from pencil to shirt

ERC said:

Whats the best way to take drawings and turning them into a file that you can put on a shirt? I have several drawings that I would like to put on a shirts but I am unsure of what the process is. Would I just scan the drawings into a jog format or something like that?

Thanks

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yep, thats a good way to do it. Scan it as a TIFF (old school way), that would be better than JPG, it will allow you to do more depending on your graphic sofware.

If I were to want to do a one color (white) on black shirts what is the best way to get that done.

ERC said:

If I were to want to do a one color (white) on black shirts what is the best way to get that done.

Click to expand...

Another person asked a similar question not too long ago:

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/showthread.php?t=6172

ERC said:

If I were to want to do a one color (white) on black shirts what is the best way to get that done.

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you scan it and save it at 300dpi at least (even a JPG will do without jaggered/distortion).
depending on the art (asuming you have very fine lines), you can make plastisol transfers with glue for high quality screen printed type shirts. OR direct screen print on to shirts.

If you just need one made, deco transfers may not work well due to fine lines etc, it may be best with a digital transfer.

I was planning on doing plastisol transfers for the white on black shirts. If I just send them the scanned 300DPI .tiff image they can make the transfer all white for me?

Thanks guys.
ERC

ERC said:

I was planning on doing plastisol transfers for the white on black shirts. If I just send them the scanned 300DPI .tiff image they can make the transfer all white for me?

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That should work just fine.

So I would not have to have my artist draw two images, one for the black shirts and one for the white shirts? I could just have him make the one for the white shirts and the plastisol guys could convert it for the black shirt for me? Is this correct?

Thanks
ERC

ERC said:

So I would not have to have my artist draw two images, one for the black shirts and one for the white shirts? I could just have him make the one for the white shirts and the plastisol guys could convert it for the black shirt for me? Is this correct?

Thanks
ERC

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yes, 100% black is fine. Then you pick and choose the color inks you need. in this case White and black.

TIP: if you are making the plastisol transfer with one design only and want it made in WHITE and also in BLACK ink. You only pay for one film/SCREEN and ask the plastisol maker to do a color change after they run the WHITE to BLACK. This will only cost you about $ 10 for the color change (SO IF YOU ORDER 50 TOTAL YOU WILL GET 25 WHITE, 25 BLACK FOR EXAMPLE). Where if they do it as 2 seperate jobs it will double your entire cost for the transfers.

ince you scan the image, you may be able to e-mail it to the individual printing your shirts, and they can change the colors, instead of you going through the work, time, hassel, and more importantly the money. Find a local printer who would love repeat customers, they are more willing to work with you and help you the best.

I think you could also scan the drawing, then change it into a vector format using Illustrator's Live Trace function, or the CorelDraw equivalent. That way you could modify it in almost any way you want (different colours, brushstrokes, effects etc).

TahoeTomahawk said:

Hi All,
I just expirimented with putting a pencil drawing on a shirt.
My sister had a pencil sketch drawing done so I did the following:

1. Scan the image, used the default scanner settings which produced a jpg file.

2. Used a DTG Printer to print onto the shirt.

The end result is just awesome! It looks like someone took a pencil and drew right onto the shirt!

If anyone is interested you can email me the drawing and I'll print you a sample.

Here are some pictures of the finished Shirt
http://www.threadsafeinc.com/temp/pencil1.gif
http://www.threadsafeinc.com/temp/pencil2.gif


-Adam

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That looks real good Adam.


Can it be printed on Black Shirts yet? and how much would the shirt cost including the printing ? how long does it take to make the shirt etc ...???

Tshirtcrib said:

since you scan the image, you may be able to e-mail it to the individual printing your shirts, and they can change the colors, instead of you going through the work, time, hassel, and more importantly the money.

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There is NO extra work for anyone involved though. All you need to supply is the art in BLACK color and thats it.

Ross B said:

I think you could also scan the drawing, then change it into a vector format using Illustrator's Live Trace function, or the CorelDraw equivalent. That way you could modify it in almost any way you want (different colours, brushstrokes, effects etc).

Click to expand...

yep, Ross is right. Sometimes changes to the art need to be done, in a digital platform it would make it easy for anyone involved with the job to work with it if need be.

T-BOT said:

That looks real good Adam.


Can it be printed on Black Shirts yet? and how much would the shirt cost including the printing ? how long does it take to make the shirt etc ...???

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Good question, I haven't tried printing it on black because I wanted it to look like a real pencil drawing, but I'll try to print one tonight.

The cost of the ink is probably about 10 cents, because so little is used. And the price of the T-shirt would be whatever shirt you'd want to use, so probably between $2-4.

This one was printed on Jerzees that I got for about $1.70.

Normally i will scan my image or drawing and save it under tiff. format
I found tiff format is better than jpeg format in term of line drawing or skecthes. You can directly change the colour if you save the image under tiff format.
I do not really prefer using ive trace or streamline software, yeah you can change your image into vector file just a single click but you will lose lot of detail when you trace it that way.

TahoeTomahawk said:

Hi All,
I just expirimented with putting a pencil drawing on a shirt.
My sister had a pencil sketch drawing done so I did the following:

1. Scan the image, used the default scanner settings which produced a jpg file.

2. Used a DTG Printer to print onto the shirt.

The end result is just awesome! It looks like someone took a pencil and drew right onto the shirt!

Here are some pictures of the finished Shirt
http://www.threadsafeinc.com/temp/pencil1.gif
http://www.threadsafeinc.com/temp/pencil2.gif


-Adam

Click to expand...

What exactly is a DTG printer.. and how much fo they run.. where can I find more info and see pictures of them.. ?

Thanks
Ambrelee

What exactly is a DTG printer.. and how much fo they run.. where can I find more info and see pictures of them.. ?

Click to expand...

A DTG printer is a printer that prints with inkjets directly onto the garment (instead of onto a transfer paper). They usually run in the $10,000+ range. You can see little thumbnails of a few different brands at:
http://www.screenprintinguniversity.com/forums/forum-118.html

You can also learn about one brand here:
http://screenprinters.net/tjethome.php

To give due diligence to the other manufacturers, I would do more research on the printers via the first link Rodney provided. Nothing against the Tjet, but that is not the only option, and in my opinion, there are better machines out there, with less headaches.

Visiting that site will give you a good amount of information based off of users as well as some dealers. It is more true to the overall picture of DTG printing. We also have a site that is strictly for DTG printing where we are working on full reviews of each machine and their pros and cons.