No-one likes theory. We all want to skip straight to the practice. Theory is normally hard work.

But this
theory section is very important if you want to be a great screen printer. So it’s written in bite-sized
chunks, one step at a time, to make it as clear and easy as pos - sible. All the hard theory bits come
much later and are clearly marked as optional And this section is personal. I’m not hiding behind any
corporate façade or consultant waffle. I have to do this because this theory section comes with a
guarantee Sorry, I can’t give you your money back, be - cause we’ve given you this eBook free of charge.
But what I can guarantee is that if any of the advice in this part of the eBook is wrong, you will have the
pleasure of me admitting in public, in the screen trade press, that I was wrong, stupid or both. I’ve been
making that guarantee for some years now, and so far haven’t been caught out. But I will be happy to be
proven wrong. That’s a great way of learning. And I will make sure that my public apology passes on the
new knowledge so great printers can get even better. After the basic, essential theory there are some
optional sections which go deeper into specialist topics. Feel free to dip in and out of them if they are
topics relevant to your needs. Great? The theory is designed to help you become a great screen printer.
What do I mean by “Great”? There’s only one definition of “great” that really matters. A great screen
printer is one whose business flourishes. In the short term, “great” could mean someone who spends a
lot of precious resource to produce won - derful prints. But if this means that the printer goes out of
business, that greatness isn’t of much use. So in this theory section we’re going to concentrate on what
it takes for you to get the results you want quickly and efficiently. You’ll be pushing the boundaries of
quality, resolution, customer impact, but you’ll be doing it intelligently with a “right first time” approach.
A great Screen printer? For some people, screen printing is a busi - ness. For others it’s one step in a
bigger pro - duction chain. In this eBook we don’t care which sort of printer you are – we just care that
you get great prints coming off your press. The Theory Bit 08 We do care if you’re printing graphics or if
you’re producing technical prints. Although the basic principles for great printing are the same, there are
some differences. When something applies just to Graphics and just to Technical printers then this is
clearly marked. As this is a eBook about printing we won’t touch on pre- or post-press issues except
where they directly impact your ability to get the right print coming off your press. The man with the
magic fingers If your printing relies on the one man who claims to have “magic fingers”, who just
“knows” how to tweak the process to get it right then you should give up now. You have no hope of
being great. Screen printing is a science, not an art. Those who claim that it is an art (except when they
are producing artistic prints) have actively contributed to the downsizing of screen printing. The advice
in this eBook is simple, clear, unambiguous. There is no “magic”, no “black art”. This stuff really works.
The two golden rules There are just two rules. Follow these and your printing will be great. Ignore them
and life will be hard for you. A large part of this eBook is taken up with explaining why these rules work
so well. Golden Rule 1 Let the mesh do the metering, let the stencil do the shaping and let the ink do it’s
thing. It sounds simple, but this is a revolutionary message that printers continue to resist, at the cost of
being worse printers. The amount of ink going onto your print should be governed almost entirely by
your mesh. If you try to control it with the stencil and/or the ink then you immediately cause other
problems by compromising what they are doing. The shape of your print should be controlled only by
the shape of your stencil – and the stencil should be doing nothing else. If you are tweaking your stencil
to make up for a problem with your ink or your mesh then you’re in trouble. The ink should be
formulated for just one thing (1)– to give you the right colour, conductivity, enzymic function or
whatever is the prime purpose of the ink. Once you have to formulate it to make up for problems with
the mesh or stencil, you get yourself into a cycle of problems that drag you down. (1) Note: There is one
exception to this golden rule. If possible, the ink should be formulated to provide a high-low-high rapid
switching of viscosity. If the ink has this optimal character - istic it will give higher speeds, less mesh
drag, less slump and be an altogether easier print - ing experience. This is discussed in detail later in the
optional theory section. But for good printers the viscosity has no effect on ink deposit and, other than
on slump, should have no effect on the shape of the print.