Discharge Printing

Discharge printing is a process that uses a bleaching agent to bleach out the dye in the fibers of a shirt, allowing for a clean and soft print surface on your apparel. If you are concerned about the "raised ink" that screen printed shirts sometimes have, then discharge is for you! Plus it looks sexy.

Here are a few things you should know about discharge inks before you use them:

-The pricing for discharge printing usually adds 50 cents per color, per shirt, per location at standard quantities. But keep in mind that a dark shirt with discharge will often need one less screen since it doesn't need an underbase of white. It is possible, though, to combine the ink types and print one discharge white first and then print thin plastisol inks on top of it, which would make the print very soft, but not completely unable to be felt.

-Discharge only works correctly on 100% cotton. 50/50 shirts get a salt and pepper kind of effect (not as cool looking as it sounds).

-All shirt colors from all manufacturers discharge differently. A black tee from one manufacturer could look different than a black tee from another manufacturer. Even two of the same color shirts from the SAME manufacturer will discharge slightly differently sometimes. This is especially true of black shirts since some manufacturers will mix their leftover dyes to make black. So if they used mostly red dye to make their black dye, and we discharge the shirts (without adding color), you could have the off-white discharged area but with a bit of a red tint. This is uncommon but has happened to us more than once.

-Discharge ink colors aren't pre-mixed, consequently colors can vary slightly each time they are mixed. This can usually be avoided with standard inks, but discharge inks are a completely different shade when they are mixed, another shade once they've been printed and cured, and slightly lighter after they've been washed the first time. So it's not possible to color match exactly.

-Since the shirts will not feel 'ink-free' until washed, and colors lighten a bit after the first wash, it's recommended that the shirts be washed before sale to your customer. Also, discharge can cause skin irritation if worn before being washed. No special washing is needed, but we can wash them for a small charge if you like. Having said all that, discharge usually comes out without major issues and is a well worth the effort.