When most people hear screen printing, they immediately think of T-shirts.
But screen printing has a much bigger world beyond apparel.
From a branded cardboard box sitting on a customer's doorstep to a Coroplast yard sign beside the road, screen printing can be an incredibly versatile method for producing durable, vibrant graphics on all kinds of flat substrates.
And that's exactly where PERMAPRINT Premium comes in.
PERMAPRINT Premium is a professional water-based graphic screen printing ink formulated for applications including paper, cardboard, plastics and select coated metals. It's designed for printers who want strong color, excellent coverage and the versatility to move beyond traditional textile printing.
One Ink System. A Lot of Possibilities.
One of the things we like most about PERMAPRINT Premium is the range of potential applications.
The manufacturer lists uses ranging from hand-printed wallpaper and art reproductions to posters, packaging, stickers, skateboards and backlit displays.
Here are just a few possibilities.
📦 Custom Cardboard Boxes & Packaging
Packaging doesn't have to be boring.
PERMAPRINT Premium can be printed on sealed paper and cardboard, making it an interesting option for:
- Branded shipping boxes
- Product packaging
- Retail packaging
- Promotional boxes
- Specialty cartons
- Wrapping paper
- Notebook and book covers
For a small business or local brand, even a simple one- or two-color screen print can transform an ordinary package into something customers remember.
Imagine printing your company logo directly onto kraft boxes instead of applying labels to every package.
That's screen printing doing something useful beyond a T-shirt.
🪧 Coroplast Yard Signs
Here's another application that can surprise textile screen printers.
PERMAPRINT Premium is compatible with Corflute/Coroplast.
That opens opportunities for:
- Real estate signs
- Contractor signs
- School events
- Church events
- Political and campaign signage
- Directional signs
- Yard sale signs
- Local business advertising
- Event signage
For a shop already comfortable with screen printing, graphic printing can become another category of work to offer existing customers.
A customer who orders shirts for an event might also need signs.
The customer who orders company uniforms might need promotional signage.
Sometimes growth isn't about finding an entirely new customer.
It's about offering more to the customers you already have.
🎨 Posters, Art Prints & Reproductions
This is where traditional graphic screen printing really shines.
PERMAPRINT Premium is designed for applications including posters, art reproduction and high-laydown hand-printed wallpaper.
Screen printing gives artists the opportunity to create something that doesn't feel like an ordinary digital print.
Ink deposit, texture and individual colors can become part of the artwork itself.
Applications could include:
- Limited-edition posters
- Concert posters
- Fine-art reproductions
- Numbered prints
- Promotional artwork
- Hand-printed wallpaper
- Specialty paper goods
For artists and specialty print shops, the printing process itself can become part of the value of the finished piece.
🏷️ Stickers, Decals & Specialty Graphics
PERMAPRINT Premium can also be used on several synthetic substrates, including polyester/Mylar, Tyvek, polycarbonate, polystyrene and PMMA such as Perspex/Plexiglass.
That creates opportunities for projects such as:
- Stickers
- Specialty decals
- Display graphics
- Point-of-purchase graphics
- Backlit displays
- Promotional pieces
As with any specialty substrate, compatibility should be tested before beginning a production run. The manufacturer specifically cautions that some vinyls can be affected by plasticizer migration and some uncoated papers can cockle.
🛹 Yes — Even Skateboards
This is one of our favorite examples simply because it demonstrates how different graphic screen printing can be from apparel printing.
Skateboards are specifically listed among PERMAPRINT Premium's applications.
It reinforces an important idea:
Don't think only in terms of shirts.
Think in terms of printable surfaces.
Once you start doing that, the possibilities become much more interesting.
A Cleaner Water-Based Ink System
Another major advantage is what PERMAPRINT Premium doesn't rely on.
PERMAPRINT Premium is 100% solvent-free and formulated without aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile solvent, PVC resin or phthalate plasticizers. Equipment cleanup is performed with water.
For graphic printers accustomed to traditional solvent-based systems, that's worth paying attention to.
You get a professional graphic ink system without building your workflow around conventional solvent ink chemistry.
No Heat Cure Required
This is another significant difference from textile water-based inks.
PERMAPRINT Premium does not require heat curing.
The ink can air dry or be jet-air dried. The manufacturer notes that drying time depends on factors including ink deposit, substrate, temperature and humidity.
That's especially useful when you're printing substrates that aren't meant to travel through the same curing process as a T-shirt.
Once air dried, PERMAPRINT Premium exhibits very good water resistance.
Built for Detail
Graphic screen printing often requires much finer detail than a typical athletic or spot-color T-shirt.
PERMAPRINT Premium can accommodate that.
Depending on the ink and application, the manufacturer recommends monofilament polyester meshes extending up to 305 TPI, with general-purpose work typically falling into finer graphic mesh ranges.
A water-resistant, fully dried and properly cured stencil is important when working with these water-based inks.
And there's one production habit you absolutely don't want to forget:
Keep the image flooded between print strokes.
Because PERMAPRINT is water based, thin deposits remaining in fine mesh can dry quickly. Flooding immediately after the print stroke helps keep fresh ink over the image area and reduces premature drying in the screen.
More Than Basic Colors
PERMAPRINT Premium isn't limited to a handful of standard colors.
The range includes:
- Aquatone mixing colors
- Black
- Blending White
- Extender / Print Paste
- Opaque White
- CMYK Process Colors
- Clear Gloss Varnish
- Matting Agent
- Glow Colors
- Pearl Colors
The Aquatone system provides a set of mixing bases for creating custom colors, while Opaque White can be used as an underbase when printing on dark backgrounds.
That makes the system useful for everything from straightforward commercial graphics to much more creative specialty work.
Who Should Consider PERMAPRINT Premium?
This isn't necessarily an ink that every textile printer needs sitting on the shelf.
But if your business includes—or you'd like to expand into—graphic printing, it's worth knowing about.
PERMAPRINT Premium makes particular sense for:
- Sign shops
- Graphic screen printers
- Packaging printers
- Artists and studios
- Schools
- Promotional product companies
- Specialty print shops
- Screen printers looking to diversify
And that last group may be the most interesting.
If you already know how to coat screens, expose artwork, register colors and pull a squeegee, you already understand much of the process.
The question becomes:
What else could you print?
Don't Limit Your Screen Printing Business to Shirts
We love apparel printing.
But one of the things that has always made screen printing such an incredible process is its versatility.
A screen doesn't know whether you're printing a T-shirt, poster, cardboard box or yard sign.
The challenge is understanding the substrate, choosing the appropriate ink system and developing the right production process.
PERMAPRINT Premium gives graphic printers a professional water-based option for doing exactly that.
So the next time a customer asks:
"Can you print our logo on these boxes?"
or
"Can you make some yard signs to go with our shirts?"
your answer might just be:
Yes.
Ready to Print Beyond T-Shirts?
Explore professional PERMAPRINT Premium inks and graphic screen printing resources from Kolormatrix.