Ink – In the Fabric, Not Against It

A considered look at print feel and ink choice

There’s a particular moment everyone recognises: pulling on a beautifully soft t-shirt, only to feel a thick, rigid print sitting across the chest or back. The garment moves, but the artwork doesn’t. The fabric breathes, but the ink doesn’t.

Or, pulling on that two month old hoody after only the 10th wash and seeing that the print is noticeably fading, the design no longer as it was intended. Soft or tactile, bright or faded – None of these is wrong, but we notice if that isn’t considered. And, as a result, more brands now care not just about how a print looks, but how it feels when worn and how it stands up over time. 

The reality is that no single ink is inherently better than another. Each carries different strengths, limitations, and outcomes. The key isn’t avoiding certain inks, it’s understanding what each one is designed to do and when to use them. 

As is always our approach, we lead the ink conversation with your desired outcome in mind, from thinking at the brand level, right through to an individual garment. So, let’s get into the weeds a little to help you understand how we can work together to make the right ink related decisions…

Plastisol Ink: the workhorse for a reason

Plastisol remains the most widely used screen printing ink in the world, and for good reason. It delivers bold colour, exceptional consistency, long-term durability, and reliable results across a wide range of fabrics and designs.

From a production standpoint, it’s hard to fault.

The common criticism of plastisol is that it sits on top of the fabric, creating a heavier hand feel, particularly noticeable on darker garments or large print areas. But this is not a flaw so much as a characteristic. This kind of thing can also be impacted by artwork density, colour count and of course, how it’s applied.

In many applications and for many brand owners, that surface presence is exactly what’s required. Bold graphics, high-contrast designs, structured garments, and brand marks that need to remain visually strong over time often benefit from plastisol’s density and opacity. It’s often the best (and most frequently applied) approach to the right design and the right apparel strategy.

Importantly, plastisol can be modified or used with care when a softer feel is desired,. Techniques such as using dulling pastes, reducing ink deposits, or printing through finer mesh counts allow the print to feel lighter without sacrificing colour or durability. 

We plan through those details when we’re considering your apparel as early as your initial consultation.

In practice, plastisol remains the backbone of most professional screen printing, not because it’s outdated or easy, but because it continues to solve the widest range of problems and has the ability to produce some of the most reliable, aesthetically pleasing outcomes.

Water based Ink: refinement through restraint

Water based inks offer a different outcome depending on garment colour and the outcome you’re after. 

Essentially, rather than forming a surface layer, water based inks penetrate the fibres of the garment, allowing the fabric to retain its natural movement and texture. The print becomes part of the shirt rather than something applied to it.

This makes water-based inks particularly suited to:

• Lightweight garments

• Soft cottons and blends

• Subtle, tonal designs

Some brands rely on soft garments and soft prints to convey their message, and conveying that message the right way, is what matters most.

The trade-off is that water-based inks are more influenced by the base fabric. Colour density can shift depending on garment tone, fibre composition, and weave. Results are softer, but less absolute. Adding a white base on darker garments can help create more vibrant outcomes and there’s limits to what colour inks will actually be visible on some fabric types and colours too.

When the design calls for subtlety rather than impact, this is often a strength rather than a limitation. Again, we consider all this alongside your apparel strategy, ensuring the outcomes you get are exactly what fits your brand.

It’s important to note too – not every print in your range needs to be the same ink to carry a consistent brand message. One print might call for one ink type, and another might work best with a completely different application type.

Discharge: the specialist option

Discharge printing sits at another end of the technical spectrum.

Rather than applying ink over the fabric, discharge works by removing the original dye from the garment and replacing it with the ink colour during curing (having heat applied). The result is a print that feels completely integrated into the fabric, even on dark garments.

When successful, discharge produces one of the most refined outcomes in screen printing – bright colour with virtually no surface weight.

It is also the most complex process to execute consistently. And this is important, so pay attention if you’re looking for soft hand-feel on your prints …

Discharge requires careful garment selection (anything with polyester is out), precise chemical handling (we manage our inks with care), controlled curing (temperature and time exposed to heat), and realistic expectations around colour variation (if the garments are inconsistent in quality, the print outcome will be too).

That is to say, not all fabrics or garments are suitable, and not all designs benefit from the process.

For this reason, discharge is best treated as a specialist tool, powerful, but not universally appropriate.

Choosing the right outcome

Print feel isn’t about chasing softness at all costs. It’s about alignment – with the brand and with the intent.

A heavy streetwear tee with a bold graphic might demand the confidence of plastisol. A lightweight corporate uniform on a light coloured garment may benefit from the subtlety of water-based inks. A heritage brand chasing a particular aesthetic (like that vintage, worn appearance) might justify the complexity of discharge.

Our role isn’t to push one method above all others or try to make our production team’s lives easier, it’s to understand the brand, the garment, the design, and the intent behind it. Only then do we lock down the method and ink application that’s most suitable.

The best results come not from following trends, but from making deliberate, informed decisions about how the artwork should live on the fabric. It’s about your brand, your strategy and what you want to achieve in your apparel range – every piece is considered.

Sometimes that means bold. Sometimes that means subtle.

Like a t-shirt, our approach isn’t one-size-fits-all.

Now, you know your inks, let’s chat about how we can get your apparel to speak your brand’s language the way it should. If you’re ready, book your strategy session here: https://www.drklbl.com.au/apparelstrategysession ... This is a straight-up strategy session — not a sales pitch.