What is Discharge Printing?

Discharge ink is a bleaching type of ink that creates a bright, no-feel print on cotton t-shirts.

Discharge printing is a screen printing technique that removes the garment’s dye instead of laying ink on top of it. This method uses a discharge agent, typically activated with heat, to bleach out the fabric’s colour and replace it with a new pigment in the same step. The result is a print that becomes part of the fabric itself, leaving a soft, smooth finish with no raised ink feel.

How It Works

The process starts much like traditional screen printing. A design is burned into a screen, and discharge ink is pushed through it onto the garment. The magic happens during the curing stage.

When heated (usually around 320°F), the discharge agent breaks down the dye in the fabric and deposits the new pigment in its place.

Discharge printing works best on 100% cotton garments particularly those with darker colours.

Not all fabric dyes respond to discharge agents, so the results can vary with blended materials or certain synthetic dyes.

What is the Difference Between Screen Printing and Discharge Printing?

Standard screen printing applies ink on top of the fabric using plastisol or water-based inks. These inks form a visible layer, which can be felt on the surface of the garment, especially when using thick or opaque colours. It’s durable, vibrant, and works well across a range of materials.

Discharge printing, on the other hand, removes the existing dye from the fabric and replaces it with pigment.

The design becomes part of the garment’s actual fibers, leaving no texture or ink buildup. This creates a very soft feel, almost like the print isn’t there at all.

Discharge is best suited for 100% cotton and gives a more vintage or washed-in look.

Why Use Discharge Printing?

Soft Feel

One of the biggest advantages is the feel. Since the dye is replaced rather than covered, the print area feels just like the rest of the shirt—soft and breathable.

This is ideal for designs on fashion tees, music merch, or retail apparel where comfort matters.

For example, many of our customers in the streetwear space choose discharge for tonal prints on heavyweight cotton tees because it delivers the look without compromising feel.

Vintage Look

Discharge printing can give designs a muted, worn-in appearance that works well for retro-style graphics or brand logos that should feel lived-in.

Think faded motorcycle club logos, distressed band names, or collegiate fonts from the 70s. It’s also great for subtle illustrations where you want the print to blend with the garment.

One popular use we’ve seen is monochrome wildlife designs that appear gently ghosted into earth-toned shirts—low contrast but high character.

High Detail

Because there’s no ink buildup, discharge prints can handle fine lines and intricate details better than thick ink prints.

This makes it a strong choice for typography-heavy designs, architectural sketches, or delicate illustrations like line art and botanical drawings.

We’ve printed fine-script band logos and detailed artwork with thin borders and shading that would be hard to replicate with thicker inks.

Great for Fashion Retail

Apparel brands that want premium-feeling prints without the stiffness of plastisol inks often choose discharge printing for their collections. It offers a refined look and soft texture that appeals to fashion-conscious consumers.

Whether it’s a minimalist streetwear brand, boutique label, or eco-focused apparel line, discharge printing adds quality without sacrificing comfort.

Things to Consider

Discharge t-shirt printing can produce some really excellent results; however, there are some risks and some complications that should be considered.  First off, let’s explain exactly what is happening with discharge ink:

Discharge is a chemical that we mix into a water-based carrier (such as water-based ink) that, when heated up, reacts with the dye in the t-shirt, rendering it inert. This “bleaching” effect happens in the conveyor dryer after the ink is applied to the t-shirt and only in the places where ink touches the t-shirt. The result is that the colour of the shirt under the print effectively disappears and the fabric reverts back to the colour of cotton. Since the discharge ink also contains a pigment colour, what appears to happen is that the print goes into the dryer looking dull and sometimes barely visible, but appears to brighten and “pop’ as it heats up.

It is a pretty exciting way to print because the image exits the dryer looking very different than it went in.

We can achieve some pretty great results with discharge printing, the greatest benefit being that ink can be printed very thin on dark garments and therefore has no feel to your hand. However, due to the fact that it is a chemical reaction, there are many variables that need to be considered, so let’s talk about what can go wrong:

Here is the list of things to be aware of when printing discharge ink:

First off, discharge only works on reactive dyes, which in most cases will restrict you to 100% cotton fabrics. Polyester fabrics and tri-blends are not usually dyed with reactive dyes, and so they do not discharge. This isn’t always the case, so read the ‘best decorating options’ at the bottom of each page on the getbold website to know if the t-shirt you are looking at can be discharged. More expensive cotton/poly blends can sometimes be discharged.

Also, certain colours of t-shirts, even when using 100% cotton, can be difficult to discharge.  Be careful with colours such as royal blue, kelly green, or light purple. These tend to only half discharge.

Another thing to keep in mind is that different dye lots can discharge differently. So it is not uncommon for the mediums to look different from the smalls – they will still look good, just different.

Lastly, sometimes things just go wonky.  Once we were discharging a black shirt with orange ink and the ink came out of the dryer a dirty brown – pink. We never did figure out why.  We had to abort the print and switch to a different printing method.

In conclusion, if a no-feel bright colour print is what you are looking for, discharge ink might be your best option, but it’s complicated. 

Here is a great video that Bella/Canvas made, testing multiple fabrics with discharge printing. Give it a watch, it is very informative.

Our Approach at GetBold

At GetBold, we use discharge printing when your design calls for a soft-hand print on dark garments. We test every garment for discharge suitability and use carefully calibrated inks and curing settings to get consistent results.

Whether it’s for a fashion drop or band merch, we’ll help you decide if discharge is the right fit. We recommend you give us a call and discuss with us what t-shirt styles will work best for your project. Together, we can help you make something great!