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chamilto · January 25th, 2009

I am starting a clothing line and while most of our clothes we can screen print I have a n image I think would really do well but it is a photograph and i was wondering what would be the best method for getting that on a shirt?

Thanks for your help....

mstonge · January 26th, 2009

You are going to want to make it a four colour image using halftones . i have a blog post on the topic. Hope it helps.

CMYK for Photorealistic Screen Printing at Print Cut Sew!

A Full Size Guide to Printing Halftones. at Print Cut Sew!

Michelle

Teeser · January 26th, 2009

Direct to garment printing is another option.

EastBayScreen · January 26th, 2009

Depends on the quantity and color of the garment.

Low quantity, light color - Heat Transfer or DTG.
Low quantity, dark color - DTG (though I'm skeptical)
High quantity, light color - Screen Printing CMYK
High quantity, dark color - Screen Printing CMYK on underbase, or Sim-Process (depends on the image)

THX1138 · January 26th, 2009

If it is on a poly shirt then dyesub is great. otherwise screen print 4 color process or dtg.

scuba_steve2699 · January 26th, 2009

My vote would be for Versacamm

hotwheels · January 27th, 2009

No matter if its a dark or light shirt, a heat transfer will do the job if you just want to print a couple and see how they go

edzts · January 27th, 2009

try this site for an inexpensive way to see if you would like to sample a few designs.CafePress: Funny t-shirts, unique gifts, and custom t-shirts

CoopersDesignCo · January 27th, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by chamilto


	I am starting a clothing line and while most of our clothes we can screen print I have a n image I think would really do well but it is a photograph and i was wondering what would be the best method for getting that on a shirt? Thanks for your help....

Welcome to the forums from a fellow Hoosier!

Why not go with an inexpensive alternative by making the photograph a 1 color haltone image? You can still get the details of the photgraph, if you change it to a grayscale image.

(Photoshop CS3)
1.) Take your color photograph and change it to grayscale mode: Image -> Mode -> Grayscale

2.) Adjust your contrast and brightness if you wish. You can play around with this until you get the desired results: Image -> Adjustments -> Brightness/Contrast

3.) After you've created your desired contrast grayscale image, you'll need to convert it to a bitmap image: Image -> Mode -> Bitmap
4.) A dialog box will appear with 2 sections: Resolution set to 180-220, and then drop the box down to the right of that to "pixels/in"
Method should be set to "Halftone"

5.) Click OK.
6.) A second dialog box will appear with your Halftone information.
Frequency: How large your dot size in your halftone is. The smaller the number, the larger the dot.
Angle: This will be the angle that your dots will flow throughout your artwork. Since you'll be burning on a screen with 90 degree angles, you'll want something that doesn't sit directly on the line of directly offline, such as 61 degrees.
Shape: This is the shape of your halftone. The best shape so far in my opinion is Round, but there are many that also prefer "Ellipse" or "Oval".

6.) Hit Ok.
7.) You now have a bitmap image. You can print this image onto vellum as is, and in turn burn it to a screen, and print any color of ink that you need. Obviously, the more contrasty the ink to shirt color ration, the better. Also, if you are going to print on a dark shirt, you'll want to invert the image, so that when you use a light colored ink, it won't look like a negative.

Hope this helps!

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