Use of printing screen templates

Silk screen printing is a process where ink is forced through a mesh screen onto a surface. Making certain areas of the screen impervious to printing ink creates a stencil, which blocks the printing ink from passing through the screen. The ink that passes through forms the printed image.

A screen printing fabric consists of a fine mesh fabric that is tightly stretched and attached to a metal or wooden frame. Traditionally these screens were made of silk, but today they are most often made of synthetic materials such as terylene.

Stencils—which can be composed of a wide variety of materials, including fabric, greasy paint, or a design on a transparency—can be applied to the screen in different ways: placing them directly onto the surface of the screen, painting them onto the screen, or by transferring a design onto the screen using a photo-sensitive emulsion. The transfer of a design on transparency or Mylar film onto a photo-sensitive emulsion is the most common contemporary method to prepare a screen. Designs can be made by any or a combination of the following ways: hand-drawn with an opaque ink or printed onto the transparency, or cut out of rubylith, an ultraviolet-masking film.