Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
I have several spot color designs where one color is simply a lighter shade of another color so I am hoping I can save money by making them halftones.
Here is an example, the pencil is Pantone 136 while the pencil point is 40% Pantone 136. I've already asked one printer who said they cannot do this and it would need to be two different spot colors. Obviously you can screenprint halftones so there must be a way to do this.
I have several spot color designs where one color is simply a lighter shade of another color so I am hoping I can save money by making them halftones.
Here is an example, the pencil is Pantone 136 while the pencil point is 40% Pantone 136. I've already asked one printer who said they cannot do this and it would need to be two different spot colors. Obviously you can screenprint halftones so there must be a way to do this.
Do you screenprint in-house? Doing transfers in house in-house is pretty easy. Getting 100% of the little dots to transfer is kind of a crap shoot and I'll bet transfer printers won't do it because of fear that their product will be returned as imperfect. If you could set up some kind of relationship where you have an understanding with the transfer printer that what you're doing is always a little inconsistent (like discharge, brushed foil, etc.), they'd probably go for it. I might even do it =)
You create prn halftone file from your application program by using postscript printer driver. Ghostscript will print the prn file in halftone using any printer.
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Last edited by Lnfortun; April 15th, 2009 at 11:25 PM.
You create prn halftone file from your application program by using postscript printer dirver. Ghostscript will print the prn file in halftone using any printer.
I know what Ghostscript is used for but I'm not the printer, I don't need to produce positives. I could produce the PRN files myself but I doubt most vendors are going to accept it.
Originally I wasn't sure how to ask the question so I maybe I phrased it poorly... my question comes in two parts:
1) I want to find a transfer vendor who will produce halftoned spot color transfers.
2) I wanted to make sure I'm setting the file up correctly (if) I do find someone.
It doesn't seem that anyone here has experience with halftones in transfers so it looks like I'll just have to keep contacting printers individually.
Right now the halftone part is a 40% pantone which I hoped the RIP software will render as halftones when the printer rips the file. But almost all my experience is squeegee side so I'm not sure.
You can print a color proof through a RIP and this will create halftones on your print. I assume you are not talking screen printed transfers, but inkjet transfers.
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No. I'm going to use a halftone on the sharpened bit of pencil to give the appearance of a different color without actually paying for a different color. This way I can reduce a 6 color image to a 5 color image and save some money. Attached is a crude idea of what I'm talking about although the halftones should end up much smaller. The eye will see some of the shirt color and some of the ink color so it doesn't end up looking like the same color as the main pencil.
Halftones in transfers, possible and how? 
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