As clients come in, there’s always the frequently asked question: what’s the difference between embroidery and screen printing? This is actually a great question and we love to educate the people that may not know the difference between the two. Here at MonarchDIRECT we actually do both and love telling our clients more about the two and helping them make the right decision. Embroidery and screen printing are the two most used methods when it comes to applying logos to apparel. There are pros and cons to each of these and we’ll get into that later but, it really just depends on what you’re using your apparel for. 

Embroidery 

Embroidery is when a logo or a specific design is stitched straight into the fabric of the apparel you are purchasing. Yes, embroidery can be pricy but it won’t fade as fast or at all rather than the screen printing.  Embroidery can be stitched out onto heavier materials such as baseball caps, backpacks, polos, etc. The process of embroidery includes digitizing your logo and an embroidery specialist hoops and loads your apparel on an embroidery machine. Having your logo digitized means you now have something that can be embroidered on anything you’d like such as hats, bags, aprons, shirts, and so on. 

Screen Printing

Screen printing is actually a pretty neat but time consuming process. This is a technique used to transfer a design through a mesh screen onto the apparel with ink. A stencil of your design is made and the screen printing specialist uses a squeegee to spread the ink in place. This is a process that is perfect if you need a large quantity of shirts to be done exactly the same. 

Now that we have discussed what exactly embroidery and screen printing are, when should you use them? If you want a more professional polo for when you’re in the office, embroidery is a good choice. On the other hand if you need t-shirts or thin long sleeved work shirts for your crew, screen printing is the route you need to go. This also comes in handy for printing large designs and logos so that when you have a crew out on a job, those screen printed shirts will most likely gain your business lots of leads.