🖨 Screen Printing Services — Bulk Apparel That Lasts
Custom screen printed T-shirts, hoodies, hats, banners, and promotional products. Plastisol and water-based inks, spot-color Pantone matching, and Dallas turnaround that beats the corporate competition.
What Screen Printing Does Better Than Anything Else
When you need volume, durability, and color accuracy, screen wins.
Screen printing is the workhorse of the apparel decoration industry for one simple reason: nothing else delivers the same combination of cost-per-unit, ink durability, and color fidelity at volume. The process pushes a thick layer of ink through a tensioned mesh stencil onto the garment, where it cures into a flexible, stretchable layer that bonds with the fibers. That extra ink thickness is exactly why a screen-printed shirt outlasts a heat-transfer or DTG print — there is more pigment sitting on top of the fabric, the cure temperature is hotter, and the bond is mechanical rather than adhesive. We have customers running 10-year-old screen-printed company shirts that still read clearly after hundreds of industrial wash cycles.
At MAD Monkey Media we run automatic and manual presses for every order size. A six-color automatic handles bulk runs of 100 to 5,000+ pieces with consistent registration and ink film thickness across the entire run; that consistency matters enormously when a brand has an exact Pantone they need to hit on every shirt across multiple reorders. Our manual press handles small specialty runs of 12 to 50 pieces, complex multi-stage finishes like discharge plus overlay, and short-cycle prototyping for new designs. Both presses can use plastisol (the standard, vibrant, opaque ink), water-based and discharge inks (soft hand, dyes the fibers, perfect for fashion-quality printing), and specialty inks like puff, glow-in-the-dark, metallic, and high-density.
Where a lot of shops cut corners is on art separation and screen-burning — that is where our quality lives. We separate every multi-color design in-house with proper trapping and underbase planning, burn screens at the correct exposure for the mesh count, and pre-press test until the registration is locked. We tag every screen with the job, color, and Pantone reference so reorders match within tolerance even months later. We invest in pre-treatment for difficult fabrics like 100% polyester sport tees and tri-blend fashion tees, where dye migration and bleed-through can ruin a print without the right blocker base. Send us a roster shirt project, a band tour run, a corporate uniform program, or a one-off creative concept, and we will scope it correctly the first time.
Screen Printing Capabilities
Automatic and manual presses, eight ink families, every common garment.
Plastisol Inks
The industry standard for vibrant, opaque, durable prints. Pantone-matched mixing, cured at 320F for permanent bond. Best for cotton tees, blends, and high-contrast graphics on dark garments.
Water-Based & Discharge
Soft-hand prints that dye the fibers rather than sit on top. Perfect for premium retail apparel, fashion brands, and anyone who wants a print that feels like the shirt is the design.
Pantone Color Matching
Mixed in-house from a calibrated Pantone library. We hit your brand colors within Delta-E tolerance and tag every recipe so reorders match the original months or years later.
Specialty Inks
Puff, high-density, glow-in-the-dark, metallic, suede, and shimmer. Layer specialty effects with standard plastisol for runway-worthy prints that elevate a basic graphic into a statement.
Custom Tag Printing
Replace the manufacturer's neck tag with your own brand. Tag-less printed labels with care instructions, sizing, and logo for a fully white-labeled retail-quality product.
Fold & Bag Service
Optional finishing: each shirt folded, individually polybagged, and labeled by size. Streamlines your event, retail, or fulfillment operation. Custom hangtags and woven labels also available.
What We Screen Print On
Apparel, accessories, and flat goods — if you need volume and durability, screen is the answer.
How to Order Screen Printing
Bulk apparel made simple from quote to delivery.
Get a Quote
Send your design, garment style, color count, and quantity. We respond with a per-piece price plus any specialty ink upcharges. Quote turnaround is typically same-day during business hours.
Approve Art & Mockup
We send a digital mockup with your design on the actual garment color and a print-ready separation preview. Once you approve, we order garments and begin screen prep.
Press & Cure
Screens burned, inks mixed to your Pantones, registration locked. Production runs on our automatic for volume or manual for specialty. Every piece passes through a 320F conveyor dryer for full cure.
Pickup or Ship
Garments folded, counted, and either packed for local pickup or shipped via tracked freight. Optional fold-and-bag service streamlines your event or retail operation. Reorders run from our archived screens.
File Requirements
Vector files preferred (AI, EPS, PDF) for crisp screens. Outline all fonts. Convert spot colors to Pantone. Specify exact placement (chest, full-front, sleeve) and Pantone codes for each color. Provide separate files per print location.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers about pricing, turnaround, files, and capabilities.
What is the minimum order for screen printing?
Our standard minimum is 12 pieces per design and color combination. Below that, the screen-burning and setup time make screen printing more expensive than DTF or DTG, so we will route you to one of those processes for short runs. Above 24 pieces, screen becomes the most economical option per shirt and the price drops sharply at every quantity break: 50, 100, 250, and 500 pieces all hit lower per-unit pricing. We can quote any size run including 5,000+ piece corporate programs.
How many colors can I print in a single design?
Our automatic press handles up to 8 colors plus an underbase, which is typically enough for almost any logo, illustration, or photograph reproduction. A separate Pantone for each color is the standard method; halftones and gradients can be reproduced with simulated process printing using 4-6 colors. If your design has more colors than our press can handle, we will recommend either color reduction in the artwork or DTF as an alternative for full-color photo-quality prints with no color limit.
How long do screen-printed shirts last?
A properly cured plastisol print typically lasts the lifetime of the garment — meaning the shirt wears out before the print does. We have customers with 10-year-old company shirts where the print still reads clearly after hundreds of industrial wash cycles. Water-based and discharge prints integrate into the fibers and last just as long, with the trade-off that they fade more naturally with the garment rather than sitting on top. Wash cold inside-out and tumble-dry low for the longest life.
Can you match my exact brand color (Pantone)?
Yes. We mix every plastisol ink batch in-house from a calibrated Pantone library and tag every recipe with the job number for reorders. We hit Pantone targets within a Delta-E tolerance that satisfies every brand we have worked with, including franchise programs, sports teams, and major beverage brands. There is no upcharge for Pantone matching — it is included in our standard service. Send us your brand color codes with the order and we will pre-mix before the press fires.
Do you supply the shirts or can I bring my own?
Both. We stock blanks from Bella Canvas, Next Level, Comfort Colors, Gildan, and Hanes in every common color and size for fast turnaround. We are also happy to print on customer-supplied garments — just be aware that we cannot warranty prints on unknown blanks (some treated polyester fabrics cause dye migration that requires a special blocker base). For the best results and consistent reorder pricing, ordering through our blank inventory is the simplest path.
How long does turnaround take?
Standard turnaround is 7-10 business days from art approval. That includes screen burning, ink mixing, garment receipt, press time, drying, and packaging. Rush turnaround of 3-5 business days is available with a 30% surcharge depending on schedule capacity. For ongoing programs and contracts, we hold your screens and Pantones in archive so reorders skip the prep stage and ship in 3-5 days routinely. Lead time discussions happen on every quote.
Ready to Print 12 or 5,000 Shirts?
Tell us your design, garment, color count, and quantity. We will quote within hours and have you wearing your custom apparel in under two weeks.