There are two types of ink used mainly in silk screen printing on clothing (silk screen printing can also be used to print signage and products. Most of the process is the same with the main difference being the type of paint used): the most common type is plastisol and the other type is water based inks.

Working with water-based ink is more difficult and less common, and this is because this ink dries quickly when they come in contact with air (therefore they may dry on top of the mesh and clog it). In addition, the main work with this ink is on light fabrics because their transparency is lower than that of plastisol paints. On the other hand, printing with this ink is much softer and pleasant to the touch, and in addition, you can print with it in four primary colors (yellow, blue, red and black) in order to create prints of laminated images.

In contrast, plastic inks are much more noticeable on the garment because they dry on the surface of the fabric (and are not absorbed by it like the water inks), but they allow continuous printing because they dry and set only at a temperature of 160 degrees Celsius, and therefore most printing houses use these colors today .