Multicolor Registration and Silkscreening

Color registration used to be my foe and involved lots of transparencies, single color at a time printing, tape, and a ton of time wasting.

After many methods, I've finally started using a registration board for lining up my color on the screens. This makes setting them up on press and getting reliable color placement super easy. I still use tape to mark were I lay my paper prints down at but laying all my colors at once instead of one at a time is a huge time saver.

I was first introduced to the registration board back when I took the Silkscreen Academy course from Ryonet. They offer a pre-made board for about $80 that's a bit fancy then what I needed. I got the idea to make my own when I visited Tilteed.com and saw theirs. You can make one like mine for about $12, plus some time.

If you are doing anything with multicolor you're gonna want to setup one up. I used a piece of 25" x 25" plexi glass that I picked up at our local Ace Hardware. Then I taped off a space of 24" x 20" ( my screens actual size), and marked in the center lines. On the back, I taped registration marks for various size prints.

With your board in place you want to print your artwork transparencies with registration marks, typically this option can be found in most Adobe softwares print window. You want to put some tape on your transparencies then line up the marks by eye. When all lined up, you simply drop your screen onto the transparency using the boarder lines.

Once done you're all set to expose...

I'm actually posting this while I wait for the above screen to dry! Be sure to join us Friday, Saturday or Sunday for more Silkscreen demos during our Black Friday 3 Day event!