Pgritton

I have a customer who provided me a design made in photoshop. I am thinking that the design will not work for it's intended use. I appreciate any comments. I want to do the best I can for my customer so any help is appreciated. The design is to be printed white on black shirts. The shirts will be a high content polyester sport type shirt. My thinking is the halftones will be to small for the lettering. The design will be printed on the chest and about 10" wide.

Attached Images

logo.jpg (67.9 KB, 82 views)

 

Reply With Quote

Jack Clements

If I were to do that design, I'd Print the white, and just use gray with halftones to fill in the gradient.

 

Reply With Quote

CoopersDesignCo

Quote: Originally Posted by Jack Clements If I were to do that design, I'd Print the white, and just use gray with halftones to fill in the gradient.

Me, too....
Sometimes the additional color can make all the difference in how you final print will look. And if you want to impress your customer, maybe show him the difference between the 2.

__________________
Ann

Cooper's Rugged Design Co.
http://www.coopersdesign.com

 

Reply With Quote

miktoxic

does your customer want the design as is? i mean is he standing firm with what he gave you with no flexibility on your part to alter it?

i personally don't like the 3d effect but if you had to print it (screenprint) i would follow jack and ann's advice.

if it were me i would place it in illustrator and either find the font or trace it, stroke it thick to print one color. white on black. save money and it looks more striking without the gradient. (my opinion). but as ann said always show your client the differences. as a designer i always have my clients sign off on any changes. -peace.

 

Reply With Quote

Challenger

Hi, Mr. Paul:
This design is very easy to do, you just need an underbase White and a Highlight White. The size of the dots (LPI) will be determined by your shop capabilities, if you have a metal halide exposure unit, you will even hold your 5% dots at any frecuency.
The highlight white will make the design to pop-out from the black shirt. The only problem you will have is the polyester dyes migration turning your whites into gray's, so you will need a high opacity with excellent bleed resistance White, I recommend you to use Wilflex PolyWhite to print this job.
If you need any help, just let me know.
Thanks,
Challenger

 

Reply With Quote

tshirtsep

Quote: Originally Posted by Pgritton My thinking is the halftones will be to small for the lettering. The design will be printed on the chest and about 10" wide.

Can't you just separate the art with halftone dot sizes that will work best?

 

Reply With Quote

ImageIt

I'd print it with a white underbase and a black halftone.

The reason that i would not halftone the white and use the black of the shirt be the black in the design is because of the gain of the white on the shirt. It is very difficult to hold a fine dot, while at the same time making a very "white" white. By printing the white like an underbase, there is no need for halftoning. the mesh could be 150.

With a white underbase, the black can be printed at a fairly high LPI. Like a 55 LPI on a 305 mesh or a 65 LPI on a 355 mesh.

fred

__________________
A day late, a dollar short, so it goes.

 

Reply With Quote

Challenger

Quote: Originally Posted by ImageIt I'd print it with a white underbase and a black halftone.

I always try not to print black over a white underbase specially on a Black shirt because and in this case there is no need to, if you print the black you will not be able to reproduce accurately those beautiful gray values, affecting the 3d look effect in the design, besides that the print will be rough and with a heavy hand.

Quote: The reason that i would not halftone the white and use the black of the shirt be the black in the design is because of the gain of the white on the shirt.

First you said you want to print the black, but now you are saying you want to use the black of the shirt to be the black in the design, this is contradictory, isn't it?
And the reason you would not halftone the white is because dot gain of the white, well this is our job, as screenprinters is our obligation to manipulate the file and compensate for dot gain on press before we output our film positives, that way we can control the amount of ink to be printed in any area of the design, this is a basic step when we are creating our color seps.
Now let's go back, yes both of us, and let's analize the design again and try to address the confusion, all those 3d areas you are seeing as black, they are not really black, they are really gray areas and when we break them in halftone dots they will form our tone values or density range in our image. A good halftone that reproduces an image closely generally has a very full tonal range with dots in the 5% range and dots in the 95% range with all the tone ranges covered with the correct size dots. Unfortunately when we print halftone dots they do spread, since there the term dot gain, and at this point we do our dot gain compensation. So if we do a good halftone White underbase it will be the key for this design, it will create the look for the entire design, you won't see any white in the death black areas of the shirt, and as we really made a negative of the file and now we are printing with white ink it will become a positive again so the highlights dots quartertones and midtones will fool our eyes letting the black of the shirt to come through and giving us the sensation of many different shades of gray levels.

Quote: It is very difficult to hold a fine dot, while at the same time making a very "white" white. By printing the white like an underbase, there is no need for halftoning. the mesh could be 150.

It is much easier than you think, dot loss only occur if you use the wrong mesh count screen, your emulsion is not good, if you don't use a good exposure unit, your exposure time is incorrect and not washing the dot when developing the screen. If all of the above are correct you will be able to burn and hold a 5% dot at any LPI in our range.
Another point of confusion, why are you under the fact or the impression that I or any other printer wants to make a very "white" white with a halftone white underbase? There is no need to do that, also it is not the job of the underbase White, we just want to see the underbase as a GRAY on the shirt printed on a 230 mesh, then you will print your Highlight White which is a very high Contrast halftone with a very tight tonal range of 30 to 70% (no dots below 30% and nothing above 70%) and this is the one that is going to make the very "white" white, it will only print on the lightest areas of the design. By printing the halftone highlight white over the underbase halftone white you make the underbase whites have good depth and a 3D Look. You can use a 150 to 190 mesh count for this plate.

Quote: With a white underbase, the black can be printed at a fairly high LPI. Like a 55 LPI on a 305 mesh or a 65 LPI on a 355 mesh.

I really don't recomend you to print the underbase white as a solid, neither the black in this case.
Hope this can help,
Thanks,
Challenger

 

Reply With Quote