins short runs and personalisation; screen wins opacity, durability and cost at volume.
  • Versus letterpress: different centuries, same instinct; letterpress survives as craft (where its Australian heritage lives), screen survives as industry.