Since the human has been aware of Screen Printing as a printing technique and understood its techniques and tools, different application for such a technique has been evolving continuously. The first application, according to historians, is accredited to the cave man who used his hands as stencils to paint different shapes using the available tools at his environment. No one for sure knows the reason for these paintings as some presume they are for mere decorations while others suggest they are for some religious ceremonies.
A variant of this technique was used in ancient china for book printing. It used wooden blocks that have the letters shape and some decorative patterns. Such technique of printing facilitated the process of producing books in great numbers, as it was much faster and easier than the common used way of copying the books by hand, which consumed a lot of effort and time.
Another variant, where stencils of different materials and shapes were employed, was used for religious purposes. Religious images were printed in large numbers to be distributed over those who believe in that religion. Another application for the same variant was for decorating walls or other materials where different patterns were used repetitively to produce the required design.
And with the continuous development of Screen Printing, which was known first as silk screen, and its existence in a form that is close to its current form, new application started to evolve. This technique was used for printing textiles. It was mainly used for printing different colorful patterns over textiles which were used for the purpose of decoration.
During the First World War, this technique was used massively for the production of banners and flags which were requested in large numbers. And then Screen Printing was used for the production of expensive wall papers. But different artists noticed the different capabilities this technique has such as its repeatability and its capability of reproducing their designs. And they started to employ it in their expressive visual works.
And with the flourishing of the commercial advertising and the awareness of its importance, different advertising companies resorted to this technique for the production of advertisements. Their choice was as a result of the easiness of employing this technique for mass produced or repeated advertisements and its low cost. It was first used by chain shops to produce their banners and wall advertisements. And then, it was employed for the printing of different ads over buses, labels and CD covers. And by the continuous development, it was found that this technique can be used to print a multitude of materials no matter what size or shape they have. This encouraged different industries to make use of it such as textile, clothing, packaging and electronic industries.
And with a quick look around, many products that employ this technique can be found. Ads, wall papers, t-shirts, bags, caps and other different decorative items include prints that are screen printed.
