Why is my print fuzzy?Updated 3 years ago

When printing white ink (but this can happen with all inks), you can sometimes see the shirt fibers stick up through the ink, making the print fuzzy or rough. Fibers stick up usually because the screen mesh is sticking in the ink as the squeegee moves over the design. The screen needs to snap off the image/ink as soon as the squeegee goes over it. The easy fix is to increase off contact until the screen snaps off the design quickly.

If the screen is sticking to the ink/shirt/substrate, it’s usually due to one or two reasons (or maybe both): poor screen tension, the screen can’t snap off the print, or off-contact is too low and the screen can’t snap off since there is nowhere to go.

If that’s not the case, your emulsion coating/stencil could be too thin and you are not able to deposit enough ink.

One way you can smooth a print is with a smoothing screen. Watch this video to learn how.