What the Number on the Mesh Actually Tells You

When somebody hands you a screen and says "that one's a 62T", they're telling you how many threads are woven into every square centimetre of the fabric. In the UK, mesh is usually sold by threads per centimetre (T), though you'll still see the American threads per inch (tpi) printed on some packaging. A 62T screen and a 156 tpi screen are the same piece of cloth, just described differently.

That's the whole mystery. A higher number means finer mesh: more threads, smaller holes, less room for ink to pass through. A lower number means coarser mesh: fewer threads, bigger holes, and a much more generous flow of ink. Every decision you make about screens starts from that single fact.

The Trade-Off: Ink Deposit Versus Detail

Every mesh count sits on a sliding scale between two things you can't have at once. Coarse mesh floods the fabric with ink but can't hold a fine line. Fine mesh holds beautiful crisp detail but starves the print of ink, leaving you with something thin and washed out. Good printing is mostly about picking the point on that scale where your design still reads properly.

• 18T to 43T (roughly 46 to 110 tpi): a very open weave with a heavy ink deposit. Best for big bold shapes, chunky lettering, glitter and puff inks, and thick white underbases on dark garments.
• 55T to 77T (roughly 140 to 200 tpi): the workhorse zone for textiles. Good coverage, still forgiving of slightly rough artwork.
• 90T to 110T (roughly 230 to 280 tpi): the middle ground for paper, posters and finer textile work. This is where most community workshop screens end up living.
• 120T to 160T (roughly 305 to 400 tpi): fine detail, thin lines, halftones and delicate typography. Wonderful on paper, awkward on anything bobbly.

It helps to think of mesh as a budget. The finer the mesh, the more detail you can buy, and the less ink you can afford.

Matching Mesh to Your Ink and Substrate

Mesh count only makes sense alongside what you're printing onto and what you're pushing through the screen. Some pairings that work reliably:

• Paper and card: 90T to 140T. The surface is flat and non-absorbent enough to hold fine lines, and a thin deposit dries quickly.
• T-shirts and tote bags with plastisol: 43T to 77T. Plastisol is thick and needs an open weave to sit properly on the fabric.
• Water-based textile inks: 77T to 100T. These inks are much runnier, so they pass through finer mesh happily and give a softer feel on the cloth.
• Metallic and shimmer inks: 43T to 62T. The particles are larger than you'd think and will clog anything finer.
• Puff, glitter and high-density inks: 18T to 43T. These need an almost comically open screen to build up any height.

One extra rule worth tattooing on your squeegee hand: on dark garments, print the white underbase through a coarser mesh than the colours that sit on top of it. A 43T or 55T underbase gives you an opaque base; the coloured layers can then go through something like 90T for a cleaner edge.

Count Isn't Everything: Thread Diameter and Tension

Two screens with the same number can behave quite differently. Mesh is woven from threads of different thicknesses, usually labelled S (thin), M (medium) and HD (heavy duty). A thin-thread 90T passes more ink than a heavy-thread 90T, because there's more open space between the strands.

Colour matters too. Yellow mesh absorbs light rather than scattering it, which means your exposure holds finer detail than the same count in white. For anything above 110T, yellow is worth the extra few pounds.

Finally, tension. A screen stretched to 18 to 25 newtons per centimetre will snap back cleanly after the squeegee passes, giving you sharp edges. A slack screen sags, the stencil lifts away from the substrate, and ink creeps underneath. If your prints look blurry and the mesh count seems sensible, check the tension before you blame the artwork.

Building a Starter Set for a Community Workshop

You don't need a wall of screens to run a good session. Two well-chosen ones will cover almost everything a mixed group of beginners will want to make:

• A 43T screen for bold shapes, solid blocks of colour, printing on dark fabric and any thick or glittery ink.
• A 90T screen for paper, posters, finer line work and water-based textile printing.

If your group leans towards paper and printmaking, swap the 43T for a 120T and keep a 62T alongside it. Label the frames clearly on the edge of the aluminium with a permanent marker, and you'll save yourself endless squinting during a busy workshop.

When Prints Go Wrong, Blame the Mesh First

• Patchy, faint, see-through prints: the mesh is too fine for the ink, or the ink has thickened in the pot.
• Fine lines closing up and disappearing: again, too fine a mesh, or the stencil is over-exposed.
• Blurry edges and halos: the mesh is too coarse for the detail, or the tension is low.
• Ink bleeding beyond the design: off-contact is too high, or you're flooding too enthusiastically between passes.
• Thin, grey-looking white on a dark shirt: your underbase screen is too fine. Go coarser, print, flash, then print again.

Keep a small notebook of what you used for each successful print, mesh count, ink, squeegee hardness, and you'll build a personal reference far more useful than any chart. Screens are just tools; the judgement comes with the printing.