Everything starts with understanding your artwork and analyzing what you are about to print. Are you printing spot colors or halftones? Does your image have dark, bold lines or are there fine lines and small fonts?

Knowing these answers helps set a foundation for screen exposure with high-quality film positives with the right lines per inch (LPI), also referred to as dots per inch (DPI). Often used interchangeably, these measurements refer to the number of dots within an inch of a halftone.

The LPI/DPI greatly affects your mesh choice, and screen printers often fail because they select the wrong mesh count for their design. As LPI/DPI increases, you need a higher mesh count.

For instance, a detailed image with halftones prints at 55 LPI with a 10% dot (very small dot). An inexperienced printer might try and print it on a 110-mesh screen and fail because the weave of the mesh is too open to hold the halftones (dots). The result would be an image that is not crisp or colors that do not look good. By correctly using a higher mesh count, the printer achieves the finer details on their shirt.