BEatMaKeR

Hello fellow print guru's,

Looking to have some shirts printed in a similar style as Ed Hardy tee's where the print colors have no hand and are done on dark tee's. All the details of the prints need to be high quality like a photograph and will be printed on bamboo cotton.

Any ideas what the process is called or printing technique used?

I originally thought it was waterbased but don't believe waterbase can hold print details well because the ink spreads out and the mesh counts can't be high enough to get high definition printing. May be wrong?

It was suggested that the prints may be plastisol with some kind of dulling additive to make the ink softer and give it less of a hand. I'm not convinced this is the case since I can feel no hand on the shirts.

Perhaps this is why the Ed Hardy tee's cost so much friggen money! LOL ....jokes people... jokes... I know its all about the marketing.

Any thoughts on this?

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Shaun // graphic design // apparel brand owner // entrepreneur

 

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mk162

It is more than likely discharge ink. It is waterbased but bleaches the color out. We use it here occasionally. It works really well if you follow the directions. Try the Union Plasticharge. It is a good ink.

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studog79

We use either discharge or add some soft hand to plastisol. Sometimes we will also do a discharge softbase and use a plastisol with a fashion soft base to simulate water base.

 

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mreicher

Why use plastisol along with discharge? I'm sure I'm missing something. I tried it and my conclusion was to use waterbase pigments instead and eliminate plastisol altogether.

What is the benefit you're getting from using plastisol with discharge?

Quote: Originally Posted by studog79 We use either discharge or add some soft hand to plastisol. Sometimes we will also do a discharge softbase and use a plastisol with a fashion soft base to simulate water base.

 

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oversizedfilm

I'm guessing they used plastisol with discharge base because you can achieve a pretty soft hand without the drawbacks of using harder on the emulsion and the inks drying in the screens. Getting the color pigments mixed with the base can be tricky also. We used this technique a lot.

Bryan Ray
OversizedFilm.com
Color seps and film for screen printers

 

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studog79

We use plastisol with a fashion soft base, it simulates water base, on a discharge underbase on a dark shirt when the PMS colors have to be exact. You can not gaurentee PMS match with discharge.

 

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mk162

We use plastisol over a discharge underbase for a couple of reasons. First, we don't have waterbased inks, and I really don't feel like buying them right now. You can also print wet on wet with the plastisol on top of the discharge. It works really well and you get less hand than a white underbase.

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