Ben Radford, production supervisor, operating the SureColor SC-F2000

Screen printing still rules the roost when it comes to textile printing, or so the conventional wisdom goes. Despite the progress that digital ink-jet has made in this area in recent times – and the increasing awareness among print houses – it has a way to go before it dislodges screen as the dominant methodology in garment-making.

Yet it's not merely a case of choosing one technology over the other. Certain screen-printing companies, VisibleArt among them, are looking to exploit the best of both worlds by investing in digital lines to complement their existing processes.

The Cardiff print house made its name in screen-printed garments, with 60 percent of the company's business coming from promotional T-shirts for schools, sports and arts clubs, as well as clothes labels. Following the commercial release of the Epson SureColor SC-F2000, the company made the decision to plunge into digital production.

"I held out for the new SureColour SC-F2000 because I believe in the Epson brand and the reputation of its engineering and ink, and I know I can rely on their support if I need it," says Rob Trigg, the owner of VisibleArt. "It's only in the last couple of years that digital T-shirt printing has reached a stage that it delivers the high level of quality and washability that we are known for – for a reasonable investment."

A key factor for the VisibleArt team was that the quality and longevity that they could achieve through screen printing had to be replicable on whichever device they invested in. To ensure this, Trigg chose a multi-colour design and tested it on several machines, washing the T-shirts at 90°C to ascertain the quality and durability of the print, before making a final choice on which engine to invest in.

While the company still uses screen printing for its long-run production, switching to a digital machine to produce samples has meant that the company can handle more jobs than it used to, driving up its productivity and turnaround of short-run work.

"With digital it is a case of the more colours, the better, as we don't have to make multiple screens," Trigg points out. "To go from approved artwork on a computer screen to finished T-shirt takes seconds, so we can produce, for example, 40 dark T-shirts with a full-colour image on our two Epson SureColor SC-F2000 printers in 30 minutes. We used to turn about five jobs away every day and now we don't."

VisualArt has a stated aim to become carbon-neutral over the next couple of years, an ambition that has seen it install solar panels to reduce energy usage in the summer months. The addition of two SC-F2000 printers helps the print house to achieve its carbon-neutral aspirations, it claims, by reducing wastage throughout the production cycle. "Screen printing uses a lot of consumables compared to digital printing," explains Trigg. "With the latter, the only waste product is the cleaning fluid, which we then recover. It's an important factor."

Digital methods have yet to win over the entire sector, and concerns about output quality have undoubtedly contributed to a slow adoption rate, both among print houses new to the sector and established screen printers. Yet, for VisibleArt, switching to digital is both helping the company prepare for a greener future, but it also adds speed to the quality of the service it already provides.

"We don't compete on cost but we do compete on quality," concludes Trigg. "Whatever we do, the quality has to be the best, which is why we had to choose a digital T-Shirt printer that produced the best results. As long as the artwork is right, the results are right."