Want to do professional multi-colour screen printing at home, without the need for a huge workshop? With the help of xTool’s precision laser engraving machines, everyone can enjoy the art of screen printing and create amazing artwork with the xTool Screen Printer in a matter of hours rather than days.
Whether you’re an illustrator looking to expand your small business, small business creating your own branded products, or just fancy getting creative and reliving your days at art school, the xTool Screen Printer is an incredible and inspiring device.
Summary
xTool Screen Printer Multi-Colour Kit with 12 pre-coated screens and 11 inks.
- Buy now from xTool (£479.00)
How we tested
xTool sent us their xTool Screen Printer Multi-Colour Kit along with their xTool S1 Laser etching machine to test and review. Once we were familiar with the laser etching machine (you can read our review here) we set up the screen printer in our office space.
We followed the manual instructions to complete the basic setup of the machine and pre-assembled some frames following the manual instructions. We then created a test screen first before moving onto our first full print.
Inks and white card were supplied along with the screen printer, but we also trialled printing on A3 multi-media paper, acrylic and cotton fabric.
The results
xTool Screen Printer review
Product specifications:
- Adjustable height (items up to 60mm thick)
- Easy-to-assemble frames and pre-coated screens
- 11.5 x 16” printing area
- Compatible with water or oil-based inks
- Full accessories such as magnetic squeegee and anti-slip cutting mat
- Free xTool Creative Space software
- Unique Hover Hinge with free-floating 60° pivot
- 615.8 x 293.5 x 208mm/9.35kg
- Requires a laser engraving machine
- RRP £479/$607 for multicolour kit (RRP £249/$316 for basic kit)
1. Ease of use 4/5
Setup
The xTool Screen Printer is incredibly simple to set up. It only requires some minimal assembly (no tools needed) to set up the main printing press components, and the screens are ridiculously easy to prepare.
You simply place the prepared screen into the frame, press in the fixing pieces and tighten the clamps – and you’re done (and if you do doubt yourself, there’s a handy video showing you exactly how to prepare the screens or adjust them if you go wrong.)
There is a piece of cardboard stuck to the screen which helps to centre it in the frame, which you peel off once inserted. We did find that whenever we peeled the cardboard off it was stuck on quite firmly and often left a bit of residue which can be peeled off afterwards. Fortunately this doesn’t appear to affect printing but it can be unnerving when having to be a bit forceful.
Once your screen is fixed in the frame, it’s time to engrave your image onto the screen. Whereas traditional screen printing uses a light-sensitive photo emulsion, the xTool Screen Printer involves engraving away the specialist coating on the screen which allows your ink to be printed through the remaining fine mesh.
Preparation
Using vector files is suggested as the best method for your designs. However, photographic images can be given a half-tone treatment to ensure accurate transfer of your image.
We transferred a few different designs to various screens, with the time varying depending on the complexity of the image.
For example, a small simple illustration of a bee took approximately 15 minutes, whereas a full screen of a detailed image of a bouquet of flowers took nearly 1 hour and 40 minutes (which is still a lot faster than the traditional screen printing process when you take into account emulsion prep and drying times).
One thing we would raise is the fact that you need to ensure you have good ventilation when engraving your screen. When first engraving a screen we noticed some very strong fumes being emitted with an odd chemical smell.
This is fine when well ventilated (out of a window for example), but might become a problem in shared or small spaces. If you are particularly concerned about this, xTool also creates a smoke purifier unit to use with your engraving machine).
Printing
Once your screen is prepared, it’s time for the fun part – printing! If you’ve done traditional screen printing before you’ll be just as familiar with the xTool Screen Printer.
You simply place your screen into the frame clamp, and place your material onto the magnetic surface board. Fold down the 60° Hover Hinge and lower so that your screen meets your material, then secure in place with the quick-release handle.
Next you pour an appropriate amount of ink onto the screen - enough to cover the design but not so much that you flood the screen (you'll become more attuned to how much you need with practice).
Then use the squeegee to smoothly push the ink through the screen. The included spatula allows you to easily apply ink onto your screen, as well as scraping any excess off your squeegee.
The squeegee is also magnetic, meaning it can be safely stored on the frame while not in use, which saves a lot of unnecessary mess.
2. Multicolour printing 5/5
To create multi-colour prints via screen printing, you need to create an individual screen for each colour, and then line them up perfectly. Fortunately, xTool has made this easy as pie!
There is a frame fixing piece which can be screwed into the inside of your laser engraving machine, which means that your screen frames will always be in the exact same position when engraving your designs onto them.
Then you simply pop your first screen into the quick-release frame clamp, print your first colour and let it dry. Then remove the first screen, pop in the second and print your second colour – as simple as that.
This ability to quickly change screens is a game changer for home printing – traditional screen printing with multiple screens required a huge amount of space.
We specifically tested this function by printing pink text inside a half-toned photographic black design, and it worked (pretty much) perfectly.
There are 3-axis dials on the screen printer base which allow you to correct for minute differences so your colours and screen line up exactly... if we were to do a second print of this design we might shift the pink text to the right by a teeny amount just to get it exactly on (but we were pretty close for a first attempt)!
3. Material compatibility 5/5
The beauty of screen printing is that you can print on… well, pretty much anything. We personally tested it on paper, card and fabric and had no problems at all.
If you’re printing on fabric such as T-shirts, you will need to cure your print so that it sets permanently and won’t wash off. However, this is simply a case of letting it dry fully, then ironing it (underneath some brown paper to protect the material from burning).
4. Print quality and precision 4/5
As your design is transferred to the screen via a laser that is capable of marking 0.01inch, the quality and precision achievable is incredible.
With that said, however, screen printing is a bit of an art in itself, and it does take practice to get it right. It’s easy to use too much ink and obscure your print's details, or not enough ink meaning your print comes out patchy. But after a few practice runs you’ll quickly get the feel for it and start creating perfect prints every time.
Engraving and printing solid colour designs is super easy, and printing single colour photographs can also be done, just with some extra preparation. For example, a black and white photo image will need to be converted into halftones (think comic book art where the colours are made up of lots of different sized circles).
There is the function to do this within the free xTool Creative Space software, but to achieve the best results you may prefer to use more professional image software such as Photoshop.
5. Value for money 4/5
With the basic screen printer kit coming in at just £249.00, it’s certainly an affordable solution for creatives and small businesses… but, it does require a laser etching machine, which significantly increases the price.
Essentially, if you already have, or are going to buy one of xTool’s laser etching machines, then buying this additional screen printing kit is 100% definitely worth it.
The one area where this kit loses points on value for money is the screens themselves. With the basic kit, you only get three screens included (12 come with the multi-colour kit). Once you have engraved your design onto a screen – that’s it! You can print using that screen hundreds of times, but you can’t engrave a new design onto it (well, you can technically clean and reclaim the screen, but it’s a bit technical as you need to use mould release agents and photosensitive emulsion).
Four new pre-coated screens will cost you £47.69, which if you’re making multi-colour prints is quickly going to add up (and be particularly frustrating if you make a mistake when engraving your screen). It would be good if there were more details on how to clean and reuse screens, not only for a financial benefit but also an environmental one too.
What’s in the box
Multi-colour kit: xTool Screen Printer, 4 sets of three 11.5 x 16” screens, 4 11.5 x 16” frames and fixing pins, 9 x 5” magnetic squeegee, 8 x 0.8” ink spatula, 11 x water-based inks, magnetic board, anti-slip cutting mat, cardboard, stickers, canvas bag, user manual, FAQs sheet, storage box.
Basic kit: xTool Screen Printer, three 11.5 x 16” screens, one 11.5 x 16” frame and fixing pins, 9 x 5” magnetic squeegee, 8 x 0.8” ink spatula, 5 x water-based inks, magnetic board, anti-slip cutting mat, cardboard, stickers, canvas bag, user manual, FAQs sheet.
Our verdict: Should you buy xTool Screen Printer
If you already own an xTool engraving machine or are thinking of buying one, then buying the xTool Screen Printer is a must. It’s an incredibly fun and easy product to use, and takes up significantly less space than traditional screen printing methods.
For those who are solely interested in screen printing, then the necessity to purchase a laser engraving machine may mean the price becomes higher than you’re willing to pay – although when you take into account how much it would cost for a proper screen printing setup (not to mention the space required), then xTool is still a reasonable solution.
Looking for more screen printing options
Take a look at our guide to the best home screen printing kits for even more choice!
