What the marks are actually for
Every film PrintFilmReady exports carries a crosshair at the top, bottom, left and right, plus a crop tick in each corner — burned into the margin, in the same position on every layer of the same job. They exist for one reason: so that lining up the marks lines up the image underneath them, without you having to eyeball the artwork itself through a stretched, slightly translucent mesh.
That only works if you actually use them. Taping a positive down "by eye, close enough" throws away the one part of the file that was built to make registration mechanical instead of a guess.
Three ways registration drifts before you ever touch a squeegee
If two colours are landing in slightly different places on press, check these in order. All three are things that go wrong before ink is anywhere near the screen, and none of them are the film's fault.
1. A flipped emulsion side
Every screen in a job has to be exposed and printed the same way round. Expose one screen with the film against the coated (emulsion) side and another against the substrate side by mistake, and that one layer mirrors relative to the rest of the job — its marks line up on the exposure table and still land wrong on press, because the whole image flipped, not just its position. It looks exactly like registration drift and it is not fixed by nudging the frame.
2. Printing out of order
An underbase is solid and prints first; everything else sits on top of it. Print a detail colour before the underbase and you're not just risking poor opacity — you're also registering later layers against a surface that hasn't settled yet, which is a second, quieter way to lose alignment on a multi-colour job. Follow the print order your separation gives you, top to bottom.
3. A screen that isn't locked square
Crosshairs tell you the marks agree; they don't tell you the screen is seated square in the press. If a frame can rock, tilt or shift a millimetre when it's clamped in, every registration check you do before that point is checking the wrong thing. Lock the screen down first, then register to it — not the other way round.
Registering a screen on press
None of this is specific to PrintFilmReady — it's the same handful of habits every shop eventually settles on:
- Hinge clamps, set once per job. A pin or clamp system that lets a screen come off and go back on in exactly the same spot removes the need to re-register from scratch every time a screen is pulled for cleaning mid-run.
- Tape the substrate, not just the screen. A shirt board or jig that holds the print surface still matters as much as the screen's own position — registration is the relationship between the two, and either one moving breaks it.
- Keep off-contact consistent. The gap between screen and substrate changes how far ink travels sideways as it's pushed through, which shifts apparent registration slightly between a screen set close and one set far. Set it once, and don't change it mid-job.
- Register the darkest or most detailed layer first, then bring the others to it. It's easier to see a fine line drift against a flat colour than the reverse.
Large jobs: panels and repeats need their own check
A large-format job that PrintFilmReady cuts into overlapping panels carries its own ticks in the bottom and left margin of each panel, meant to meet the neighbouring panel's edge — check that join before exposing, the same way you'd check any other registration mark. A repeat sheet works the same way: the halftone screen runs on unbroken across the whole sheet so tile edges show no seam, and a tick at every tile edge lets you confirm the repeat actually joins once it's on press, rather than assuming the maths was enough.
Pull a test before the real run
Print one pull on scrap and check registration and colour before committing production stock — on any job, but especially a new multi-colour one. It's the difference between a registration problem costing one sheet and costing the run.
Not screen printing: kento marks for lino and block
Relief printing has no mesh to stretch or contact distance to set, so it uses a different system entirely: a corner notch and an edge notch cut into the block itself, which the paper seats into directly. PrintFilmReady can add matching kento marks to every layer of a lino or block job. If that's your process, the crosshair-and-crop-tick approach above isn't what you want — see the full guide to lino and block printing layers instead.
Common questions
Why do my screen printing colours keep drifting out of registration?
Usually one of three things: the emulsion side got flipped on one screen so it mirrors relative to the rest of the job, the print order skipped the underbase, or the screen wasn't locked square in the clamps before you started registering to it. Check those three before blaming the film.
What are registration crosshairs and crop ticks for?
They're printed in the same position on every film in a job, so aligning the marks on each screen aligns the layers themselves without eyeballing the artwork. PrintFilmReady burns crosshairs (top, bottom, left, right) and corner crop ticks into the margin of every film automatically.
Does the emulsion side matter for registration?
Yes. Every screen in a job has to be exposed and printed the same way round. Flip one screen's emulsion side relative to the others and its image mirrors, so registration drifts even though each screen's marks look fine on their own.
Should I test print before a production run?
Always, on scrap, before committing production stock — it's the only way to catch a registration or colour problem while it costs one sheet instead of the whole job.
Every film, the same marks
PrintFilmReady burns registration crosshairs and crop ticks into every film automatically, in the same spot on every layer. Free while in beta.
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