Moiré

Jesse MacKenzie
January 22nd, 2015

Those Frustrating Patterns

Moiré

 Moiré

Moiré is the patterns that emerge when opposing grids are overlaid on top of one another. In screen printing, we deal with many grids working together, and we work hard daily to avoid moiré patterns emerging in your prints. This page will introduce you to a few causes and instances of moiré and help you optimize your art to avoid it.

What Does it Look Like?

MoireMoiré in screen printing usually shows up as a pattern of lines or curves. Screen printing requires several grids to work together. The pixel grid of the digital art, the halftone grid, the screen mesh, and the most problematic of all, the pattern of the shirt’s fabric.

What Causes It?

The most common causes of moiré are poor halftone angles, highly textured fabrics, and halftones of halftones. Halftone dots clashing with fabric is the most common cause of moiré. If a garment has a texture pattern that is raised enough, the pattern of the fabric will show up in the print as moiré. This is rarely an issue, because shirt fabric is usually soft enough that the squeegee will press into the texture and spread ink into the lower areas, but it is good to be aware of the types of fabric you will be printing on and the risk of moiré.

Avoiding Moiré

Eliminating moiré is our job, and we do it well. We think and re-think every step of our process constantly, looking to improve and evolve in any way we can. We are very aware of moiré and our process is built to avoid it at all costs. If anything you send us is a risk for moiré we will let you know, and we can work together to find a solution.

Jesse is our Creative Director. He splits his time between the Art Department and Creative duties, looking to innovate and push the company in both areas (unless he overslept.)

Filed under: Educate