mrlucky2u

Hi all,

I am a complete newbie here but I have been lurking for a while and learning what I can.
Recently my wife and I teamed up with a friend to start a printing comany but we are still learning the ropes.

Currently I am trying to replicate a design for a customer that has a gradient in it. I would like to provide the same product they are used to getting but I am having trouble figuring out how I can print the design so it is exposed correctly on the screens.

I linked a picture to what the final product should look like.

I am using Illustrator currently and I print using color seperation to a PS file then use ghostview to print that PS file.
The image in Illustrator looks exactly like the final product you see in my link.

I have read on this forum about using halftones, and looked through all the tutorials here that I could find on how to accomplish color blends. But it doesn't look like halftones were used for this design. I could be completly wrong.

We are really pressed for time to get these shirts done soon. Any help is extreemly apprecieated. If someone is possibly open to contacting me to help me walk through this processes that would be fantastic.

Thanks!


Final product
http://home.surewest.net/hordy/blend.JPG

 

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MereImage

Your correct in that this is not done with halftones. This is a two color job with one color actually being two colors of ink. We call it a flood technique. The block would be one screen, load the screen with yellow and pink and pull the squeegee. As the ink mixes together they blend and form a third color. Each shirt will be unique. The legs will be the second screen.

 

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mrlucky2u

I thought about that too, but looking at the shirts they did not seam to each be unique, they all looked spot on.

If this is truely done this way that makes my life a lot easier.

Please if anyone else has ideas let me know.

 

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spankthafunk

you would think after a couple of pulls of the squeegee, you'd start getting just the solid color as the inks completely mix together. . .

 

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mrlucky2u

Quote: Originally Posted by spankthafunk you would think after a couple of pulls of the squeegee, you'd start getting just the solid color as the inks completely mix together. . .

Yea, I thought the same thing. I heard when you do this method, it is best to use small amounts of ink and replace the ink after 5 shirts or so.

 

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mrlucky2u

Quote: Originally Posted by ImageIt Probably the most important thing is to look at the washed out screen and the film which made it and make sure all the little dots made it to the screen. I've got some questions which may help figure out where things went wrong. What inks are you using? What LPI? What mesh screen? What sort of printer & transparency are you using. What sort of exposure unit. fred

What inks are you using? - I'm not sure honestly, I am doing this at a friends house and using his equipment.

What LPI? 48.62

What mesh screen? 230

What sort of printer & transparency are you using. Velum paper and Brother 2040 laser printer

What sort of exposure unit. Not sure friends equipment. I know it is very old, probably 20 years old. We are exposing our screens for around 2 minutes.


The mesh nd LPI were suggested by another member who helped me with the artwork and called me to give me some tips.

Any other info you guys have would be great, thanks to all who have chimed in so far.

 

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spankthafunk

You stated you were pressed for time. If you can print gradient halftones, then I would just do that. It might not look exactly the same, but I doubt your client will ever know any difference at all. You could even maybe do a three color gradient halftone of pink, orange, and yellow. I'm not sure if that's possible, but at this point, it might just be the way to go. Or outsource it to a DTG printer.

 

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mrlucky2u

Thanks all!

And as for the DTG, we are in the process of building a few of them now, this will definatly be one of the shirts that we use the DTG printers for.

 

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