Plastisol ink is a PVC-based screen printing ink that cures at 320°F and sits on top of the fabric rather than soaking into it. It’s the standard for commercial garment printing in the US because it holds opacity, runs forever on press without drying in the screen, and gives you a wash-durable print on cotton, poly, and blends. When somebody searches “plastisol ink near me,” they’re usually trying to get a gallon of white on the press before Friday. We can help with that.
This guide covers what plastisol actually is, how to pick the right one for the fabric you’re printing, how to cure it correctly, and where Total Ink Solutions inks fit in the lineup. We ship from New Jersey on most orders the same day they’re placed, so “near me” usually means “on your dock in two to three business days.”
What is plastisol ink?
Plastisol is a suspension of PVC resin particles in a plasticizer. It stays liquid at room temperature, doesn’t air-dry in the screen, and only cures when you bring the entire ink film to 320°F (or whatever the data sheet specifies for that particular ink). Once cured, the resin and plasticizer fuse into a flexible, opaque, wash-durable film bonded to the garment fibers.
A few practical traits that matter on the floor:
- It doesn’t dry in the screen. You can leave plastisol on a screen overnight and start printing again the next morning. Water-based won’t let you do that.
- It’s opaque. Even mid-grade plastisol will cover a black tee with a single print-flash-print sequence on the right mesh.
- It cures with heat only. No air-drying, no chemical reaction. The ink film has to hit cure temperature throughout, not just at the surface.
- It sits on top of the shirt. You can feel a plastisol print. Water-based and discharge inks dye the fibers and leave a softer hand.
What is plastisol ink made of?
The core components are PVC resin, a plasticizer (typically a phthalate or phthalate-free substitute), pigments, fillers, and additives for viscosity and rheology. Modern formulas are largely phthalate-free, which matters if you’re printing for brands that audit their supply chain. All Total Ink Solutions plastisols are non-phthalate.
How plastisol ink works on press
The workflow is straightforward, but the details decide whether the shirt survives 50 washes or cracks at 10.
- Choose the right ink for the fabric. 100% cotton, 50/50 blends, and 100% polyester each want different formulations. More on this below.
- Pick the right mesh. 156 mesh for most spot colors. 86–110 mesh for white underbase on dark cotton. 230–305 mesh for halftones and four-color process.
- Set off-contact at roughly 1/16” to 1/8” depending on press tension and design.
- Flood the screen, then print. A 70-durometer squeegee at a moderate angle covers most jobs. Go harder (75–80 duro) for opacity, softer (60–65) for soft hand on a thin print.
- Flash between colors if you’re wet-on-wet printing or laying down a white underbase. Flash gels the ink (around 220–240°F) so the next color doesn’t lift it.
- Cure the final print at 320°F through a conveyor dryer, or use a heat press if you don’t have a dryer.
Curing plastisol ink with a heat press
A heat press will cure plastisol if you treat it correctly. Cover the print with parchment or PTFE-coated sheeting, set the press to 320°F, and press for 30–40 seconds at light pressure (hovering is better than mashing the ink). A laser temp gun on the surface of the ink film will tell you whether you actually hit cure. If the gun reads 320°F or higher on the ink itself, you’re cured. If it reads 290°F, you’re not, and that shirt will crack on the second wash.
For shops without a dryer, low-cure plastisols make life easier. Our Extreme 270° Low Cure Plastisol Ink hits full cure at 270°F, which is a much easier number to reach with a heat press or a small flash unit.
Plastisol vs water-based vs discharge
Three ink chemistries dominate garment printing. Choose based on the hand feel you want and the fabric you’re printing on.
| Property | Plastisol | Water-based | Discharge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cure temperature | 320°F (270°F low-cure) | 320°F or air-dry varies | 320°F |
| Hand feel | Sits on fabric, noticeable | Soft, dyes fibers | Softest, dyes fibers |
| Opacity on dark fabric | High | Low without underbase | Color limited by dye |
| Works on polyester | Yes (with bleed blocker) | Limited | No |
| Dries in screen | No | Yes, fast | Yes |
| Shelf life | 1+ year | 6–12 months | Activated batches: hours |
| Best for | Spot color, bold prints | Fashion-soft cotton tees | Vintage-soft dark cotton |
For most commercial print shops, plastisol is the workhorse. Water-based and discharge are specialty tools for soft-hand jobs on 100% cotton.
Discharge ink vs plastisol
Discharge ink chemically removes the garment dye and replaces it with a pigment, leaving a print that feels like part of the shirt. It only works on reactive-dyed 100% cotton, has a short pot life once activated, and won’t give you neon brights or true white. Plastisol covers any fabric, any color, and you can mix it once and use it for years. Most shops run plastisol as the default and pull discharge out for specific soft-hand jobs.
Plastisol ink vs water-based ink
Water-based ink dyes the fibers and leaves almost no hand. It’s the right answer for fashion brands chasing that “vintage” feel on a 100% ringspun tee. It’s the wrong answer for a 50/50 blend, a poly hoodie, or any job needing high opacity on dark fabric without a heavy underbase. Water-based also dries in the screen during long runs, which slows production.
Choosing the right plastisol for the fabric
The shirt fabric dictates the ink. Match them correctly and your prints last 50+ washes. Mismatch them and you’ll be reprinting orders by Monday.
100% cotton
Cotton is the easiest substrate. Almost any plastisol bonds well and cures cleanly. For everyday colors on 100% cotton, General Purpose Plastisol Ink Colors For 100% Cotton gives you a buttery print at production speed. For whites on cotton, our General Purpose White Plastisol Ink flashes fast and lays down opaque on a 156 mesh.
50/50 cotton/poly blends
Blends are where shops get burned. Polyester dye sublimates at temperatures above 280°F, and once the dye gases off it migrates into the ink film, turning your white print pink on a red shirt three weeks later. The fix is a bleed-resistant ink with a built-in dye blocker.
For blends, run Bleed Resistant Plastisol Ink For 50/50 Cotton/Poly Blends or, for max opacity bright white, our Bleed Resistant 5-Star Bright White CQ. Both block dye migration on standard blends.
100% polyester and performance fabrics
Polyester is the hardest fabric to print. The dye migrates aggressively, the fabric stretches, and a rigid ink film cracks at the first wash. Use a low-bleed, stretch-tolerant ink. Stretch Plastisol Ink For 100% Polyester & Performance Fabrics is built for jerseys, joggers, and tech tees. It cures lower, blocks dye, and flexes with the garment.
Mixed orders / unknown fabrics
If you’re running a mixed order or you can’t confirm the fabric content, default to an all-purpose. Our All Purpose Plastisol Ink For Cotton & Poly Blends and All Purpose Plastisol Ink – White handle most common fabrics without surprises.
Best white plastisol ink
White is the single most-used color in the shop. It’s the underbase under every dark-shirt print and the most demanding ink in the bucket. A great white is opaque, flashes fast, doesn’t build up on the screen, and clears cleanly.
Our recommendations, ranked by use case:
- For 100% cotton: General Purpose White Plastisol Ink – 100% Cotton. High opacity, fast flash, predictable on a 156 mesh.
- For 50/50 blends: Bleed Resistant 5-Star Bright White CQ. The “5-Star” name is on the bucket because shops we work with rate it that way. Stops dye migration on most blends.
- For polyester and dark blends: Extreme 270° Low Cure Plastisol Ink White. 270°F cure means less dye migration, which is the whole game on poly.
- For everything else: All Purpose Plastisol Ink – White. Print this on cotton, blends, or poly without changing buckets.
Compare the four whites side by side:
| White ink | Best fabric | Cure temp | Bleed resistance | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Purpose White | 100% cotton | 320°F | Low | Daily cotton runs |
| 5-Star Bright White CQ | 50/50 blends | 320°F | High | Brightest white on blends |
| Extreme Low Cure White | Cotton, poly, blends | 270°F | High | Poly and heat-sensitive |
| All Purpose White | Mixed orders | 320°F | Medium | One-bucket solution |
Specialty plastisol inks
Beyond standard whites and colors, certain jobs need a specialty ink.
Neon and bright colors
Neons are pigment-heavy and read brighter than mixed colors of the same hue. For neon green, neon pink, neon orange, and similar, pull from our color line. They sit in the same general-purpose family and print on the same mesh as standard colors.
Metallic gold and metallic finishes
Metallics use real metal flakes suspended in the plastisol. Print them through a coarser mesh (86–110) so the flakes pass cleanly. Our Metallic 24K Gold Plastisol Ink gives a true gold finish, not the muddy yellow you get from cheaper metallics.
Glitter and shimmer
Glitter inks carry actual glitter particles. They print through a 25–60 mesh because the particles are large. Pink Shimmer Plastisol Ink gives a finer shimmer than full glitter, which is what most fashion brands actually want.
Reflective ink
Reflective plastisol carries glass micro-beads that bounce light back at the source. Used for safety apparel, school spirit wear, and night-visibility prints. Print through a 60–86 mesh and don’t over-flash; the beads need to sit on the surface to reflect.
Four-color process
CMYK plastisol prints photographic images through 230–305 mesh. Our Four Color Process Plastisol Ink CMYK Series is balanced as a set, so the dot gain and color reproduction stay predictable across all four screens.
Screen print transfers
Plastisol screen print transfers (also called plastisol heat transfers) are prints made on release paper, then heat-pressed onto the shirt later. They use the same plastisol inks plus a hot-split or cold-peel powder, and they let you stockpile prints and apply them on demand. Any of our standard plastisols can be run as transfers when paired with the right paper and powder.
Plastisol ink reducer, thinner, and additives
Plastisol viscosity changes with temperature. Cold ink in a 60°F shop prints differently than warm ink in an 80°F shop. Reducers thin the ink without breaking the cure chemistry.
- Curable reducer: thins ink while keeping cure temp the same. Use 1–5% by weight.
- Soft-hand additive: thins ink and softens the cured print. Useful for fashion prints with thin coverage.
- Low-bleed additive: boosts dye-blocking on borderline polyester jobs.
There’s no such thing as a “plastisol thinner” the way water-based ink has water. If somebody says “thinner,” they mean reducer. Don’t add solvent or mineral spirits; you’ll break the cure.
How to cure plastisol ink correctly
Cure is where prints get made or broken. The rule: every part of the ink film has to reach 320°F (or the data sheet temp for low-cure ink) for long enough to fully fuse the resin.
With a conveyor dryer:
- Set chamber temp to 350°F. Ink film hits 320°F somewhere inside the chamber, not at the door.
- Belt speed depends on dryer length and IR power. Most 6-foot dryers run 5–8 feet per minute for plastisol.
- Verify cure with a laser temp gun on the print as it exits, OR with a wash test (5 cycles, hot water, tumble dry). If it cracks, you’re under-cured.
With a heat press:
- Set the press to 320°F (270°F for low-cure inks).
- Cover the print with parchment paper or a PTFE sheet.
- Hover-press for 30–40 seconds. Light contact is better than full pressure, which flattens the print.
- Verify with a laser temp gun on the ink surface immediately after lifting.
With a flash unit alone: flash isn’t a cure tool. It gels the ink so the next color sits on top. Don’t try to use a flash to fully cure a final print unless the unit is rated for full cure and you’ve verified the temp.
Common plastisol problems and fixes
Print cracks after washing. Under-cured. Raise dryer temp, slow the belt, or extend heat press time. Verify with a laser temp gun.
Print feels gummy, sticks to itself. Also under-cured, just less than above. Same fix.
Print scorches or yellows. Over-cured. Drop dryer temp or speed up the belt. Whites yellow first; that’s the early warning.
White looks gray on a black shirt. Underbase is too thin, mesh count too high, or off-contact is off. Drop to a 110 or 86 mesh and print-flash-print.
Dye migration (white print turns pink on red shirt). Wrong ink for the fabric. Switch to a bleed-resistant or low-cure formula on blends and poly.
Ink builds up on screen, prints get fuzzy. Off-contact too low, squeegee angle wrong, or ink viscosity too thick. Add 1–3% curable reducer and clean the screen.
Fish-eyes or pinholes in the print. Contamination on the screen or shirt. Clean the screen, check for silicone or fabric softener residue on the garments.
Where to buy plastisol ink near you
When you search “plastisol ink near me,” you’re balancing two things: speed of delivery and quality of the ink. A local screen-print supply shop can hand you a gallon today, which is great when you’re out of white at 2 PM. But the selection is usually whatever they stock for everybody, not what’s right for your job.
Total Ink Solutions ships from New Jersey. Most orders placed before 2 PM Eastern go out the same day. Anywhere in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, or Midwest, you’ll see ink in 1–3 business days. We stock our own plastisol line plus authorized brands across the supply chain, so you can order ink, screens, emulsion, and finishing supplies in one shot.
A few practical notes on ordering:
- Buy by the gallon if you run the color regularly. Quarts are fine for sample work and small runs. Gallon and 5-gallon pricing brings cost per shirt way down.
- Order ahead of seasonal pushes. Holiday and back-to-school crunches stretch every supplier. Buy your white in October if you print holiday work.
- Don’t mix old and new gallons of the same color without a quick swatch test. Pigment lots can shift slightly, especially in process colors.
Frequently asked questions
Is Speedball ink plastisol?
Speedball makes both water-based and plastisol screen printing inks. Their water-based line is the one most hobbyists know. Speedball does sell a plastisol line, but it’s positioned for entry-level users, not production shops. For commercial work, you want production-grade plastisol from a screen-print supplier.
What is the difference between plastisol and water-based ink?
Plastisol is a PVC suspension that sits on top of the fabric and cures with heat at 320°F. Water-based ink uses water as its carrier, dyes the fabric fibers, and either air-dries or cures with heat depending on the formula. Plastisol has a noticeable hand; water-based feels like part of the shirt.
How long does plastisol ink last on a shirt?
A properly cured plastisol print lasts the life of the shirt. We’ve seen Total Ink Solutions plastisol prints hold up through 80+ wash cycles in customer testing without cracking or fading. Under-cured prints can fail in 5–10 washes, which is why cure verification matters more than ink brand.
What temperature does plastisol ink cure at?
Standard plastisol cures at 320°F (160°C). Low-cure plastisols like our Extreme line cure at 270°F (132°C). The entire ink film has to reach cure temperature, not just the surface. A laser temp gun is the fastest way to verify.
Can I cure plastisol with a heat press?
Yes. Set the press to 320°F (or 270°F for low-cure ink), cover the print with parchment or PTFE sheeting, and hover-press for 30–40 seconds. Verify cure temp on the ink surface with a laser temp gun. Heat presses work fine for shops without a conveyor dryer.
How long does plastisol ink last in the bucket?
Sealed and stored at room temperature, plastisol lasts 1+ year. Many shops use ink that’s been on the shelf for 2–3 years with no issues. Stir before use; pigments settle over time. Keep the lid sealed to prevent skinning.
What mesh count should I use for plastisol ink?
156 mesh is the workhorse for spot colors. 86–110 for white underbase on dark fabric. 230 for halftones. 305 for fine detail and four-color process. Coarser mesh lets more ink through (more opacity, heavier hand); finer mesh prints more detail with less ink.
What’s the best white plastisol ink for 50/50 blends?
Our Bleed Resistant 5-Star Bright White CQ is built for blends. It blocks dye migration from polyester fibers and prints opaque on a 110–156 mesh. For poly-heavy blends and 100% poly, the Extreme 270° Low Cure White is the better pick because the lower cure temp reduces dye gassing.
Can plastisol ink be used for screen print transfers?
Yes. Plastisol transfers are printed on release paper, dusted with hot-split or cold-peel powder, and gelled (not fully cured) at the paper stage. The shirt application then completes the cure. Standard plastisol inks work; specialty transfer plastisols give cleaner releases.
What’s the difference between Wilflex, Union, Rutland, and Total Ink Solutions plastisol?
Wilflex, Union, and Rutland are the three largest legacy plastisol manufacturers in the US. All three make excellent ink. Total Ink Solutions makes our own plastisol line that competes on quality and beats them on price and lead time because we cut out the distributor markup. We ship our own ink directly from our New Jersey facility.
Does Ecotex make plastisol ink?
Ecotex is primarily known for screens, squeegees, and accessories rather than plastisol. If you’ve seen “Ecotex plastisol” in a search, it’s likely a small private-label line. For production-grade plastisol, stick with established ink manufacturers.
How much plastisol ink do I need per shirt?
A rough estimate: 1 gallon of plastisol covers 700–1,000 standard adult prints on cotton with a single-color design. Underbase prints, large designs, and blends use more. For costing, figure $0.05–$0.15 per shirt in ink cost on a typical job.
If you’re shopping plastisol and you want a real opinion before you order, send us your fabric content, print size, and quantity. We’ve been mixing this stuff for two decades and can usually pick the right gallon faster than you can read three product pages. Drop us a line through the site and we’ll get you sorted.