[darkside]

Hello, I am in the beginning process of starting my t-shirt company. I was wondering what is the best format that a screen printer should offer to get the highest quality look from my hand drawn art to a t-shirt. One screenprinter told me just bring in an J peg. Shouldn't my art be scanned under a high res scanner?thanks
chris
spiral down clothing

 

[marcelolopez]

I believe the standard resolution is 300dpi.
So even a cheap scanner should work.
Remember a t-shirt is not the best media to print very high resolution images.

 

[darkside]

I am just looking for the best way to give my hand drawn art to the screen printer to get it on a t-shirt. To give it the highest quality look that I can get. The one screen printer that I am thinking of using said to give her my art in a jpeg file form? But the other said to have it scanned, my art is very unique drawings that have alot of detail and shading.etc thanks

 

[tshirtsep]

Do you know what a jpg is?
A Jpg is a DIGITAL IMAGE... it can be low resolution or high resolution.

You can't make a jpg out of non-computer art without scanning it or taking a photo of it first.

Just scan it or photograph it in High resolution, "300 dpi" is fine... then you can give the printer the digital image he needs.

If you are using a silkscreener, he needs a digital image to do the computer separations which is then printed onto film to be burned onto screens.
You need a high resolution image and then you need high quality separations done for the artwork... so you need to find a quality silkscreener who has samples of t-shirts printed with detailed art.
A high quality silkscreener won't be cheap.

A DTG printer would be cheaper and all he will need is the digital image.... but there tends to be more problems with longevity & durability especially printing on black shirts.

 

[darkside]

cool, thanks alot

 

[darkside]

I was just a little confused, one screen printer told me to scan it under a certain dpi and the other said to bring in a jpeg of it. So what I need to do is take a digital picture of my art work?thanks

 

[Mar]

Sorry for interrupting, but they'll be separating the JPG into the 4 channels of C, M, Y and K colours right? Assuming that its a full colour photo.

 

[tshirtsep]

most likely the printer was going to just take the jpeg that you brought in and scan it and redraw it to create the screens

You can't "scan" a jpg... you download it because it's already a digital image.

You can't "place" a jpg on a scanner unless you print the jpg image onto paper... but then it won't be a jpg anymore... you'll be scanning art from a piece of paper.

 

[tshirtsep]

I was just a little confused, one screen printer told me to scan it under a certain dpi and the other said to bring in a jpeg of it. So what I need to do is take a digital picture of my art work?thanks

Not to burst your bubble, but if you are unfamiliar with computer art and silkscreening and you want high quality, you'll have to pay qualified people to do every step for you.

This will be a very expensive business you are starting... be prepared to spend money and extra money and hope your sales markup can makeup for it.

 

[darkside]

I already got my first design made and was happy with the print. Next time I am going to use a better quality shirt thou like american apparel. I was looking for a black pigment dyed t-shirt and the only one they could find was this one brand. They did not have any on hand so I could not see them, To say the least I was not to happy with the t-shirt, very wide fit. My first design was only one color. They charged me 20.00 dollars for the screen. So does that mean say if I wont three color print for next time that will be three separate screens at 20.00 a screen? Also, fifteen for the film, can someone tell me the difference between the two. thanks

 

[WearMagic]

Films are outputted to "burn" the screens from, if you are working from a jpg and your art is fine detail you have to convert it to "halftones" to put on the screen per color of ink that will be used.