Customer Reviews

Print Liberation: The Screen Printing Primer

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book was a true disappointment. I was excited about the extra sections on the historical and societal context of screen pringing, and that's why I chose this book over the others because I thought I'd get help with the process along with some interesting history. That supplemental stuff is interesting enough, but as an instructional guide this book is severely lacking.

With very little more information than the basic Speedball instruction booklet (and in some cases much less), this book adds very little to my extremely limited knowledge of screen printing. What I wanted was a book that expanded upon the basic instruction booklet info. I need more information where the Speedball manual leaves off in depth, and this book fails to deliver that. This is especially disappointing for a book that claims to be "a comprehensive DIY guide to screen printing." It comes nowhere close to fulfilling that claim.

For example, one of the trickier parts of screen printing for me is getting the exposure time right for photo emulsion. This is where the insight of an experienced screen printer would be very helpful. The Speedball booklet gives a chart of exposure times for two kinds of light bulbs and it suggests sunlight as an option without offering any advice about it. That's just enough information to get started guessing, but not enough to understand the variables or do much besides trial and error. This Print Liberation book doesn't even give that much info. It merely says the following about exposing the photoemulsion: "Burn the screen for the predetermined amount of time. This might be something like 20 to 25 minutes for a 500-watt light, depending on what kind of bulb it is." Completely useless.

And the rest of the book is not much better. A screen printer with any insight or experience at all should know that much more information than this is required for successful results, unless you want to waste a lot of time and (expensive) emulsion on trial and error--which I can do on my own without buying a book.

This book is only good for someone who wants to read the extra stuff and doesn't mind doing a lot of process experimentation on their own. My purpose for buying a book like this was to take advantage of the author's experience to save me the hassle of reinventing the wheel. Either these authors lack the experience or just didn't bother to communicate it--regardless, the result is a book that's useless as a how-to guide.

This is an excellent introduction to screen printing. The book covers the use of photographic emulsion stencils only - the use of paper stencils or drawing fluid and screen filler is not covered.

The book explains how to make your own screen, how to burn a screen, how to reclaim a screen, how to make a multi-colour print, registration, etc.

This is so far the best introduction I have seen to screen printing and I can recommend this book to anyone interested in how to get started.

This book includes all the information you need to try some basic screen printing. The instructions are detailed enough to lead a complete novice through the screen printing process without being redundant or uninteresting. The book also has some great graphics and covers some valuable information on screen printing history and important figures in its development.

Definitely the perfect source if you are just getting started with screen printing - this book has it all!

I love this book.. better than the other screen print books. Visual aid really helps me. I didn't regret buying this.

This book is a great primer on screen printing! It is kind of like "T-shirts for Fun & Profit"-lite. This book is particularly useful for the weekend warrior or part-time entrepreneur. The step-by-step examples are terrific and clearly explained. As soon as I paged through it I came up with some ideas.

That said, if you are looking for more detailed information, you should also pick-up How to Print T-Shirts for Fun and Profit. But get this one, too!

I'm having a really hard time figuring out what body part I would have given up twelve years ago to have had this book when I taught myself to screen print. It's typical to say "arm" or "leg" or "left testicle", but I think if I really had to pick one I would ultimately have to go with something more major because that's just how awesome this book is. So, maybe the left hemisphere of my brain?

This is by far the BEST book I have ever come across on the art of screen printing. Before this the only books I had seen were all printed in the late seventies and were poorly written and the instructional illustrations left many things to be desired. Mostly, resolution, because the images were all big black Rorschach Test looking blots of pixels. The term "piss poor" comes to mind.

Print Liberation: The Screen Printing Primer, however, is chock full of high resolution color photos. It also provides the budding screen printer with a brief history of the art as well as a detailed list of tools you'll need and descriptions for what each tool will do for you. It's easily the most comprehensive how to screen print book on the market today.

This book has just about everything you will need to know about screen printing, from the basic concept up to aand including how to run a business and make money from your artistic enterprises.
Well wworth the price, I have found few books better on the subject

Whether you're simply interested in the history of screen printing or would like to take the first steps in starting a screen printing business, this book is where to begin. Very enjoyable to read with excellent visuals. Highly recommended and definitely worth the money.

Page for page "Print Liberation, The Screen Printing Primer" is by far the best introduction to screen printing out there. Excellent color photographs and illustrations, materials lists, step-by-step instructions, and helpful troubleshooting ideas. I also enjoy the short historical blurbs that help contextualize screen printing--from its origins in adverts to the lofty heights of Warhol. Print Liberation has a back in the day DIY feel in its total sharing of tips and techniques. You get the sense the authors want you to surpass them in awesomeness. Can't be beat. If you've never screen printed before it'll get you where you want to go.

As many of the other reviews say, this is a great book if you have never screen printed before and are unfamiliar with the process. It's flashy and fun, and has step by step instructions for each of the most basic processes in screen printing. But it's short, and aside from a (also very basic) timeline on screen printing, doesn't offer much more than step-by-step. I was hoping for more substance.