Screen Printing Ink Colors

🔬 About Pantone Matching

We use the Pantone Matching System (PMS) to ensure consistent, accurate colors across all orders.

• Exact Pantone matches — We mix inks to match your specified PMS codes

• Free proofs — Review colors before we print

• Custom colors available — Need a specific shade? Just ask

• Specialty inks — Metallics, neons, puff, glow-in-dark on request

⚪ What's an Underbase?

Ink is semi-transparent. Print yellow straight onto a black shirt and the black shows through, so the yellow comes out dull and muddy. To prevent that, on dark and heathered garments we first print a layer of white ink — the underbase — and cure it, then print your colors on top. It works like priming a dark wall before painting it a bright color: your ink lands on white, so it shows at full strength.

• No extra charge — The underbase is part of doing dark garments right. We don't count it as one of your ink colors.

• Heathers count as dark — Sport Grey, Athletic Heather, and most heathered fabrics get an underbase too, even though they look lighter.

• We handle it automatically — You don't need to set anything up. We decide which garment colors need it and build it into your print.

• Light garments don't need one — On white and light shirts your ink prints directly on the fabric, and the proof is a very close match.

☀️ Why Your Print Looks Brighter Than the Proof

Your proof is a digital mockup: it lays your Pantone colors over a photo of the garment, so on a black or navy shirt the colors can look a little muted on screen. The finished print sits on a white underbase, so it comes out at full strength. Here's the same Athletic Gold (PMS 123) on a black shirt:

Colors that change the most: yellows, golds, oranges, light blues, pinks, lime, and light greys on black, navy, or heather garments. Dark inks like navy, maroon, and forest green look about the same either way.

That extra pop is the underbase doing its job, not a color change. The Pantone code on your proof is still exactly the ink we print. If a past order from another shop looks duller than ours, this is usually why — some printers skip the underbase or use a lighter halftone base.

Want the softer, vintage look on purpose? Just ask — we can print with a halftone underbase or no underbase for a distressed or tonal style, and we'll note it on your proof.