Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
I received a call from aprospective customer wanting this a logo on the back of a shirt with also a left chest print with the text of the organization. He is wanting it screen printed but I am not set up to do process colors. I should also add I am a newbie to both screen printing and heat transfers. I have only heat pressed on white shirts so far with JPSS. The image will need a lot of work since it is only 2" when opened in Photoshop (which I am also a newbie in). Before seeing the file I agreed to do it pretty cheap along with some free advertising in his newsletter. Do I turn it down, sub it out. Do I heat press the back (I can only do 81/2x11) and screen print the left chest. Advice will be appreciated.
Jon http://www.t-shirtforums.com/attachm...ip-program.jpg
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Last edited by JesusFreak; March 28th, 2008 at 11:08 AM.
Reason: forgot image
Hmm, i'd suppose subbing it out (to a screen printer) is not an option (i'm assuming it may be too cheaply priced for process color printing as you indicated).
I would explain to him/her that i did not know what type of image the logo was. Give him/her a brief overview of the differences between process color screen printing and spot color screen printing and let him/her know that either the price has to be renegotiated or you can heat press it (at your limited size) for the price you initially agreed to.
sub it out and take the lose you have just learned and you will have ups and downs with T-shirts if you dont then you lose and when people find out you turned it down or was going to charge more YOU WILL NOT GET ANY MORE BUSINESS! WE ALL HAVE DONE THIS. just learn from it
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Check out digi prints at Transfer Express -- this might be the way to go.
Once you know how much that will cost you, then you can decide if you want to a. do the job at the quoted price, b. renegotiate the price, or c. turn the job down all together.
Just a piece of advice. If you do go ahead with the job at the quoted price, (or if you decide to renegotiate price) let the customer know that you were unaware of the type of graphic it was when you quoted the job, and that this type of graphic is not suitable for silk screening. Tell them that you are going ahead with the quoted price but, future orders will have to be re-priced. Write you invoice up at the price it should be, and put a line item discount in to make the total = to the quoted price.
We've all had stuff like this happen in the beginning. That's how we all learned to say "I need to see the grahpic before I can quote a price". Also, don't be afraid to tell someone that you'll have to get back to them with a price. I realize that some people want it this minute but believe me, they aren't going to go somewhere else in the day it takes you to get back to them (mostly because everybody else is going to take their time bidding).
If the attachment was the logo, then it is going to need a LOT of work. Especially if you need to blow that up for the back. In fact, you would have to recreate it for the back. How many does he need? Is it printing on white or a colored shirt? Have you quoted a set price?
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I gave him a price of $6 per shirt (white) in addition to he would give me a free advertisement in a local newsletter they hand out 4 times this spring/summer at local crowded events. He wants 15 of them. For this job I knew or thought I would make just a few bucks but some free advertising is just what I need right now. I'm having bit of trouble getting my name out there. I want things to happen faster than they are. To be truthful I have yet to sell a job but I sure have done a lot of freebies, mainly for my homeless ministry, friends, and my own business shirts. I am not sure I have yet the Photoshop skills to recreate this image. I can do some minor cleaning up but haven't anything major yet.
Jon
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Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all for the glory of God. http://www.misfitsforjesus.com
For that low of a quantity, cost and on white, I would probably do regular inkjet heat transfers. You still are going to run into a problem with that image. I will say that transfers are a little forgiving when it comes to quality, but that image would probably print best at a postage stamp size.
Screen printing would be way out of the question with costs. The only thing close is Freedom Transfers - http://www.transferfreedom.com/. They are plastisol transfers that use process, but the you would be in the hole after you were done.
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If you want to go heat transfer, don't call it that to the customer. Call them Digital Transfers, or something like that.
I know you said the customer was asking for screen printing, but are they aware you might go "digital transfer"? There is a difference in product there. Will the customer be just dandy with the switch? If they are expecting screen printing, they may not be happy with the JPSS.
Resizing: Have you tested the image to see if it pixilates at the size you need? I have seen on CNET.com, free or free to try software that re-sizes images. I keep wondering if that will help you.
You know, even if you went plastisol, 15 shirts is not alot, and you will have some of your costs covered by the $6 per shirt. If you have a loss, which maybe you will not, you could consider any loss "paid advertising" as well as that good lesson learned everyone keeps mentioning. This could have been a 50 shirt order, so it is not as bad as it may have been.
The best thing to do is to deliver a quality product, inline with the quality you and the customer discussed in the meeting, no cutting corners. From a first order, there is usually a second, but not if the product is less than what was discussed and expected. Please be careful. Make sure the customer sees a sample of JPSS before switching. If your customer approves, you will be fine as long as you can resize the image. Word of mouth is a powerful thing, that is why you took the job, so follow through with that quality product is my advice. Win the war, not the battle.
Oh no, I just lost a post I was just about done with. I'll speed thru:
Dear Jon, I got your email, but would like to answer in the thread in case this helps and someone else needs the info down the line. Hope that's okay w/you.
I asked some friends today what they use to resize. One said genuine fractal 5, and the other said photo zoom. I'm guessing both are for purchase, but maybe you can download a trial of one of them to get you through this situation. The photo zoom user said she takes pics up to four feet. Sounds good right?
I went back to cnet.com last night and tonight. I was looking for something else when I saw the re-sizer software and the name didn't stick. If you go to downloads at cnet.com, look for freeware. You can sort by free, or free to try. I believe it was in the free. I have a few links from there for you that I'll pop in here to help get you started. I haven't used either one of these, but they resize and are downloaded alot. I am really hoping one of our graphic friends will check it out if you aren't sure either. If you have luck with one, will you let me know? Thanks. Here are some resizing links, hope they help.
You still are going to run into a problem with that image. I will say that transfers are a little forgiving when it comes to quality, but that image would probably print best at a postage stamp size.
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I am not sure what I am missing, but I opened the image in Corel and made it a 12x14 image size and it looks fine except for the one line on the right that I would have to get rid of. But I could print that with the Brother and it would look just fine.
Let me know if you want it done.
Jon it was nice to talk to you on the phone.
I imported it in coreldraw and expanded it slightly smaller than you did and printed it on my printer and it is pretty distorted. It lost a lot of detail in the wings where it became quite blurry. It opens only 2" wide and as expected when multiplied 6x its size I got these same results. I can't go to a customer with his logo so distorted without the crisp detail (or close to the original). I will find out from him Monday if he can get a larger image to scan.
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Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all for the glory of God. http://www.misfitsforjesus.com
I imported it in coreldraw and expanded it slightly smaller than you did and printed it on my printer and it is pretty distorted. It lost a lot of detail in the wings where it became quite blurry. It opens only 2" wide and as expected when multiplied 6x its size I got these same results. I can't go to a customer with his logo so distorted without the crisp detail (or close to the original). I will find out from him Monday if he can get a larger image to scan.
I am not sure what I am doing differently but it looks fine on my computer. Like I said if interested I can print you a shirt and send it to you. We have worked with much worse, like a gator for the football game against osu year before last and we sold so many of them and I did nothing to the image other than print it on the shirt. I had people that came back even after the Bucks lost and wanted more of them printed (don't know why)
What would you do??? 
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