Discharge Screen Printing

Discharge Screen Printing, also called Extract Printing, is a method of applying a design to dyed fabric by printing a colour-destroying agent, such as chlorine or hydrosulfite, to bleach out a white or light pattern on the darker coloured ground. In colour-discharge printing, a dye impervious to the bleaching agent is combined with it, producing a coloured design instead of white on the dyed ground. The benefits of Discharge Screen Printing is that the printed fabric will have a very soft feel as the printing ink is dyed into the fabric and not onto it. As the ink is dyed into the fabric and not as a layer on it, prints and design printed using the Discharge Screen Printing method do not crack or peel after wash. The drawback of Discharge Screen Printing is that chemicals used to bleach out original colors in fabric may not be environmentally friendly unlike common water based ink.