Helpful Tips When Printing Glow Inks

Did you know that the intensity of the glow is tied to the brightness of the color behind it? Screen printing aficionado Ronald Peters demonstrates how the ink color will affect the results of the glow. 

SETTING UP

First, you need to set up on press. With speciality inks like the glow, static frames with an 80 mesh count are best practice because you want to ensure that the glow completely covers the print without any issues. In the video, Ronald used a 110 thin thread mesh because the thin thread allowed a substantial amount of ink to pass while maintaining more detail.

If color brightness affects how much the glow illuminates, it's safe to say that you'll want bright, vibrant inks. Ronald uses FN-INK™, specifically the white, gold, and bright red. 

If you really want the glow to shine, lay a thicker layer of ink on the shirt. To achieve that, Ronald uses a 60 durometer squeegee since it has a softer edge and offers a better ink deposit.

Pro Tip: In case you were wondering, Ronald got the design he printed from the Screen Printing Branding Starter Pack. With more than 35 elements, printers can create their own logos that's unique to their style. It's pretty cool, as you can see in the video.

PRINTING

Time to print. First print that white base. Ronald does two passes and flashes it. Next he prints the gold where he also does two passes and flashes it. And he does the same method with the bright red.

With this print, Ronald is pulling the squeegee because it helps produce a heavier ink deposit, which will help intensify the glow later.

Lastly, Ronald covers the whole print with the glow. He prints the glow on last because he wants the whole print to glow. If you wanted only certain aspects of the print to glow, you would print the glow on those parts of the print and then continue printing the rest.

THE RESULTS

Turn off the lights and see the magic appear. As stated several times, the brightness of the ink will affect how intense the glow is. 

You can see that the glow shines the most over the areas that are white. The words, "hot," "print," and "shop" are the most vibrant because they're white. The areas printed with red and gold are glowing, but not as much as the white areas. Lastly, Ronald printed the glow ink over the word "tamale" which was printed directly onto the shirt. It's the most dull compared to the rest, but it's still glowing.

Essentially, the lighter the ink is, the brighter the glow will be; the darker the ink is, the less the glow will pop.

That's one detail fleshed out about printing glow inks. If there are any other topics you'd like us to cover, message us on Instagram and we'll add it to our list. Thank you for watching!