We print mostly on material made from plants, and it is sewn and printed by living, breathing human beings. All of that means our work includes some diversity and is absolutely full of imperfections. On the other hand, we are faced with customers operating with their perfect (actually not perfect) Pantone books, icy close stares,…
If you are following along, I have been posting about my Print Order AI tool. I have been working on Establishing Flash Rules from Production Data for about 2.5 weeks. Flash placement, so far, is one of the hardest things to codify in screen printing automation. Unlike base-first or white-last rules, flash cures don’t appear…
Ask a screen printer where the image goes on a shirt and you’ll get a deceptively simple answer: wherever it looks good to the customer. But “looks good” is where things get complicated, and where expensive mistakes happen if you’re not careful. Templates Are Guides, Not Gospel Some shops rely on elaborate placement systems. Some…
Poly White vs. Low Bleed White: If you’ve been in screen printing long enough, you’ve watched the dye migration battle escalate, and our options for overcoming it, grow. So What’s the Difference? Here’s the breakdown. Low-bleed white covers any white ink engineered to resist dye migration. Manufacturers originally created these inks for 50/50 cotton-poly blends,…
I had a snowy homecoming after a sunny week at ISS Long Beach 2026, and wow, what a contrast. I traded sunshine and mild California weather for roughly 30 inches of snow at home. Long Beach was a great reset, and the show itself was really busy and seeing everyone was excellent. I saw AI…
Ink Kitchen and Impressions are sponsoring hand-done poster printing at the Impressions show in Long Beach this week January 22-24. The posters produced will be sold (suggested donation $10) to benefit a great non-profit called Care Closet, serving unhoused folks in Long Beach. You can watch the posters being printed and purchase one at…
Allmade, the sustainability-focused apparel brand, has officially launched in Canada. The expansion comes through a new distribution partnership with The Authentic T-Shirt Company/SanMar Canada, making Allmade styles more accessible to the Canadian market. Through this partnership, Canadian customers can now purchase Allmade products directly through The Authentic T-Shirt Company/SanMar Canada distribution network, with nationwide availability…
Screen Issues? Screen making is one of the most important parts of screen printing, but it’s also one of the easiest to mess up. Two longtime industry pros, Kevin Kauff and Dave Meekin, say they see the same problems over and over again when they visit print shops. Here are some common problems and solutions:…
LBU Inc. and Donray Printing have joined forces creating a faster and more complete U.S. Based manufacturing platform. Despite so many statements about the death of US Manufacturing, some folks like LBU and Donray are innovative thriving businesses right here in the U S of A. Ink Kitchen has had Ray give talks on sublimation…
This project is a script that automatically automates State-Based Designs in Illustrator. The “Property Of [STATE]” apparel designs, one for every U.S. state, with no manual editing of each file. If you’re interested, these types of projects are a frequent post, you can find more: Photoshop Script for Automated Artwork Cleanup, AI proof review for…
