[AnthonyF]

Anthonyf,
i was trialing some jpss on colors yesterday and did not catch-on to your wit

good stuff!

Whew! I was afraid I was going to have to resort to an emoticon!

How did your color trials go? I need to sit down and run this HP through some experiments.

 

[into the T]

mixed bag, from the good safety green to the meh dark heather
i have a plan for phase 2, maybe tomorrow

here are the results (sorry for derail)

 

[AnthonyF]

I only ever use JPSS on white shirts, because I don't like the look on color shirts. But there's some potential there, if you design to work with what the color does. I'm usually doing photographs, so color fidelity is an issue. But you've given me something to think about with other designs. Thank you! I look forward to seeing phase 2.

 

[into the T]

it's too bad my camera is junk
that top design on the safety green is quite nice in real life,
probably just going to bump the gamma and saturation a touch
that same design on the white tee is also interesting (see below)

they are contour cut, and i was playing with combinations of backgrounds and foregrounds
so if you notice anything resembling cracks/fissures, that is a function of the pattern

i tried a blue plasma gradient-type mesh on that heather blue fin,
just to see if it would be worth it to try to blend it in (that would be a no)
but it looks nice on the white tee

i do think the key for non-whites is a 'fill' of all negative spaces to a decent offset,
and the solid black seems to be the best way to accentuate the colors so far

 

[into the T]

ok, phase2 pics
the samples are about 1" x 2 1/2", compare to above pics for successes and failures

some quick notes:
- the dark heather (with the green heather) is better than i expected, and not too bad as a 'ghosted/clear' transfer look
hopefully the pic does it justice, it is decent and legible even at that tiny size

- the safety green white fish is worse than the original above,
so the one above will get a gamma correction and should be good to go
the colored fish on the safety green is on top of a blue plasma gradient, and looks really good

- the green heather is much improved from above, the black background/framing and gamma/saturation bump helped
blue background is in the failure column

- the lighter grey heather (not as light as athletic grey, more of a graphite) by the safety green,
again gained via the black framing and gamma saturation

will do some full size presses with some minor adjusting and check for the long-view acceptability,
final phase to determine if all the tee colors w/jpss are added to the line

i should have rasterized before printing as my saturation adjustment worked great on the test jpg mgparrish provided,
but on the vectors they tended to bleed (you may notice that in some of the designs)
it may be because of the multiple layers of transparencies/clipped art/gradients i had

 

[AnthonyF]

Thanks for the followup. I'm going to try a shirt that I was doing with printed vinyl, but I didn't like the hand of the vinyl. It's only black and red in the design, and this might work on the athletic grey shirt. I wouldn't have thought to try it, but here we go!

 

[AnthonyF]

HP OfficeJet Pro Wide-format All-in-Ones | HP® Official Site

I have an older model that will do 13 x 19, the newer ones that are pigment are 11 x 17, but they have larger carts sizes and ink is cheaper that way.

Click on the "Specs" and the "Ink and paper" tab

HP OfficeJet Pro 7720 Wide Format All-in-One Printer | HP® Official Store

Hey, Mike-
If you're still tracking this thread, may I ask what color settings you use for the HP? Do you have an ICC, or do you just set from the driver? I'm about to do some tests, but if you have any suggestions to get me started it would be appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[AnthonyF]

Here is the design I've been working on. I ordered Stahls printed vinyl for the plaid and did the black with Easy Weed. Because the printed vinyl can't be layered in either direction, getting the border around the moose was a real pain. And I did not like the hand of the vinyl. So tonight I tried it with the JPSS. A much more faded look, but really perfect for this design. So thank you, Edward, for the inspiration using JPSS on something other than white! (the photos are reversed - the first one is the JPSS). Any weeding tips for JPSS? That took me way too long- almost half an hour- and that doesn't work for me!

 

[into the T]

that first pic looks more real-world plaid, nice job
you must be a minnesotan

i would look at picking up a sample of thermoflex for testing, ask for turbo
check this out
just pulled my original test shirt out of the dryer yesterday (i'm up to about 60 wash/dry cycles) and it is clearly the winner
you can see the nice embed in the fabric still and no points lifting or any wrinkling of the vinyl
joto will also send you a sample for free (same manufacturer in germany), ask for one-4-all

if you have a cutting mat a simple design like that screams for a full cut-through, forget weeding
that is part of my reasoning originally for the above testing, get away from weeding
one cut, peel and press
the fact that it enhanced the visuals of the designs that much was a happy bonus

 

[into the T]

i guess i should have asked if you have a cutter that contour cuts?

if not, check this out, $75 off and if it does not work for your purpose they have an excellent return policy

 

[AnthonyF]

I'm pleased with that first one and would like to pitch it to someone, but I have to be able to make it. I was thinking about cutting through on the inside of the letters, which was the real nuisance weeding. But I'm not sure about cutting the image twice, once for the insides of the letters and then for the rest. But I wouldn't want to cut the letters individually. I guess I could cut the moose through, but that was the easiest part to weed. I have a Saga with ARMS- contour cutting wasn't a problem. I got a nice kiss cut the the material weeded away from the cut line very easily- it was getting it going each time that was an issue.
I've never even been to Minnesota- I'm a NY boy.

 

[into the T]

i guess i misunderstood you,
was the vinyl lettering only on the second tee and the first one was all jpss?

you can always add the vinyl after all is said and done with the jpss moose
esp. with the turbo/one-4-all as these press at 260F for 5 secs/re-press after peel for 5 secs

i made some mock-ups thinking you were having trouble with the vinyl,
so i'll include them here for now

 

[AnthonyF]

Thanks. I thought about doing the text in vinyl- it's certainly easier to weed- but I don't like the extra alignment steps. If I have to make 50 of these I want it to be easy! Dumbing down the font would be another answer, and there is a version of the font without the cutout. (It's a Laura Worthington set, Charcuterie. I'm using Charcuterie Sans Inline; there's Charcuterie Sans.) But for me that's what makes the design work. I'm also thinking this might be a good candidate for dye sub.

 

[into the T]

i agree, that is the font

once the moose is on the tee, the vinyl is just an eyeball
you'll be surprised how quickly you get accurate

me personally, i would simply align the second 'o' in moose in between the two upper points of the antler
would not even need a ruler

for centering the moose, i would put it as close to final position as you see it,
measure down from collar for vertical distance
then measure from far right edge of nose to the right-side seam,
and do the same from the far left edge of back foot to the left-side seam
boom, centered moose in ~20 secs, the vinyl lettering would be done in under 5 secs

if you are worried about it being not straight,
you can measure from the bottom of the two outside feet to the bottom seam
or if you have your tee nicely centered on the bottom platen then use a large plastic triangle (drafting tool, staples/office depot/etc.),
and use the edge of the platen on one straight edge of the triangle and the other place under the feet
if the feet line-up with the edge, then it is good to go

EDIT to Add: for full front designs,
i also measure from the two points (left and right) where there shoulder seam meets the collar seam straight down to the top of the design
then if these two measurements match it is straight

another option is to print a thin black line square around the moose about 1/2" around
center it to the moose and print it off with the moose
cut the jpss off just inside the square, weed your moose
now you you have something with long defined edges, making it easier to measure/center (even visually)

i find a cheap plastic ruler woks best for the measuring, light and easy to move around with no fear of possibly tearing the fabric

 

[AnthonyF]

I have a Transpro heat press. ProWorld gives you a $50 merchandise credit when you buy one of their presses which I spent on a Tee Square It. I'm not sure I would have spent that much on it, but I don't regret it- I use it in various ways pretty frequently. It's also perfect for cutting foil strips for a couple of my designs.

 

[rossdv8]

' if you design to work with what the color does.'

I used to try to find some reasonably close coloured paper and print on that to get an idea of how an image 'might' look when printed on a similar coloured cloth. Some newsagents and even supermarkets sell small packs (about 50 sheets) of various red, green, blue, yellow and other coloured paper.

It's not perfect, but it can at least give some idea if something will look horrible before you try to print it on a $5 shirt. And you can mess with the design to try to get around it.