Foil Screen Printing
Add some bling to your design with our high-quality foil printing technique. Foil works great for simple accents to a design and a loud, bold statement. Foil prints give a mirror-like effect to your screen prints and really shine when any light hits them. Foil transfer prints are truly an elegant, sophisticated look and can tremendously help increase the value of a shirt. Foil transfer prints are perfect for taking your retail fashion apparel line to the next level.
What is Foil Screen Printing?
Foil Screen Printing is similar to traditional screen printing, but adhesive glue ink is used instead of standard plastisol ink. The foil is cut in squares off of a large roll of foil. It is then placed over the glue adhesive print and heat pressed (sometimes referred to as foil stamping). The heat press activates the glue adhesive and grabs onto the foil. After the print cools, the foil sheet is pulled off, and the excess foil is peeled off the garment.
Foil printing is a premium screen printing method, so you need to ensure you’re only working with true foil transfer printing experts (Hey! That’s us!). We work with several high-end fashion apparel lines that expect the best quality in their custom foil-printed t-shirts.
Methods of Screen Printing Transfer Foils
Add 1 business day to standard turn time for this process.
Add 1 business day to standard turn time for this process.
Foil will adhere to the screen printed plastisol inks just like it does to the glue adhesive. We have to use split-fit pallets which is a VERY time consuming process.
In this scenario, we place the garment on the split-fit pallet, screen print the glue adhesive on to the garment, the top half of the pallet pops off with the garment on it. We then take it to a nearby heat press, place on the foil and press it while it’s still on the pallet. We then bring it back to the press and then screen print the remaining colors on it. The garment is kept on the pallet so that when it is brought back to the press we can make sure all of the ink colors are kept in perfect alignment with each other.
We cannot use our large automatic presses so these orders take longer to print. This process add 2 days to standard turn times.
Foil Wash Instructions
Properly screen printed foil will last for many washes but note that the reflectiveness and shine will fade with each wash, even after the first wash. A few tips to metallic foil printing:
- We recommend designing your foil prints with a distressed grunge look. This will help make the fading in your foil print less apparent over time as the foil print begins to crack and fade.
- You should always wash your metallic foil screen printed t-shirts inside out in cold water.
- Hang drying is recommended most. If you do use a dryer, use low heat on a delicate cycle.
- Do not iron over the metallic foil print.
Popular Foil Colors
 Gold Foil |
 Silver Foil |
 Orange Foil |
 Blue Foil |
|---|---|---|---|
 Red Foil |
 Purple Foil |
 Pink Foil |
 Black Foil |
View full foil color chart:
Our rose gold foil, holographic, and rainbow foils have been increasingly popular.
Foil Screen Printing Videos
Gold Foil Screen Printing on T-Shirts
Custom gold foil screen printing process on Bella + Canvas 3001 Royal T-Shirts for Facebook Gaming. The gold foil on these royal t-shirts has a very striking contrast.
Black on Black Foil Printing
Black foil screen print we produced for Facebook Gaming. The Bella + Canvas 3001 Jersey T-Shirt in color Vintage Black is a great choice for black on black projects. Vintage black is not as dark as their standard black so it helps give a good contrast when you’re printing with black inks or foils.