What program to use for screen printing

PSD files, Photoshop's native file format. It's worth the cost for that reason alone. Short learning curve to proficiency. Corel nonetheless offers interesting features and a powerful color separation option for spot color printing. Its incompatibility with Mac can be a deal-breaker for artists, though.

Flexible and powerful. A fairly new competitor to Adobe's publishing suite, Affinity has introduced a low-cost, single-payment pricing model to a subscription service. Affinity has a solid reputation for providing the necessary tools for screen printing art design. Their Photo product is ideal for raster editing, while their Design tool seamlessly edits raster images. The mobile app is a nice touch, as well, though we don't see many professional designers giving up their mouse and desktop anytime soon.

With an active team that's providing updates based on customer feedback, Affinity is emerging as a serious image editing suite. If you're looking for an alternative with an enticing pricing model — but a limited real-world track record — check out Affinity's offerings.

You don't have to spend money to get a lot of value. Open source image editing software is still a viable option — provided you've got time to invest in learning new software. There's no paid support staff, so you're on your own if problems arise. Both of these programs do have a significant learning curve, with some users arguing they're harder to learn. There's also not as many people using these programs, despite how well-developed they are. If you don't want to pay for Photoshop, Illustrator or Corel then check out these two powerful and free image editing suites:.

It's powerful and well-known. Additionally, GIMP is compatible with hundreds of standard and non-standard image file types. GIMP is a raster editor. It has an impressive feature list and represents a true alternative to Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw.

Like GIMP, it has a large community that is enthusiastic about providing support and developing more features. Every color means another screen. Difficulty: Simple. Short learning curve. Separation Studio is specifically designed for screen printing, which means power and flexibility specific to printing needs.

For example: you can reduce an over-designed logo with 19 colors into a simpler design that only uses 6 screens. Additionally, Separation Studio has a strong support system in case you run into issues with their software or need guidance with handling your artwork-to-print process.

Difficulty: Easy, with some learning curve to understand the many things it can do. A set of tools for Photoshop and not a standalone piece of software, UltraSeps makes up for its interesting web presence with the power and specificity of the software's functions. Designed by a year industry veteran, UltraSeps has a plethora of capabilities with the screen printer specifically in mind. There are two versions currently available: the older version 2, and the newest version 3.

Other things like reliability and simplicity have been improved. The feature list for UltraSeps is huge. It does a lot more than just separate colors. Difficulty: Easy. In-browser separations. Built to be intuitive and fast. Best for: Shops that need a mobile, cloud-based, lightweight solution for separations. Instead of downloading software or utilizing a series of Photoshop plugins, Separo is cloud-based.

It is highly automated — just put an image into the software and it returns ink combinations based on the image provided. The cloud-based approach to separation is definitely appreciated. For shops that want to own their software, this might not be the ideal choice. Best for: High-quality printer management, creating very good transparencies for burning screens.

AccuRIP is not color separation software: it acts a translator between your Epson inkjet printer and your Adobe or Corel art files.

AccuRIP is extremely simple to use. You can reliably print more complicated designs and create far more interesting color effects with RIP software. Freehand also offers a variety of inks and printing supplies to support AccuRIP. There are multiple ways to manage your screen printing shop. You can run it off a blackboard or use paper printouts — but there are much faster, easier and simpler ways to manage day-to-day administration. If you have employees, you owe it to them and yourself to use software to streamline and simplify each area of your business.

Screen print shop management software is a crucial step toward managing your margins and harnessing rapid growth through organization and communication. There is only one right move for any given scenario — so choose a path for your business that ensures success instead of chaos. Leverage software however you can.

Best for: owners, artists, managers, any employees Available for: Mac, PC, with an iPhone app also available. Printavo is. And thousands of print shops from more than 40 countries use it already. Outside of Printavo, there's software to make your life even easier. Difficulty: Moderate.

Mild learning curve. Hopefully you're already familiar with QuickBooks! You can manage your cash flow, receivables, taxes, payments, bills and more. Coolest of all, Printavo links up directly with Quickbooks for superpowered shop administration. You probably use it already. No more personal email address for customer-facing communication! Gsuite is highly compatible with numerous CRM tools, and is the go-to standard that many people expect.

Zapier helps you automate complicated or time-consuming rote tasks by making web apps talk to each other. It can take your process to the next level! Printing Create song book by printing Using your Print Screen key, ScreenShot will capture your present screen and provide you with options to save Using your Print Screen key, Adobe Digital Active Screen Mode " Broadcaster Software to record your screen Windows Mac.

Windows Users' choice Screen printing software Screen printing software Most people looking for Screen printing software downloaded: ScreenPrint Platinum. Dropbox — Manage all your artwork and customer files in the cloud with Dropbox. I still recommend running a local artwork server, but with devices the Synology NAS , you can sync the local files with Dropbox allowing you to access them anywhere. Dropbox makes getting large files from customers simple as well — without any headaches of using FTP.

Slack — I describe Slack as team communication on steroids. You can share files, add integrations with other tools you use. We use it to power our Secret Sauce Community. Zapier — Zapier is a tool that will help you automate the boring, error-prone tasks in your screen printing shop, so that you can focus on more important stuff.

It connects all the different web-apps you use together with making you learn to code. Send automated reminders to your customers, add leads from a contact form to your CRM, and much more.

Learn how to automate your screen printing shop using Zapier and other tools in our advanced training. Check it out and save yourself a shipload of time. Trello — Trello is a great, visual solution for job management. GSuite — Using GSuite is a must for your growing shop.

The always up-to-date nature of Google Docs and Sheets make collaborating with team members a breeze. Host your companies email with Google and take advantage of all the connected apps and integrations.

Airtable — Airtable is a unique mix of spreadsheet and database. Plus you can use Zapier to power all sorts of automation with Airtable. Gusto — Two things I hate a lot? Bookkeeping and payroll. Gusto makes running payroll dead stupid simple. Completely online, they handle all the taxes and all the filings for you at a reasonable rate.

Create secure passwords for all the different apps and websites you use. Invite your team along and make everybody more efficient. Some of these links are affiliate links, which means I may get a few months free or a small commission. This never affects the price you would pay for the tools or services. My goal is to help you grow your business. To help you spend more time with your family.