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Screen printing is a printing process that makes use of a woven mesh to hold an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil outlines the open areas of the mesh that transfer ink in the form of a sharp-edged image on the surface that is to be printed and this surface is called substrate. On the screen stencil, a squeegee or roller moves and pumps the ink on the open areas that are to be printed with that particular color.

The silk screen printing also known as serigraphy is a multiple printing technique that involves the use of stencils in order to transfer the design. The paint is applied on the silk screen and affects the areas that are not blocked by the stencil. Many colors can be applied by using several stencils in a single print. The serigraphy was developed as a commercial medium and is still used by modern artists. The silk screen has been replaced with a polyester material that is widely available and is also cheap as compared with silk material.

Screen painting is the technique developed by the Chinese almost 2000 years back and the screen was made of human hair stretched across a wooden frame. The Japanese developed it further by using the woven silk as mesh and lacquers as stencils. Europe adopted this technique much later as it involved silk which was not available in the Europe.

In the United States, the screen printing was popularized by artist Andy Warhol, he screen printed actress Marilyn Monroe in 1962. A rotary machine was patented by Michael Vasilantone in 1960 to print logos and team information on bowling garments but shortly, started printing on t-shirts. It was soon licensed by many manufactures for screen printing of garments making the rotary garment printing machine as a popular device for screen printing. In the United States, screen printing on garments account for almost half of the screen printing activity.

The printing on the canvas with the help of the screen-printing also became popular with the artists. Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and many other artists have made use of screen-printing on the canvas. The commercial as well as the fine arts industry is using this screen printing industry to increase their profits and they use it to make prints on the CD and DVD covers, t-shirts, hats and also on the metals and many more things.

Currently, graphic screen printing is used in creation of mass or large batch production graphics such as posters or display stands. The screen printing is more suitable for printing on non-porous surfaces like ceramics and metals, curved surfaces like bottles and cups and also for short print runs.

The Corporate have well utilized this option and have started giving their employees and clients corporate gifts that are screen printed with different ideas and also corporate logos. This is a good way in which the corporate can increase their presence. The Corporate gifts are usually given once or twice to the employees. The screen printed corporate gifts are like t-shirts made in different sizes and styles keeping in mind the different employees. The corporate gifts can also be in form of mugs, beer and wine glasses, and many corporate give their best employees fully paid vacations.