You can choose more than one ink colour if you would like to screen print your design in different colours. For example, you might wish to print some white t-shirts with black ink, and others in red ink. All of our inks are water-based, as only water-based inks can be used with our special screens for DIY screen printing. Whatever ink type and colour you choose, you should print only on cotton, canvas or poly-cotton fabrics. Learn more about different ink options below:

Choose "standard" inks for printing on white or very light-coloured fabric

Standard inks are the cheapest and easiest option for beginners - perfect for printing bold, vibrant colours on WHITE or pale fabrics. Standard inks are not "opaque", so if used on darker-coloured fabric the background colour will show through too much.

You'll need "opaque" inks for black, bright or dark-coloured fabric

Opaque inks contain much richer pigmentation and are therefore more expensive. Printing with opaque inks also requires the "off-contact" method, which means you'll need to include some height adjusters with your order and follow our instructions for perfecting your off-contact printing technique.

Not all colours are available in the 1-litre size

Fluoro and metallic ink colours are available in the 500ml size only.

All water-based inks must be air-dried, then heat-set

You can try using a household iron for heat-setting your screen prints, but your prints may not last forever - especially after repeated washing. A commercial heat press is the best way to cure your screen prints. Your local dry cleaner would have a commercial heat press, and probably wouldn't mind pressing your screen prints for a small fee (if you ask nicely). Ask for your prints to be heat-pressed "for 2 minutes at 150 degrees C".

Properly heat-set screen prints can be machine-washed and dried 'forever'

A properly heat-cured screen print made from water-based inks should last forever, meaning as long as the wearable lifespan of the garment it was printed on. Unlike plasticised screen printing, water-based inks bond completely with the fabric, and will not crack, flake or peel. We don't recommend putting cotton or cotton-blend t-shirts through the tumble-dryer, as the garment would shrink, but if this happens - it won't harm your screen print!