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How to screen print a T-shirt with PERMASET Puff Paste

Skill Level

T-Shirt Printing with PERMASET Puff Paste

Special 3D effects for T-shirt designs can be achieved with part of the PERMASET® water-based screen-printing ink range, PERMASET® Puff Paste. PERMASET® Puff Paste can be used neat, that is, straight out of the bucket. However, for the innovative print designer looking for textured design elements, a huge variety of puff effects in limitless colour variations is possible by mixing with any of PERMATONE®, PERMASET AQUA® or PERMASET SUPERCOVER® inks.

PERMASET® Puff Paste puffs up when cured to create 3D textured effects. It can also be used at low addition levels with PERMASET AQUA® and PERMATONE® inks to increase opacity.  Maximum puff effect is achieved when PERMASET® Puff Paste is used without dilution as shown in the two photos below.

Mixtures of PERMASET® Puff Paste and PERMASET AQUA® inks yield more puff compared with mixtures of PERMASET® Puff Paste and PERMASET SUPERCOVER® inks at the same proportions (compare the two photos above). Conversely mixtures of PERMASET® Puff Paste and PERMASET SUPERCOVER® inks will be more opaque and less puffy which means you’ll have a better chance of preserving fine detail on a design utilizing puff paste.

The puff effect can be built up by using a print/flash/print sequence. Some printers even print, flash, print, flash and print one last time before sending the T-shirt to the drying tunnel to create even greater puff effects.

The two images below compare swatches prepared at various ratios of PERMASET® Puff Paste to PERMASET AQUA® and PERMASET SUPERCOVER®.

You may have noticed in the two photos above that as you increase the amount of coloured ink (PERMASET AQUA® or PERMASET SUPERCOVER® inks) in the PERMASET® Puff Paste mix the colour expression is enhanced. However, this is offset by a reduction in the degree of puff achieved.

For the most vibrantly coloured puff effects, PERMASET® Puff Paste can be mixed with PERMASET® Pigment Concentrates. Compare the bottom swatch in the photo above, prepared with a 4:1 ratio of Puff Paste to Pigment Concentrate, with the swatch prepared with a 1:3 ratio of Puff Paste to PERMASET SUPERCOVER® Glow Magenta. Contact Colormaker Industries for more information.

By way of example as to what’s possible, PERMASET® Puff Paste was used to striking effect on the iconic Hokusai Great Wave of Kanagawa print design below:

Products and Process

  • PERMATONE® inks, a colour matching system, were matched to PMS 4655 C (light tan), PMS 7464 C (light blue), PMS 7697 C (mid blue) and PMS 302 C (dark blue) for printing the design on both the white and black T-shirts.
  • The white T-shirts were printed with PERMATONE® inks. As they are transparent and lower in solids, the resulting print does not fill and thus conceal the knit structure of the cotton jersey underneath (see the bottom left photo).
  • PERMATONE® inks are lower in solids than PERMASET SUPERCOVER® and the resulting print on the white T-shirt has a very soft hand.
  • The Puff Paste layer on the white T-shirts was printed with a roughly 50/50 mix of PERMASET ® Puff Paste and PERMASET SUPERCOVER® inks.
  • What is striking about the print on the white T-shirt is the sharp vertical rise of the Puff Paste, giving a flat table top effect to the Puff Paste detail (as shown in the photo below).
  • The print on the black T-shirt has an under-base of PERMASET SUPERCOVER® First Down White (FDW). As a high solids acrylic (HSA), PERMASET SUPERCOVER® FDW fills and thus masks the knit structure of the cotton jersey, while the high solids content also results in a heavier handle.
  • The same PERMATONE® inks used for the white T-shirts were then printed over the PERMASET SUPERCOVER® FDW layer on the black T-shirts.
  • The Puff Paste layer on the black T-shirts was printed with 100% (neat) PERMASET® Puff Paste, resulting in a softer and rounded puff effect. Some detail is lost as the Puff Paste puffs or splurges over adjacent zones. The addition of PERMASET SUPERCOVER® inks helps preserve design detail (as shown on the print on the left).
  • Both Puff Paste layers on the black and white T-shirts were printed using the print/flash/print technique.

This blog has explored a number of the specialty 3D effects that can be achieved with PERMASET® Puff Paste and PERMASET AQUA®, PERMASET SUPERCOVER® and PERMATONE® inks.

Printed Hokusia Great Wave T-shirts are available from the PERMASET® shop. For more information contact PERMASET®.

To see further examples of items printed using PERMASET Puff Paste check out this blog. To purchase PERMASET® Puff Paste visit this link.

© COLORMAKER INDUSTRIES 2025 

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