question #1. i had a company print me up a few transparencies to have some screens burnt. one of the designs that i plan on printing consist of halftones. the guy told me that he printed the transparencies with 65LPI. im trying to figure out what would be the best size mesh to use for this number LPI. the guy had burnt the screen for me on a 300 mesh screen and after taking it to my printer, it wasnt cutting it. so does any one know what would be the ideal mesh size for 65lpi.
question #2. i also had a screen made for another design of mine. the design it self is very simple a good comparison would be like the mcdonalds M. the guy printed it on a 110 mesh screen. is a 110 a good mesh size for a simple, thick, logo or will it be letting too much ink through?
Well the general rule about line count is the mesh count should be 3 to 4 times the line count. So the mesh should be anywhere between 195-260. 300 is a little bit over kill if it was me but it is ok. It shouldn't affect the printability. If I was you because of dot gain I would really look at doing it as 52LPI (or whatever it works out to be, 57, 55). You will get a better chance of getting the print to look good. Also what do you mean not cutting it? Was it to heavy or to light? Do the person you get your transparencies from know about dot gain and how to seperate the files for screen printing?
Question #2. For your common spot color prints on whites 110 mesh is your workhorse. That is the most common used. It won't let a lot of ink through. That is depending on the printer. If they put to much pressure down on the screen and have a real low angle, yes it will put down to much ink. You can also print black shirts with this mesh but you might have to flash it and print again. For dark shirts I would say use a 74-86 mesh. That works great for me. I hope this helps you with your questions.
I almost always stick with 156/230 mesh screens. The only time I use anything above that is for process printing. Anything below that would be for glitters and metalics.
A 230 will hold 65lpi with no problem and it is not too hard to print through with regular plastisol. A 156 works well for underbase, it puts just enough ink on the shirt as not to be thick and bullet-proof.
The mesh counts in the post above works well also. So you'll need to try them and choose which one works best for you.
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for manual printing there is no need to print @ 65 line screen. 45-55 lpi is quite acceptable and the industry standard. Automatic printing generally will go up to 65 yet is still a little over kill
I must agree with Richard.
45-55 lines is plenty of half-tones. The only time you should need 65 lines and above is when you do process printing. Even 40 lines for most one color manual prints looks better than trying more line count. Those line counts can be printed with a 156 screen easily no matter what color you use. A 110 will lose emulsion between dots and a 230 will be too fine to let the ink, "like white ink" push through.
Good luck.
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Work Harder, not Smarter...no, that's not it...Work Harder and Smarter...no...Work Hardly Smarter...NO!...DangIt! Just get to work!
the right mesh size? 
