Silk printing, as the Estonian name suggests, is one of the oldest printing methods, originally done through silk, but today it has been technologically advanced for decades with electronically stretched high-tech mesh on aluminum frames, and instead of manual spatula pulling, it's done with semi and fully automatic machines. Images on the mesh (through which paint or varnish passes) are created through an hour-long process of applying photochemicals, exposure, washing, and drying.
Therefore, it's more expensive than other printing methods but also an exclusive printing method whose strengths are very uniform surfaces and ultra-perfect edge prints, where it's always possible to ensure the same tone of print, as it's the only printing method that doesn't print through 4 colors, or CMYK.
Additionally, it's the only printing method through which it's possible to print very bright, even neon colors, and several special gold and silver colors that are never possible with other color technologies. For example, there are glossy, matte, sparkling gold and silver colors, which in Estonia have been used to print copy-proof documents, invitations, and business cards for the President's and Prime Minister's offices in gold, and the Bank of Estonia's in silver, etc.
Silk printing uniquely offers dozens of printing effects, mainly based on UV varnish technology. From regular glossy to relief and spot matte varnish, plus uncoated paper varnish, bubble and sand textured, glow-in-the-dark and money detector glowing security varnish. Then there are additive-based options, like the huge color range of glitters you're used to seeing on postcards and Disney prints, plus pearl additive varnish, tintable varnish, and lottery inks. Silk printing's weakness is raster printing quality - it's possible but the raster dot is simply very large at 65LPI. However, many designers successfully use this to their advantage. Another strength is certainly the ability to print on almost all flat materials from paper, cardboard, design papers, to plastic, glass, and metal.
For example, we print Estonian handmade watch dials, Estonian unique product prototypes (like hydrogen generator) casings, Swedish equipment front panels, Estonian embassy and chancellery dome signs, to Estonian and Latvian border post coat of arms stickers. For paper, we reproduce Estonian and Finnish artists' works, produce menus, book covers and magazine covers largely with printing effects or 100% book cover images on book covering materials, not to mention hundreds of packages, product sleeves, hanging signs, product labels, up to personalized product solutions. And this with Japanese and Taiwanese top equipment. For instance, when printing white on dark materials, design papers, book covering materials, etc., silk printing has no match among other printing methods in terms of coverage.
A separate topic is direct printing on stickers and plastic. Although it's 2x more expensive than digital printing, the result is very durable and resistant to weather, UV, and color changes, with a smooth surface that's easily cleanable, including with household chemicals. Since digital print surface is rough (due to CMYK raster), dirt accumulates there more easily and cleaning is difficult and tends to simply remove part of the print, also most digital prints aren't UV and weather resistant. This can be solved with lamination, but then it approaches silk printing's price range and eventually has similar issues with lamination film fraying.
For direct printing on plastic and magnetic stickers, silk printing has no direct competitor in the digital printing world, as you don't laminate these to make them easily cleanable and resistant to color changes/weather. Consequently, in Estonia, besides the mentioned Estonian and Latvian border post stickers, we also print stickers for ships, garbage bins, sea containers, and paradoxically, control stickers for the back of traffic signs, which logically last longer than digitally produced traffic signs. For magnetic stickers, a very large portion of learner driver triangle signs have started their lifecycle with us. We produce directly on plastic from signs hanging in shopping center ceilings to safety signs. We produce a considerable amount of fire and work safety signage and stickers for Sweden and Finland.
The whole point of this blog wasn't to criticize digital printing but rather to emphasize choosing a sensible solution based on the print's age and purpose. For example, silk printing would be an obvious waste of time, money, and natural resources for short-term exhibition and event stickers. And of course, we also offer digital printing products for such and other cases where it's justified.
Experience has shown that some clients go directly to digital printing due to price, even for exterior and durability prints, but without any comment, they order the same thing in silk printing within 1-2 years, and then we don't meet for 3-5 years, depending on the chosen base material's lifespan.
