Screen-printed images are formed by squeezing ink/ colour through a stencil made from an open-weave fabric stretched over a flat screen.

Each colour requires a separate screen stencil and is printed individually. The technique was traditionally a hand-printing process, but some elements of it have been mechanised. Rotary screen-printing uses rollers made from metal mesh rather than a flat-bed screen, and several colours can be printed at the same time as the paper passes through the machine. This process has been successfully used to replicate the appearance of hand-blocked wallpapers