Hello Everyone. Just getting started in this business. Got a first run of one of my designs back from the printer yesterday. He screen printed (with a manual press -- pretty tedious getting stuff lined up) using plastisol ink. The finish was not quite what I want. The coverage is good (i.e. none of the shirt color is showing through the ink), but the finish is a bit hard/rough to the touch and slightly raised. I wanted a softer feel and a flatter (matte vs. glossy) finish. These are for women's shirts and I want a softer feel and more vintage (not as color saturated but with good coverage) look to the ink (i.e. blended in more with fabric) for a really soft-feminine look like this: (minus the crystals) http://shopgreenapple.com/images/large/and_cake_004_eat_cake_alt01_lrg.jpg I've been reading through the forum about water based ink vs. plastisol but still need some direction. From what I've read, it sounds like plastisol may be the better option, but how do I get that soft feel/blended in look?
Another issue I noticed with the samples I got back yesterday is that there is ink on the inside of the shirt behind the largest color area of the design. I tried washing a sample to see if it would come out, but I think it's cured in. It does not appear to rub off on anything, but it looks messy. That's a concern since these shirts will be washed inside out which means customers will see that. Any ideas/feedback/comments on all this would be much appreciated. Thanks.
too much pressure when printing which is why you see ink on the inside of the garment. They are pounding the ink into/through the shirt rather than laying it on the shirt.
Higher mesh will help with the hand of the print yet for the most part you will have that feel with plasticols.
Do a forums search for
Cureable reducer
Softhand
Discharge
for more info on softer prints with plasticol inks
too much pressure when printing which is why you see ink on the inside of the garment. They are pounding the ink into/through the shirt rather than laying it on the shirt.
Higher mesh will help with the hand of the print yet for the most part you will have that feel with plasticols.
Do a forums search for
Cureable reducer
Softhand
Discharge
for more info on softer prints with plasticol inks
To add to what Fluid said, the feel of the print will also depend on if you're printing dark colored shirt that require an underbase, how many passes the printer is pulling on each color, and if there are colors laying on top of each other.
From my experience, most printers try to get the best coverage they can which usually means laying down a pretty heavy layer of ink. To get that vintage, washed look, you could tell your printer to lay down the ink lightly and explain to him the look you're going for. A better alternative is to actually adjust your artwork to look distressed so that the control of ink is handled by the art, not the printer. That way you'll get more consistent results.
To add to what Fluid said, the feel of the print will also depend on if you're printing dark colored shirt that require an underbase, how many passes the printer is pulling on each color, and if there are colors laying on top of each other.
From my experience, most printers try to get the best coverage they can which usually means laying down a pretty heavy layer of ink. To get that vintage, washed look, you could tell your printer to lay down the ink lightly and explain to him the look you're going for. A better alternative is to actually adjust your artwork to look distressed so that the control of ink is handled by the art, not the printer. That way you'll get more consistent results.
Thank you very much. We're printing on a light blue background for this particular design. The colors are not laying on top of each other, but he did flash the first layer (to use as a template to line up the next layer -- this is a manual press and he was having trouble lining up the details in the design -- and then add another layer (like the first) on top (for a cleaner border effect in the design). I don't know how many passes he's making on each color. While I was there, he was only doing one per color/layer.
Softer Finish & Ink on Inside of Shirt 
