[vizualbyte]

I'm in the process of designing some shirts for my own label which i plan to launch this summer. I have pretty good knowledge of the screen printing process except for water based inks and printing methods. I would like my shirts with a soft hand feel. My designs are pretty intricate imo and would like to know if it is possible to print tight lines and colors next or on top of each other with water based inks. The thin lines that is radiating and fading out would be printed in halftones. How many screens would this need? I have different color versions of this in different shirts like black as well as light colored shirts. Just seeing what my options are here.

I also have designs that require over sized printing or all over. Any help would be much appreciated. I also figure that not all printers would do a good job of printing out a shirt design like this and I would be lucky to find one locally if possible.

 

[tlpe548b]

Im a tad confused by your question(s). You can do anything with water based that you can do with any other method, to be honest it's not a matter of your design being hard to print, because it is not.

It is a matter of your art being done correctly, most shops have problems printing things because art is not set up correctly. You are to have to make sure your colors are separated right and nothing is overlapping. I would do this with two screens (making the back halftones the same color as the blue in the design) Otherwise it would be 3 if you had to have it grey.

I would also print in discharge for the dark colored shirts. it just yields the best results imo, best feel, no weight etc. You should be able to use the same screens for the light colored shirts. You need to get on the phone and call some shops, ask if they do water based printing and if they do over sized printing, if they do go talk to them about it. Imo it's really just a matter of setting the art up correctly.

 

[vizualbyte]

i posted a close up view of my art to show the tiny lines (the shirt color) in my designs i am afraid will close up when the ink is put on. Thats y i included the two pics to show the size of the print.

"It is a matter of your art being done correctly"
I am trying to find out if this is a printable design using water based inks or if i have to simplify it using thicker lines (shirt color) since i am unfamiliar with printing water based inks. I would prefer water based over discharge if possible. I wonder how accurately the colors come out with discharge as the colors need to be spot on.

From my experience separating artwork for screen print on plastisol inks, i tend to separate the colors that slightly overlap by a point or so in illustrator so that there is no negative space that shows through the print.

As a designer and a perfectionist, i tend to think there are many bad print jobs i've seen =P

 

[geniussuineg]

cool design.

 

[tlpe548b]

The answer to your question is if it can be printed, with all it's detail etc etc, the answer is yes.

Your real question is will it look good printed, that can only be answered when it's printed, it's not a matter of the printing as much as the design being flawed.

Let me try to explain, it is a very detailed piece with a lot of fine lines, those lines only actually look good close up. The standard t shirt is usually viewed 3-6ft away from the viewer, no one is going to be able to see that detail, this is why t-shirts usually have much broader more dramatic lines, like you talked about.

It's similar to if you tried to put that on a billboard, no one would be able to make out what the design actually is, but can it be done? Yes.

I personally would rework it, because i don't think you are going to be happy with the results, you could probably do the dragons in halftones and it will give it a lot more depth, you may be able to get away with that. But if you think you will be happy with it, then yes it can be done, go for it.

The reason i mentioned separations is because water based is different from plastisol. It is usually printed wet on wet, and yields the best results this way, which means there is no flashing in between colors, then the entire shirt is cured at the same time.

This means that the ink can actually mix on the shirt, so where you have overlapping art those colors may actually mix and make a 3rd undesired color.

And you are correct about discharge, it is hard to actually match colors with it. And from run to run your colors may be slightly different. But your going to get the best results with it. Otherwise to it print on dark shirts you are going to need to do an under base either a discharge or opaque white, it's going to essentially add a 3rd color to the process cost wise.. You will also loose a fair amount of that soft feel with this process, this is why people love discharge so much and it is so common today there is no other way to get the shirt to feel that way.

Anyway, the best idea is to talk to a local shop about it, they can explain the whole thing to you in great detail and you will be able to make decisions based on that, hope this helps you get the product you want in the end .

 

[tlpe548b]

This is a picture of a halftone on a screen. Take a close look, each one of those little white holes is about the size of a the tip of a needle, nothing on your design is even remotely that detailed.

You would be very surprised at what good screen printers can do. And you should not settle in your designs on "limitations" because in this day and age there are actually very very few.

 

[Unkle Samo]

I frequently print waterbase through high mesh count screens (as high as 355 mesh), so detail should be NO problem... As stated earlier, it's all about the quality, resolution & size of the art/image file... and the screenprinter, of course

 

[Unik Ink]

This would be a 2 color job. You would need to butt register the artwork for separations. You can't spread/choke the artwork when printing with waterbased inks.

 

[vizualbyte]

geniussuineg, thanks for your comment.

Sorry im pretty late into replying here but was busy on a business trip and came back this week.

"This would be a 2 color job. You would need to butt register the artwork for separations. You can't spread/choke the artwork when printing with waterbased inks." Unik Ink - thanks, is there a bleed that happens?

tlpe548b - i get that the pic you posted has tiny dots as any halftone print would but i should have been more clearer on what i meant as detailed. I have lots of tiny areas where inks are gonna be touching each other.

The image below is another design of mine that i would like to do waterbased printing. It is a four color print on a heavy metal next level tee. There is a distressed effect which is the color of the shirt on this design i hope will come out. This cropped image is about 5" wide that your seeing. I have both black and white halftones in this print as well as two other colors.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated =)

http://vizualbyteinc.com/temp/11th_hour_crop01.jpg

 

[Cortwrong]

Are you going to use RIP software? The reason I ask is that the immage has (what appears to me to be) halftone shading in layers and I would love to see what the shirt looks like after being printed.