Get help with creating your t-shirt graphics. Discuss t-shirt design software, special effect techniques, or other topics related to creating a t-shirt design on your computer.
I have used Corel X3 to print my film positives but now I need to print a white underbase so I can do the design on a dark shirt. I've read about it in Corel Unleashed but I don't understand using the boundary and contour functions it mentioned.
I haven't been using Corel for very long, can someone tell me the steps I need to do to get it to work. Thanks in advance.
Try this select contour from tool box on left side. You can drag to size the contour, this makes a mess a lot of times. Look at the top tool bar, it will have settings you can change as to the number and color of the contour, set for 1 offset of zero or near zero. Go to arrange, I think don't have the program in front of me. Select seperate contour. Now you can select a fill and outline for the contour object. This will have to be a vector object to work and get the lines.
Duplicate your page. On the duplicate, select all objects. Click on the boundary tool. Open the Objects docker (you should already have this open and be using it in all your work). You now have a new shape at the top of the list of objects. Delete all other objects on the page. It will be easier to do this by clicking on the objects in the Object docker rather than trying to select them on the page itself since the objects you want to delete will be under the newly created top shape.
You now have the underbase except for one thing. The underbase is the exact size as the graphic you will be printing on top of the underbase. You want to 'choke' (make smaller)the unerbase so that it is slightly smaller than the top colors so that the white doesn't peek out from under the top colors due to misregistration of the top colors in relation to the underbase. How much to choke it depends on a few things; how tight your press is, how tight your screens are and how well you can accurately register all of your screens. Anyway there are two ways you can choke the underbase. One is the Contour Tool. With the Contour Tool, click on the object and on the Property Bar slect the 'Inside' icon and then select 1 Step and select the amount you want to choke the underbase.
In the Object docker you now have an object and a Contour Group. Right click on the Contour Group and select Break Contour Group apart. Now select the outer object and delete it . You're left with your choked underbase.
Another way to do this is to everything the same up until the point where you create a Contour. You can choke using a significantly wide outline, convert the outline to an object then delete the ouline. Two caveats using the outline method. The outline is half inside and half outside of an object. So if you give an object a 4 point outline, convert the outline to an object, then delete the outline, you've only choked the object by 2 points. The other warning is that complicated objects and sharp corners often do not behave the way you'd want using the outline method.
You're better off learning the Contour Tool method since your familiararity with this tool will aid you in other aspects of creating artwork.
I have used Corel X3 to print my film positives but now I need to print a white underbase so I can do the design on a dark shirt. I've read about it in Corel Unleashed but I don't understand using the boundary and contour functions it mentioned.
I haven't been using Corel for very long, can someone tell me the steps I need to do to get it to work. Thanks in advance.
I am trying to figure out how the contour tool works. I am trying to print a red and white design on a dark shirt. The white is most of the design but I need to print white under the part of the design that will be red. I was thinking I would print the entire design on one film and then figure out how to make the red film items a little larger so the white doesn't show through. I tried using the contour tool to make it larger but when I printed the film it printed in halftones even though I used a 100% pantone color. When I used contour it put a different color on top of the red and I left it but that's what printed the halftones. Could you tell me step by step how to do the red film? That would help me so much. Thanks
I think that the contour tool automatically gave the larger shape a cmyk color. Try breaking the Contour Group apart and select the larger shape and give it a pantone color. Seems you did everything right, you just need to get rid of the cmyk color. After you break the Contour Group apart, when you click on one of the shapes, look at the lower right of your screen at the Object Properties; you'll be able to see what color is assigned to the object.
Don't confuse a tone that's printed out on a film to be a halftone. To print a halftone you need a postscript printer or a RIP. Then, when you do print a halftone you will see an orderly pattern of distinct dots that are as black as the solid areas printed.- Scotty
I will go back and see if the larger shape has a cmyk color. I do have a rip printer and I know the original color was a 100% pantone but I don't know about the larger shape. If I'm printing red on top of white do you think I need to make the red a little larger? That's what I'm trying to do but I have never printed a white base with a color on top before. Would it work if I made them the same size?
Thanks for your help.
Although 'spreading' a top color will work, to avoid some problems it may create, it's better too choke the underbase. Expanding the red top color may result in loss of detail (if there is any). It may also have an effect on any other areas of a different color that the red area butts with.
It is possible to make the underbase and the top color the same size but, unless your setup is very tight, you are going to drive yourself to frustration trying to get it precisely lined up. Even after you may be able to accomplish that, other iconsistencies while printing may result in the misalignment of colors.
Do you understand that the underbase must be flashed before any top colors can be printed?
Hi Scotty,
Yes I know I'm suppose to flash it but thanks for reminding me. I actually flash all my shirts before I take them off the palette to put in the dryer just to make sure I don't get ink on other parts of the shirt. It slows down the process but it's worth it not to get ink everywhere.
I thought that having them the same size was probably going to make it hard to line up. To me that's the most frustrating part of the whole process. I have micros on my press
but it's still a pain to line up. I really do appreciate all your help and the training video from advanced artist is great. I'm a Photoshop user but I guess I need to learn Paint too.
They are probably very similar. Thanks for everyones advice.
Printing a white underbase using Corel 
