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diane143 · March 7th, 2007

I am doing my first job with halftones. I used 50% when I created them in Illustrator. (of course they looked great on my screen!

) They are plastisol transfers from Ace.

I feel the actual product though is a bit dark. I don't know if reducing the percentage will help? Or will that only increase the white space between the dots?

I was surprised that the halftone was comprised of such large dots. Is this something that can be specified when ordering halftones?

I also have a fair number of transfers that had missing dots! I have pressed a few of them and they are pretty obvious to me, so I am pulling the "bad" ones aside as I find them. Are the missing dots also par for the course?

I need to figure this out as I am doing more of the same logo, but in a smaller pocket logo vs the chest logo I am working on now. I'm afraid the setup I got will be too dark for a 4.5 x 4.5 " logo

Thanks,

Diane

Greg Hamrick · March 7th, 2007

The missing dots are not par for the course. Reducing or increasing the LPI on the seperations should take care of the dark appearance. Depends on the artwork itself. Can you post a pic? That would help.

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Twinge · March 12th, 2007

If transfers are messed up (missing dots, etc.), ask for replacements for any of the faulty transfers. I would assume Ace will be willing to replace them when it was their error (or got messed up in shipping). That's the one good thing I can say about Silver Mountain - when we were using them, they replaced transfers that had rubbed together/lost portions in shipping without any questions.

diane143 · March 12th, 2007

I'm sure they will, I have to call them still.

I'm wondering what percentage is usually used to create a halftone. I double checked and I used 40% and it still seems too dark.

I'll try to post a pic tonight. Otherwise the order did pretty well!

Fluid · March 12th, 2007

Its not just the percentage its the dot size.
50% at a 25dpi/lpi will look dif that 50% @75dpi/lpi

diane143 · March 12th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fluid


	Its not just the percentage its the dot size. 50% at a 25dpi/lpi will look dif that 50% @75dpi/lpi

Here's the pic. Will the trans companies do different lpi's if you ask? They never gave me a choice and I didn't know enough to ask.

Thanks!

<edit - hard to see the dots with the size restriction, drop me a line if you want a higher res pic>

Fluid · March 13th, 2007

As far as dif dot size requests I have no clue. you will need to contact the transfer company. You might need to specify the dots in your art. If you use corel, create the art in PMS spot colors and apply the dot size and patterns in Corel before sending them the cdr file (if tey take a cdr file)

Honestly I would think (limited transfer knowledge) you would need a dot size of around 20-30 in order to get a good transfer. This will change the overall look of the art big time. Remember t-shirts are dif than paper. If you pritn a tone image to paper your seeing the dots at the default printer settings (most likely) and youll never get the same look on a shirt.

Might need to print 2 colors. one for the main and a lighter for the areas that normally would be halftones.

Attached is a fast example. Check with the transfer company. Might just have been lack of communication.

diane143 · March 13th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fluid


	Attached is a fast example. Check with the transfer company. Might just have been lack of communication.

Thanks Richard. 2 color would have been perfect. Your images are about what I had, the left was the transfer and the right was what I had sent them.

I'll see if they offer options. I'm worried how it will look on a small pocket logo that's all.

Client called today and was THRILLED with the shirts I sent over last week. <whew!>