Dave Makin

Water-based printing places heavy demands on screens, emulsions, exposure, reclaim, and darkroom consistency. Learn hands-on the best practices for advanced screen selection and marking live in the darkroom.

Why Someone Should Come

Water-based printing places heavy demands on screens, emulsions, exposure, reclaim, and darkroom consistency. A weak stencil or inconsistent screen-making process can cause breakdown, registration issues, poor ink transfer, downtime, and frustration during production. This session focuses on the darkroom practices and screen-making decisions that help create screens that perform reliably with water-based and discharge inks.

Who Should Come

This session is designed for screen printers, darkroom technicians, production managers, and shop owners who want to strengthen their pre-press process. It is especially valuable for shops moving from plastisol into water base, printers struggling with stencil durability, and teams that want better consistency from coating through reclaim.

What They Will Learn

• Water-Based Screen Requirements: Understand why water-based and discharge printing require strong, properly prepared screens and reliable stencil systems.
• Darkroom Best Practices: Learn how coating, drying, exposure, washout, and post-exposure decisions affect screen durability and print performance.
• Mesh, Emulsion, and Stencil Control: Discover how screen specifications and stencil quality influence ink deposit, detail, opacity, and press consistency.
• Troubleshooting and Reclaim: Learn how to identify screen-related production problems and improve reclaim, chemistry, and pre-press workflow.