Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
Based on what I've read here, I'm assuming it'd be no problem to do this image in Plastisol. But can it be done in one color? I.E. the white is the shirt color, the black is the ink color at 100% opacity and the grays are the same ink color at varying levels of opacity. Hope that makes sense. Thanks.
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Based on what I've read here, I'm assuming it'd be no problem to do this image in Plastisol. But can it be done in one color? I.E. the white is the shirt color, the black is the ink color at 100% opacity and the grays are the same ink color at varying levels of opacity. Hope that makes sense. Thanks.
The printer is going to say that's a 3-color design: black, dark grey, light grey.
Okay, that was what I was wondering. Didn't know if it could be one color ink vs. three, with the "grays" just being the ink color with less dense coverage so the shirt color comes through more to give it shading. Thanks.
__________________ TRUcotton- If the truth fits, wear it
I may have spoke too soon. I'm just going on what I learned when I was getting my transfers done. I asked all sorts of questions and one was pretty close to the subject of this thread.
Looking at that image, I don't see a problem. The printer is going to say that's a 3-color design: black, dark grey, light grey.
I think it'll look great.
I'm wondering about this on some of our designs as well.
A printer wouldn't allow some kind of halftone of the black or whatever rather than charging it as an additional color? (assuming he didn't need the 100% opacity)
It wouldn't look exactly as the JPG as a one color image with the grays halftoned, but it would work, and it would look fine.
If you wanted it to be more exact, it would be like Phil mentioned (3 colors).
Ahh good. I replied too quick (didn't read the rest of the replies)....
Yeah, I would say if you want to get it done cheaper VIA 1 color, then be sure to get them to give you a PROOF of the image. Or depending on how many you plan to print for the production run -- do a small minimum order first to see how they'll look.
Anyway... with 100% opacity on the design above, I think that would definitely be 3 colors.
That would be ok as a halftone IF you're putting it on white or light shirts. In my opinion though, halftones just don't look as pro to me as actually using 3 colors.
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Thanks all. I didn't plan on it looking just like the JPG. That's just how the vector ended up after playing with the pic in Photoshop and tracing it in Illustrator. My plan was a light blue shirt with the black in the image being navy and the grays being intermediate shades of blue. So based on what I've heard here, I can do that with halftones.
But I'll probably play around with the colors in Illustrator to get a rough idea of how the two options would look. And also try it with two colors, white and navy. With a light blue shirt, plus the white and navy with halftones, I'll probably be able to get something cooler than just halftones. Thanks.
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Last edited by chris24net; July 6th, 2006 at 11:23 AM.
Again...I dont have all the facts so if someone in the printing world wants to correct me then please do. I think there are different degrees of halftone from really tight to quite open to achieve different effects. To go even a step farther I think there may be also different patterns of halftone for even more interesting effect. I think you were looking for an economical way to achieve a blend with a single color and this I think is the proffessional way to do just that.
This Image in Plastisol? 
