Introduction

The Screen Printing Calculator can be used to screen print better halftones. To print tone correctly, you must know your mesh count, be able to control the size of your halftone dot, and have a enough resolution in your image for the screen's mesh.

Terms to know

Pixels Per Inch (PPI) - Resolution of an image.

Lines Per Inch (LPI) - Number of lines of halftone dots per inch.

Threads Per Inch (TPI) - Frequency of threads in screen fabric.

Choosing the right mesh for the job

TPI	Description
24	Glitter Inks
30	Shimmer/Crystalina inks
60	Team Wear, player numbers, puff inks, metallic inks
83-123	Light ink on dark fabric
109-140	Regular artwork with average details, no very fine lines or halftones
162	Semi-detailed artwork, large halftones
200	Underbase for detailed prints, detailed artwork and detailed halftones
230 - 355	Very detailed artwork, halftones,  4 color process color printing, overprint colors for simulated-process

Calculations

lpi = 1/4 to 1/5 of the tpi

ppi = 1.5 to 2 times the lpi