Rotary screen printing is the workhorse process for mass-market printed textiles — apparel, home goods, upholstery, bedding. It has the most specific technical requirements of any textile process because the physical cylinder imposes constraints that digital and flat screen don't. This checklist covers every file-level requirement for successful rotary submission.
Critical: Match the Screen Circumference
The vertical dimension of your repeat must exactly match the printer's rotary screen circumference. Common sizes:
- 64cm (25.2"): most common for apparel and dress fabrics
- 91cm (36"): larger repeats, home textile, upholstery
- 102cm (40"): large-scale patterns, bedding
If your design is 63.5cm or 64.5cm, the printer must either scale it (introducing distortion) or reject the file. Always confirm the exact screen circumference with the printer before starting design work. Design to their cylinder; don't expect them to match your repeat.
File Resolution
Rotary screens burn artwork into a photosensitive mesh at 40–150 LPI. For clean halftone reproduction without moiré, file resolution should be 3× the LPI:
- 40 LPI → 120 DPI minimum
- 65 LPI → 195 DPI minimum
- 120 LPI (typical) → 360 DPI
- 150 LPI (fine) → 450 DPI
At 360 DPI, a 64cm × 140cm rotary tile is 9,071 × 19,843 pixels. Plan file size accordingly.
Color Count and Cost
Each color in the design requires its own rotary cylinder. Practical limits:
- 1–3 colors: cheap, fast setup, common for basic prints
- 4–6 colors: sweet spot for commercial quality, balanced cost
- 7–9 colors: high-end apparel, bedding, complex patterns
- 10+: luxury, specialty, rarely cost-effective below 500m runs
Per-color costs:
- Screen preparation: $50–150 per screen
- Ink mixing and calibration: $30–80 per color
- Registration setup: $20–60 per color
For a 6-color run: $600–$1,700 in setup before the first production meter. Amortize across run length when quoting.
Registration Tolerance
Modern rotary presses achieve ±0.2mm registration with skilled operators. For designs with multi-color overlap:
- No-overlap designs: no trap needed, clean separations
- Edge-abutting designs: 0.3mm trap (intentional overlap) prevents white gaps from registration drift
- Heavy overlap designs: 0.5mm trap for safety margin
Design the trap/choke into your color separations before sending to the printer. Don't rely on the RIP or the printer to add traps — it should be your design decision.
Bleed Requirements
Two bleed dimensions:
- Cross-direction (horizontal): 3–5mm standard, extending design past the printable width
- Screen direction (vertical): the repeat itself IS the bleed — the design wraps around the cylinder, so the top of the repeat must match the bottom exactly. If they don't, you have a visible horizontal line every cylinder revolution.
Verify vertical seam continuity at the top-bottom boundary before submission. This is the most common rotary failure mode.
Color Separation Preparation
For multi-color rotary, prepare separated files:
- One file per color, named clearly (Design-Name_C1_Magenta.tiff, etc.)
- Each file is grayscale where black = full ink, white = no ink
- All files share the same dimensions and registration alignment
- Include a combined preview as a reference (CMYK composite, color-coded by channel)
Some rotary printers accept a combined CMYK file and separate themselves; others require pre-separated files. Confirm their workflow.
File Format
Standard for rotary:
- TIFF (flattened, LZW, 8-bit or 16-bit): universal
- PSD: acceptable for Adobe-native shops
- PDF: vector work only
Avoid PNG, JPG, and layered TIFFs for rotary submission. The RIP software varies and layer handling is inconsistent.
Halftone vs Spot Colors
Rotary handles both:
- Halftone (process): gradients, photographic effects, soft transitions. Subject to moiré issues if file resolution is wrong.
- Spot colors (flat): solid color blocks, crisp edges, no halftone dot pattern. Cleaner at the cost of flexibility.
Most commercial rotary work mixes spot colors for solid areas and halftone for gradient or blended regions. Each approach has separate file-prep requirements; confirm with the printer which your specific design needs.
Strike-Off Required
For any new rotary design, always require a strike-off — a test print on the production fabric at production settings. Check:
- Color match (Delta E measured, not eyeballed)
- Registration accuracy
- Vertical seam continuity
- Ink hand (soft, stiff, bleeding?)
- Wash and rub fastness
Never skip strike-off for a first-run rotary job. A $200 strike-off catches $10,000+ of production correction.
The Submission Checklist
- ✓ Repeat dimensions match screen circumference exactly
- ✓ Resolution is 360 DPI (or process-appropriate)
- ✓ Color count confirmed with printer, separations prepared
- ✓ Registration tolerance designed in (trap/choke where needed)
- ✓ Vertical seam continuity verified (the wrap is seamless)
- ✓ Cross-direction bleed added (3–5mm)
- ✓ File format is TIFF with embedded ICC profile
- ✓ Spot vs halftone decisions documented per color
- ✓ Strike-off scheduled before production run
Related Reading
For the broader color separation process: color separation for screen printing. For moiré prevention in halftone areas: moiré in textile printing. For the complete artwork prep framework: textile artwork preparation guide.
