Hi Folks,
First let me say this place is a godsend of information for someone who wants to get into the t-shirt biz. I hope I have chosen the right place to post this. I have been following these threads for sometime now, but don't do much posting, as I'm just trying to research on my own. I have decided I need to post a question and get some feed back on the best printing process for my style of design. Mainly all designs are for dark shirts (hence the reason they are all on black background), but some will be for white. All have textures and gradients and color. Most all designs are for the Salsa community. Quantities will be from 1-500 per design. Most are created in PS CS4, some in Illustrator CS4, in CMYK at 300 dpi. I want them to have a soft hand and hold the colors. I have had some white shirts printed DTG and love them. I realize from your forum that there are many difficulties printing DTG to black, but that is where I'm leaning. I have no equipment yet, or a web-site, but am trying to figure my best route. I have been in paper printing for 15 yrs and am now dedicated to do design work for T-shirts as I find much joy from this process. Now I just need to know how to get them out to the world at large. I would appreciate any feed back I could get.
Thank you
Raye
Can you explain this process, as I have been told by a local screen printer that printing my style is not possible without great expense.
thx
r
Index Printing Process in some way similar to Simulated Process, but differ from CMYK process.
Index Process is done by defining as much as many color to result an excellent print. It is consisted of dots with same sizes (difused dither).
In simulated, as I mentioned is similar with index process, only the design is made up of halftones or circle dots for each defined colors, tones that are defined from various sizes.
For mass production you will defiantly want to go with silk screening and those designs you posted call for Index and simulated process printing.
The prices may sound expensive do to the initial costs involved (separation, films, screens and setup charges) but those costs get broken down into the quantity of garments you're printing per design. So the more units you print the cheaper it is.
Just wanting to broaden my apparel printing capilibilities from the basic one to 3 color jobs. Does anyone do simulated process on a manual 6 color? Is it possible? I want to create more high end apparel. I already have several jobs to do that way If I knew how to get it done.
yes it's very possible. I only had a 6 color manual in my shop and was able to do 4c process, simulated process and index printing. It' takes skill on the press and good prep work and can be time consuming but it is possible.
Best Process for Printing These 
