Discharge ink is a water based product that is formulated to deactivate the dyes used on natural fabrics. You have probably seen many shirts with a very soft print that looks like the color of natural cotton – this is discharge printing. Discharge screen printing can be used to print colors on dark garments that in the past would have required an additional layer of white ink in order to achieve proper opacity of top colors.
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Hi, i was wondering how you get your waterbase whites so bright, i tried the premix discharge white and its not to great.
@Brock – We’ve tinkered with and created our own recipe for discharge white that works well for our shop. We ended up mixing an existing brand of off-the-shelf discharge white with some white pigment and a brite discharge base. This ink formulation has worked really well for us. Otherwise, we also use highly tensioned screens and mesh with a high percentage of open area so that we can get excellent penetration and coverage with a single hit.