Screen Printing vs. Digital Printing: A Boston Buyer’s Guide

Screen printing and digital printing both put your artwork on a sign, a display or a decal. They get there by completely different routes, and the route decides your price, your turnaround and what the finished piece can look like. Pick the wrong one and you either overpay for a short run or leave color on the table on a long one.

This guide explains what each process actually does, the questions that decide between them, and the specifications Albert Basse Associates runs on both. It is written from a Stoughton, Massachusetts plant that has run screen presses since 1928 and now runs both alongside each other under one roof.

What screen printing does

Screen printing pushes ink through a fine mesh stencil. Everything that should print is open mesh; everything that should not is blocked. A squeegee drags ink across the screen and forces it through the open area onto the sheet below. One screen carries one color, so a four-color job means four screens, four setups and four passes.

That setup is the whole economic story. Making screens and registering them to each other takes time whether you print fifty pieces or five thousand. Once the press is running, each additional sheet costs very little. Long runs spread the setup across enough pieces that the per-unit price drops to a level digital cannot approach.

The other thing screen printing gives you is ink film thickness. A screen deposits far more ink than an inkjet head can, and that thicker layer reads as denser, flatter, more opaque color. On a large solid field of corporate red, the difference is visible from across a store.

What digital printing does

Digital printing has no screens and no stencils. The press reads your file and lays ink directly onto the substrate, one pass, any number of colors. There is nothing to make first, so setup is close to nothing and a run of one is a legitimate order.

Because the image comes from the file rather than from a fixed stencil, every piece in a run can be different. Fifty store locations can each get their own address, phone number and grand-opening date in a single pass. Screen printing cannot do that without fifty sets of screens.

Digital also handles continuous tone properly. Photographs, gradients, soft shadows and fine detail come off a digital press cleanly, where screen printing has to break them into halftone dots.

Press specifications

The three numbers that decide most jobs

Maximum sheet on the screen press, and the running speed of each line at Albert Basse Associates in Stoughton.

82" × 62"

largest sheet the SVECIA screen press will run

SVECIA SAM X 5-color UV in-line press

500/hr

sheets per hour once the screen press is set up and running

SVECIA SAM X, top rated speed

7,620 sq ft/hr

output of the digital flatbed and roll line at high speed

Durst P5 350/HS, High Speed version

The presses at Albert Basse, and what each one can hold

Specifications settle more arguments than opinions do. Here is what is actually on the floor in Stoughton.

On the screen printing side, a SVECIA SAM X five-color UV in-line press runs sheets up to 82 by 62 inches at speeds up to 500 sheets per hour. The UV ink range covers spot colors, 100 percent clear coats and varnish, special effects, pearlescent and glitter. The solvent-based range adds metallic, neon, DayGlo, glow-in-the-dark and scratch-off. Every screen press on the floor produces spot PMS colors, fine line halftones and four-color process work.

On the digital printing side, a Durst P5 350/HS handles roll and board up to 3.5 m and reaches 7,620 square feet per hour in its High Speed configuration. A SwissQprint Nyala 4 flatbed sits alongside it. A Xerox Color C70 covers sheet-fed work at up to 75 pages per minute and resolution up to 2400 by 2400 dpi. Across the digital line the output is rated up to 720 DPI photo-realistic, white and clear inks are available, rigid materials up to 2 inches thick will feed, and prints carry two to three years of outdoor durability, or five years with a protective laminate.

When screen printing is the right answer

Choose screen printing when the run is long and the artwork is stable. Retail rollouts are the clearest case: one design, a few flat colors, going to two hundred stores. The setup gets paid for once and the per-piece cost keeps falling.

Choose it when the color has to be exact and it has to be flat. A spot PMS color mixed as ink and laid down thick is more faithful and more consistent across a long run than the same color built from process inks. For a brand that audits its own color, that matters.

Choose it when the job needs an ink a digital press does not have. Metallic silver on a liquor display, fluorescent orange on a safety sign, a scratch-off panel on a promotional card, glow-in-the-dark on an exit graphic, a heavy clear varnish over a photographic area to make it lift off the board. These are screen printing jobs by definition, and they are a large part of why the press is still in the building.

Choose it when the piece needs durability from the ink itself rather than from a laminate. A thick UV ink film on a rigid substrate takes abrasion well, which is worth knowing on POP displays that get handled by the public for a full season.

When digital printing is the right answer

Choose digital when the run is short. Below the crossover point, screens cost more than they save, and a five-piece order for a trade show booth has no business going near a screen press.

Choose digital when the artwork is photographic. Continuous-tone images, gradients and fine detail belong on a digital press. A full-bleed photograph of a product on a wall covering or a wall mural is a digital job.

Choose digital when each piece differs. Store numbers, addresses, dates, QR codes, regional pricing, personalized names. Variable data is free on a digital press and impossible on a screen press.

Choose digital when the deadline is short. There are no screens to make, so the file can go to press the same day it is approved, once prepress has checked it.

Choose digital when the piece is bigger than the screen press bed. At 82 by 62 inches the SVECIA covers most display and sign work, but a 10-foot banner or a full storefront window graphic exceeds it. The Durst runs roll and board up to 3.5 m in a single pass, which is why long banners and flags and full-height window graphics come off the digital line.

How substrate and size change the decision

Both processes print on the same list of things: point of sale displays, signs, decals, indoor and outdoor banners, door and window clings, floor graphics, banner stands and standees, lawn and yard signs, and shelf and counter wraps, mats and liners. That overlap is real, and it means the substrate alone rarely decides the question.

Thickness and format do. A rigid sheet that fits the press bed can go either way. Coroplast and other rigid boards are routine on both lines, and a big yard-sign order with two flat colors is a textbook screen job. Material up to 2 inches thick feeds the digital flatbed, which opens up substrates a screen press cannot accommodate. Anything on a roll, or anything longer than the screen press bed, is digital by default.

What each process asks of your artwork

The two processes want different files, and getting this right before production saves a round of proofs.

For screen printing, the art should be built in vector, with each color on its own separated layer and named to a PMS number. Fine detail has a floor: hairlines, small reversed type and tight registration between colors are harder through a mesh than through an inkjet head. Keep trapping in mind and expect to discuss minimum line weight. Fewer colors means fewer screens, which means a lower price, so a design that reads well in three colors instead of five is worth the effort at the design stage.

For digital printing, supply the highest-resolution raster you have, at or near final output size, in CMYK. There is no color limit and no separation step, so photographs and gradients are welcome. If you need white ink under a graphic on clear film, or a clear coat over part of the image, say so in the file and in the order, because both are built as their own layers.

On either route, the plant’s prepress and design team will flag what a file cannot do before it reaches a press, and finishing and fulfillment handles cutting, mounting, kitting and shipping afterward. Printing is one step of several, and the hand-offs are where schedules usually slip.

How to brief the job so you get the right answer

A printer can pick the process for you in one conversation if you bring five things.

• Quantity, and whether it will repeat. A run of 300 that recurs quarterly is a different decision from a one-time run of 300.
• Finished size. Anything over 82 by 62 inches narrows the options immediately.
• Color count, and whether any color is a brand PMS. This is the single biggest driver of screen printing cost.
• Whether anything in the piece varies. One address or fifty.
• Where it will live and for how long. Indoors for a six-week promotion and outdoors through a Boston winter call for different builds.

With those five answers, ask to be priced both ways. The crossover between screen and digital shifts with every one of those variables, and a shop that runs both processes has no reason to steer you toward one. A shop that only runs one does.

Frequently asked questions

Is screen printing cheaper than digital printing?
On long runs, usually yes. Screen printing charges you once for screens and setup, then prints at a low unit cost. On short runs it is usually more expensive, because that fixed setup is spread across too few pieces. The crossover depends on how many colors the design uses and how large the piece is, so the only reliable answer is a quote both ways.

Which one gives better color?
It depends on the kind of color. Screen printing is better for flat, dense, exact spot color, because it lays a thicker ink film and can run a mixed PMS ink. Digital printing is better for photographs and gradients, because it reproduces continuous tone directly from the file. Albert Basse screen presses also run fine line halftones and four-color process when a job needs image work on the screen line.

How large can you screen print?
The SVECIA SAM X press at Albert Basse runs sheets up to 82 by 62 inches. Larger graphics move to the digital line, where the Durst P5 350/HS handles roll and board up to 3.5 m.

Can one job use both processes?
Yes, and it is common on display work. A long run of flat-color panels can print on the screen press while a small number of photographic header cards print digitally, and both meet again in finishing. Because both presses and the finishing department are in the same Stoughton building, that does not add a vendor or a shipping leg.

Do special inks like metallic or glow-in-the-dark need screen printing?
Generally yes. The UV ink range on the screen line covers spot colors, clear coats and varnish, special effects, pearlescent and glitter, and the solvent-based range covers metallic, neon, DayGlo, glow-in-the-dark and scratch-off. If a design depends on one of those effects, it is a screen printing job.

How long will the print last outdoors in New England?
Digital prints from Albert Basse are rated at two to three years of outdoor durability, or five years with a protective laminate. Actual life depends on sun exposure, the substrate and whether the piece takes full freeze-thaw cycles or sits under cover.

Get the job priced both ways

Albert Basse Associates has run screen presses in Massachusetts since 1928 and is one of the longest continually operating, family-owned large format digital and screen printers in the country. Both processes, prepress, finishing and fulfillment are in one plant at 175 Campanelli Parkway in Stoughton, which means the recommendation you get is based on the job rather than on the one press a shop happens to own.

Send the quantity, size, color count and finished use, and you will get a price on each route with a plain explanation of which one wins and why. Call (781) 344-3555 or request a quote, and the team responds within 24 hours to talk through the project. You can also see the full range of products printed on both lines, or read how the company grew from a 1928 window display decorating business on our history page.

• Category: Screen Printing