Digital Imaging and Photo
Emulsion Silkscreen
What is Silkscreen Printing?
• Silkscreen is a stencil printing process.
• Ink is forced through a stencil made on fine-mesh
polyester or silk fabric.
• Stencils can be made with cut paper, contact paper,
photo emulsion, and other materials.
• Silkscreen printing is used to create multiple prints of
your image, or image and text. Silkscreen can be
used on paper, fabric, canvas, clay, and other flat
surfaces.
Silkscreen Examples
Lincoln by Robert Rauschenberg
16 Jackies by Andy Warhol
Poster by Carolyn Brown
Digital Process:
Silkscreen prints from photos
• This is the digital version of the Photo Lith process.
• Instead of making a high-contrast print with Kodalith paper
and chemicals, it can be done in Photoshop, and printed onto
acetate transparencies.
• This is great for detailed images which would be
ridiculously hard to hand-render.
• Color planning can also be done in Photoshop.
Supplies and Tools
Diazo Emulsion- Speedball and other brands
Emulsion remover- Speedball, etc.
Silkscreens- polyester for acrylic & wter based inks
Squeegee
Silkscreen inks
Black “stencil” made of paper, toner on acetate, ink
on acetate or translucent paper
Selecting a Photo Image
• When selecting photos for silkscreen, look for clear SHAPES or LINES.
• Photos with good contrast are best, but others can be fixed in
Photoshop.
• Avoid photos with distracting clutter around the main subject.
Poor photo for silkscreen
Better photo for silkscreen
Preparing Photo in Photoshop
• Each image needs to be output in black
to create the photo stencil.
1. Open photo in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements
2. Create a high contrast image:
Image>Adjust>Threshold OR Image>Adjust>Contrast
Planning Colors
Once you get the basic image done, you can use
Photoshop to plan colors for printing.