Wiener Tales' apparel that is sold here from our home shop is hand press screen printed. Many people want to know what the difference is.

Screen-printing is a process where a design, drawing, or other format is converted to a film, and the film is transferred to a screen. The number of screens for any design is based on the number of colors of the design. Most of our designs involve 4 colors. Inks are then transferred through the tiny dots in the screen to the garment in a proper order, one color at a time, to achieve the desired result. The process involves exact pressures, specialized inks, and heat curing to result in a long lasting design. Each garment is paid special attention, and takes several minutes to produce. The set up procedure is not simple, and takes a few hours for each design from start to finish.

Print-on-demand items, as on Cafe Press and Zazzle, are simply directly printed onto a garment like a typical inkjet printer, using special textile inks. The design usually has a more washed out appearance on apparel, and the colors don't "pop" like they do when screen printed. Some smaller items, like magnets and keychains come out beautiful, but when choosing for apparel, we prefer screen printing.

Customization

Wiener Tales can customize. If you want a customized, hand printed shirt it is a bit more expensive and takes some time. It has to be ordered far in advance, so we can add it to our printing schedule.

It is far easier and faster to customize on Cafe Press or Zazzle. If you want an item with your own text, design on front or back, smaller, larger, or any other varaint, we can supply the design for you. In some instances, on Zazzle, you can do some of this yourself. If you are interested in a customized version of one of our designs on Cafe Press, Zazzle, or from our hand pressed shop, please contact sheri@wienertales.com with questions, requests, or for pricing info.