100% Water-Based
Common Screen Printing Questions
Typical turnaround time is 10-15 business days. That does not include ship time. During our busy season, turnaround can be up to 15-30 business days + ship time. Turnaround time is only an estimate, it is not guaranteed, and starts when your mockup has been approved – not when you place the order. Complex designs, orders with additional print placements, or orders with extra add-ons may increase turnaround time. Allow for an additional full week for interior printed tags, and an additional 1-2 weeks for sewn on labels.
If you have a deadline for your order, you must let us know when placing your order and a rush fee may be applied, depending on your in-hand date and whether we can accommodate that rush date.
Taking longer than 24 hours to approve your digital proofs may delay your order. Any circumstances out of Night Owl’s control (ie: blank garment stock from our vendors, weather delays, shipping errors due to an incorrectly supplied address, etc.) may also require more time and are not factored into the initial turnaround time estimate.
An order change is not generally accepted once a mockup is approved. Ex: A week after you’ve approved the mockup, you decide you would like to change designs, or item colors, or print colors. We will have to look over all of the changes you’ve requested and see if it’s even possible. For rush orders, this will likely not be possible because the order will have been expedited and moved forward to production at this point. Please note that any changes made AFTER the mockup approval can incur additional fees. It can also significantly delay your order.
Please be aware of how important it is to carefully go over your invoices and mockups before approving. Mockup approval will be the last chance you will have to make any changes before production.
All orders will be bulk folded by size, in groups of 10pcs, unless specified otherwise.
If you’ve paid to have your garments individually folded/bagged, they’ll be individually folded, or folded and bagged.
All orders can have up to 5% under run. Some shirts could be damaged during printing. Because of this, we cannot guarantee that you will receive 100% of the garments in your order. We strongly recommend ordering a few extras to account for this possibility. We always strive to give you everything you’ve ordered, however, if there is a shortage with your order, we will refund or credit you for the difference.
If Exact Quantity is needed, please signify that at time of order. There is an additional charge for this. The additional fees will cover ordering of additional goods, in case there are any defects (from the manufacturer, or during manufacturing). This fee also covers the restock fee, and return fee for the items for your project that aren’t needed.
While every attempt is made to produce perfect orders every time, screen printing is an industrial process and is prone to some level of error. In accordance with industry standards, Night Owls is not responsible for loss of product within this 5% deviation per production event. Damage is always rounded to the nearest whole number.
Manufacturers defects on customer supplied goods should be addressed with the manufacturer. Manufacturer defects that are noticed prior to printing will not be printed. It is entirely possible due the the method that garments are loaded on decoration equipment, that manufacturer defects will not be noticed before printing, or at all.
Screen Printing Artwork
Of course! There are some things to keep in mind when creating artwork, so please reference our Downloads section for guides on different items. If you do not see the specific item that you are looking for listed there, please let us know and we can get you specs.
Please utilize the Shirt Spec PDF file in the Downloads section.
All basic screenprinted setups are FREE! Basic setups include your typically front and back garment printing. You can expect to see setup fees for the following add-ons:
- Sleeves – both short sleeve and long sleeve
- Sweatpants
- Sweat Shorts
- Zipper Sweatshirt Fronts
- Tote Bags
- Size Tags
- Speciality Print Placements
We print strictly with waterbased inks. This includes:
- Low Solids Acrylic
- Discharge – this is activated Low Solids Acrylic
- High Solids Acrylic (HSA)
We will always take your order details into consideration when choosing and creating ink formulas, as not every ink type will be compatible with your chosen garments or items.
We will take a look at your order specifications and let you know if this is possible. Discharge inks only work on 100% cotton garments, but even then, it will not work on jewel-toned garments such as Royal Blue, Turquoise, Purple, etc since those jewel hued garments are heavily dyed. The chemistry of the discharge inks strip away the dye of the tee, bringing it back to its original state – which typically tends to be a natural cotton color (not pure white) and then it replaces it with whatever pigment color that is chosen.
If color matching is a critical factor we do NOT recommend discharge, as it’s very dependent on the dye used in the garment, which is outside of our control.
Yes we make custom colors all of the time! We only match to the Pantone Formula Guide Solid Coated and Solid Uncoated physical books. If you specify a specific Pantone in your order form, we will match that Pantone, or as closely as we possibly can.
For orders that have not specified Pantone colors, we will choose the closest matching color pulled from either Photoshop or Illustrator. We cannot guarantee that it will match to whatever you see on screen, as every screen will show color differently.
Max imprintable areas are listed below, but can vary by garment style so please inquire further. This is just a rough guide.
- Shirt Front (Standard Print Size) = 13” wide and 17” tall
- Shirt Front (Oversized Print Size) = 15” wide and 20” tall — this sizing will not work for smaller garments like Crop Tops, most Unisex Tanks and Women’s Tanks, etc
- Short Sleeve = 3” wide and 4” tall
- Long Sleeve = 3” wide and 14” tall
- Pullover Hoodie Front = approx 14” wide and 10” tall — to accommodate the front pocket
- Zipper Hoodie Side Breast = approx 5” wide and 7” tall
- Hoodie Backs = 14” wide and 16” tall
- Sweatpant Leg = 6” wide and 19” tall
- Sweat short Leg = 6” wide and 8” tall
- Onesies = approx 7” wide and 8” tall
- Toddler Tees = approx 10” wide and 14” tall
- Youth Tees = approx 12” wide and 15” tall
- Women’s Missy Tanks = approx 11” wide and 14” tall
- Women’s Muscle Tanks = approx 9” wide and 14” tall
- Unisex Tanks = 8-10” wide and 16” tall
- Standard Canvas Tote Bag = 10” wide and 11” tall
Please inquire about other garments.
As long as there is a minimum of 24 pieces with the same design, you can mix sizes and shirt colors!
You can! But this won’t necessarily work in getting a bulk pricing. Each item style may require different setup fees. For example: Printing the same design on a shirt vs a tote bag will require a separate setup.
However, if you are choosing several different shirt styles, this should be no problem so long as you account for the max imprint size per style. For instance, a design printed on the front of a standard t-shirt might be larger than what we can accommodate on a pullover hoodie with a front pocket. That pocket will limit the printed height. The same goes for an order in which you are ordering a standard t-shirt, as well as a unisex tank top. Most tank tops have a limited width across the chest and will make the imprint size smaller on the tees. Please keep these factors in mind!
If the design is full color, there isn’t a max amount, but an art separation fee will incur as we will need to properly separate the art to screenprint. This process is called Simulated Process Printing.
We absolutely can, but we try to avoid it as it can cause print inconsistencies, as well as popped screens! We typically request that all orders provide at least 1 to 1.5” of space between the edge of the design to any and all seams.
Printing requires a flat surface between the screen (that has the design to be printed) and the platen / pallet (the surface your garment/product is mounted on) to achieve a perfect print every time. Printing over a hem, seam, zipper, or pocket, creates an interruption of the flat surface area which results in inconsistent prints. There can be issues like ink build up or gaps in the printed design.
By adding a vintage weathering to your design, this can help hide the print inconsistencies. When submitting an inquiry about this type of printing, please submit your design to see if it’s viable for this type of printing.
We do our very best to produce the best looking prints regardless of the garment. However, printing on or over any seams, collars, pockets, zippers or otherwise is subject to distortion, print imperfections, and/or other inconsistencies.
These inconsistencies will be considered acceptable goods and will not be considered misprints.
Yes, this will incur a Sampling Fee of $350 which is separate from the cost of the actual order.
Contract Printing
Of course. This is considered a “Customer supplied” Order. These have a 144pc minimum for any apparel project.
All products must be new, unworn, unwashed, and must have been approved by your account rep prior to scheduling a drop off or shipment.
It is highly recommended to order 3-5% extra per size if an exact count is necessary.
Customer supplied garments that require extra handling such as tagged garments or individual bagged garments may be subject to an additional handling fee. This fee will be added to the final invoice.
Turnaround times for customer supplied orders are 10-15 business days and do not begin until a P.O. has been submitted, approved, products received in-house, and a deposit of 50% has been made. Orders will be released for shipping or pick-up once the remaining balance has been paid.
If you are an industry professional, looking for a contract printer, that is a service we also offer. For more info and our contract printing price list, please contact us via email and provide as much information as possible.
Manufacture defects are common when ordering large quantities. Inspection of the garment(s) is part of the production process, as the products are handled for decoration, but we cannot guarantee that we will catch every defect.
Night Owls will not be held responsible for manufacturer defects such as: garment color inconsistencies, stitching errors, mislabeled garments, loose/inconsistent stitching, holes in garments, ripped seams, etc. It is highly recommended to order 3-5% extra per size if an exact count is necessary.
Payment
We accept checks and all major credit cards. We do not carry cash or change, so you will need the exact amount if you need to pay this way.
All apparel orders require a 50% deposit in order to begin, with the balance due before pick up or shipping.
Checks received with non sufficient funds will be charged $30 for each processing attempt. Net 30 terms are available, subject to Night Owls approval. We do not carry cash or change, so you will need the exact amount if you need to pay this way.
Rush Orders
We are happy to accommodate all orders. Rush orders are always an option, however they come with an added cost. Please confirm that we can meet this in-hand date before you place the order, and contact your rep for rush fees. Please note rush fees are for production only, and do not include fees for expedited shipping of blank goods from our vendors, or shipping out to you.
Order Issues
All orders can have up to 5% under run. Some shirts could be damaged during printing. Because of this, we cannot guarantee that you will receive 100% of the garments in your order. We strongly recommend ordering a few extras to account for this possibility. We always strive to give you everything you ordered, however, if there is a shortage with your order, we will refund or credit you for the difference.
If Exact Quantity is needed, please signify that at time of order. There is an additional charge for this. The additional fees will cover ordering of additional goods, in case there are any defects (from the manufacturer, or during manufacturing). This fee also covers the restock fee, and return fee for the items for your project that aren’t needed.
This is called a pressure mark, sometimes left behind by the pressure of the squeegee moving across the screen when depositing the ink to the substrate. It will disappear upon the first wash.
This will disappear after washing.
During the screen printing process, the garment or item needs to adhere to a flat surface. We use a light spray adhesive on our platens/pallets to assure the garments or items do not stick to the back of the screen when printing. We use a slightly more aggressive adhesive for fleece, that can sometimes leave behind a bit more residue on the inside.