Screen printing is a stencil printing process. Here, the ink is pressed through a stretched screen fabric onto an underlying surface. Where ink is to be pressed through, i.e. at the image areas, the fabric is open. At all other points, the mesh openings between the threads of the fabric are closed so tightly that no more ink can pass through.
The ink is spread over the screen with a so-called squeegee, a rubber bar, and pressed downwards. The screen lies close to the medium to be printed, such as a sheet of paper. In this way, the ink that has been pressed through is transferred to the medium.