Tshirt printing NEED HELP!!!!

[Jriddim]

Hey guys, Im not sure if this is in the right spot, but I was just wondering how to go about getting an image with multiple colors printed on a tshirt. How do I have to prep the files?? do all the colors have to be on seperate layers, (do all the elements in the design need to be seperate?) Do i have to give the printer the specific cmyk values??? as you can see I am very new to this, if you can help me at all I will be ever so greatful.


thanks GDF

[morea]

depends on the printer you use... are you having the shirt screen printed, or are you having a decal-type thing printed and attached to the shirt?

To be safe, I would have a few printers bid on the job (I usually supply a file showing what the design looks like to make sure they can quote it properly) and once you decide who will be printing the shirt, go ahead and ask the print shop you choose how they need the file supplied.

You (and they) will have WAY less headaches that way.

[Jriddim]

Thanks Morea, The shirt will be screen printed, I forgot to mention that in the first post. My cleint wants to have the shirt look most "professional" he dosnt want any iron-on type stuff. I need to find a decent screen printer around the CT area... does anyone know of any?? Thanks again guys!

[cnic]

Hey J,

I worked in a print shop for a while. I was one of three designers and spent most of my time preparing / creating artwork... but when the screenprinters got backed up I was able to go and fill in. Learning the screenprinting process was great as it helped me understand what hurdles the printers need to overcome on the back end. They loved me for helping them, partly for the extra set of hands, but also because my artwork was always easier for them as I understood thier task.

I would suggest making a trip to a local print shop and asking them if you can stand in and watch for an afternoon... and if they say no, go to the next printer until you find someone. GET HANDS ON!

On your project: How many colors are you using? Are you planning on this being a full color print? How big is it? Are any small details getting printed? (small stuff like text or small detail).

Finding a good printer is going to be key, particularly if you are doing a complex print or a full color print. Is the printer screening manually, or with an automatic? A complex full color print on a white shirt is considerably different than on a black shirt... mostly because of the way the inks react on each color.... a four color print might require 5-6 passes on a black shirt to get the colors to show properly.... ect. Then it becomes difficult for a manual press to keep the shirt and screen aligned perfectly through 6 passes. In this case, find a computer driven automatic press... your shirts will be much nicer.

Im no expert... dont mean to sound like one. But I do have a little experience in this area. Let me know if you need any more help. Post a little more info about the print job if you do.

Good luck... and go find a print shop!

[erichmond]

Hey J,

I worked in a print shop for a while. I was one of three designers and spent most of my time preparing / creating artwork... but when the screenprinters got backed up I was able to go and fill in. Learning the screenprinting process was great as it helped me understand what hurdles the printers need to overcome on the back end. They loved me for helping them, partly for the extra set of hands, but also because my artwork was always easier for them as I understood thier task.

I would suggest making a trip to a local print shop and asking them if you can stand in and watch for an afternoon... and if they say no, go to the next printer until you find someone. GET HANDS ON!

On your project: How many colors are you using? Are you planning on this being a full color print? How big is it? Are any small details getting printed? (small stuff like text or small detail).

Finding a good printer is going to be key, particularly if you are doing a complex print or a full color print. Is the printer screening manually, or with an automatic? A complex full color print on a white shirt is considerably different than on a black shirt... mostly because of the way the inks react on each color.... a four color print might require 5-6 passes on a black shirt to get the colors to show properly.... ect. Then it becomes difficult for a manual press to keep the shirt and screen aligned perfectly through 6 passes. In this case, find a computer driven automatic press... your shirts will be much nicer.

Im no expert... dont mean to sound like one. But I do have a little experience in this area. Let me know if you need any more help. Post a little more info about the print job if you do.

Good luck... and go find a print shop!

Excellent post cnic
very informative and helpful, keep up the good work

[printmonger]

Yep, Good post cnic.... I wish I had asked this forum earlier. About 6 months ago, I had to go to screen printing school for a project I was working on. One thing I can only hope to imphasize is go to a physical brick + mortar screen printing shop for numerous reasons laid out by cnic.

I asked several shops if I could stand and watch as they worked; two shops looked at me like I was crazy. The one shop that was totally excited to hear that I wanted to learn how they work so I could make my artwork better fit their workflow... and in the end create a better product for my client... they were the ones that received my clients $3,000 print order.

I would say... google [t-shirts "screen printing" Connecticut (add more to refine search)] and open the yellow pages. You may not find someone who is willing to let you watch them work, but you may find someone who is totally willing to walk you thru the process and provide numerous tips along the way.

I hope this helps.... L8'r

[Logo-Mechanix]

Great explanations and advice above. Just remeber when screenprinting each color hs to be made into a seperate screen, I always look at it like pieces of a puzzle that when fit together create your art. If you keep that in mind when creating it you will save yourself alot of headaches. Most of the places I have dealt with will accept vector art in AI, or a file easily imported as vector art into AI with all fonts coverted to outlines.

[Jriddim]

You guys are so great... Thanks for all your help... I am going to start searching for a good printer!

The exact details of this shirt are unknown...my client wants to have his logo have the same stylization on the shirt thats on the business card.. (the burnt in look) and Im tellin him that we are going to have to stay away from small details, and any kind of gradients etc.. so i started tracing over the burnt logo in Illy, trying to achieve a peice of vector art that has that same look to it, and im finding it pretty tough.. basically my client wants the logo to look like its part of the shirt, not just pasted on. So Im kind of in a pickle. I believe that out of the 3 designs he wants only one of them to use this stylized texture. the others will be just one or two colors, with no crazy details... I gotta run out now but later this afternoon i will post some pics of the art im workin with and maybe that will better descirbe what im trying to do..


thanks so much guys

[evergreen]

First, could you post the design/designs that you are wanting on the shirt? The type of press used will depend on the quantity that you are needing...if it's a small run of 12, then you will find very few shops that will use their automatic equipment for such a small run. As far as manual presses and to correct something that cnic said...

A complex full color print on a white shirt is considerably different than on a black shirt... mostly because of the way the inks react on each color.... a four color print might require 5-6 passes on a black shirt to get the colors to show properly.... ect. Then it becomes difficult for a manual press to keep the shirt and screen aligned perfectly through 6 passes.

Well done on your explanation cnic, but good manual presses should not allow the shirt nor the screen to move out of alignment, once it's dialed in, everything is locked down...the inconsistancy lies with the individual press operator and whether they use the same manual pressure for each pass or not...with an automatic press the pressure remains constant and the prints should be consistant throughout.

A few things about art prep...the final result from the art department are actual size film positives. Halftones and gradients are doable as long as the dot can be large enough without taking away from design...usually anywhere from 45 line to 85 line. On light shirts, the size of the halftone dot can be smaller, but on dark shirts the dot must be a larger...reason...as cnic said, a great deal of ink needs to be laid down to cover the darker dyes in the shirt fabric and a lower mesh count screen is used to allow more ink through...think of the difference between an ancient type screen door with large holes and a more modern one with smaller, tighter woven holes. A lot more ink will pass through the larger holes in the screen than the higher mesh screen, but that then has an effect on the print quality...also keep in mind that for example white is thicker, pastier, then the thinner black ink, so details can be lost printing lighter inks on a dark shirt as opposed to darker inks on light shirts.

I've been in the screen printing design business for twenty+ years and have owned my own plant for 10 of those years...been there, done that often.

Good luck, and one more thing...vectors are everyone's friend.

[nyc_skater]

You guys are so great... Thanks for all your help... I am going to start searching for a good printer!

The exact details of this shirt are unknown...my client wants to have his logo have the same stylization on the shirt thats on the business card.. (the burnt in look) and Im tellin him that we are going to have to stay away from small details, and any kind of gradients etc.. so i started tracing over the burnt logo in Illy, trying to achieve a peice of vector art that has that same look to it, and im finding it pretty tough.. basically my client wants the logo to look like its part of the shirt, not just pasted on. So Im kind of in a pickle. I believe that out of the 3 designs he wants only one of them to use this stylized texture. the others will be just one or two colors, with no crazy details... I gotta run out now but later this afternoon i will post some pics of the art im workin with and maybe that will better descirbe what im trying to do..


thanks so much guys

J, i sent you a private message of a printer we use in Ct who does really large work and small work too, they are amazing. Sounds like you might want to go with 4 color porcess, they have done that on black shirts and it comes out awesome, you just need to lay white under it which means also paying for more ink/plates etc...

[printmonger]

Jriddim,
Let us know how all of this turns out :)

L8'r

[Jriddim]

Ok... Here is pretty much everything that we want on the shirt. Depending on cost we may just go with the all black version. The last one on the bottom is just an idea, it was drawn in illy, I just don't know if it is too detailed?

thanks again guys


http://img318.imageshack.us/img318/8334/bbshirtarray1ui.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[nyc_skater]

I think for the "branded" effect5 to look right you'd have to do 4 color process, that bottom one looks more like a motion blur

[evergreen]

Nice work, Jriddim...the top one is a two-color, the center and bottom are both one color, pretty simple. Most screen printers charge a screen charge for each color from $10 up to $30...you should have no difficulty in having that done.

I think for the "branded" effect5 to look right you'd have to do 4 color process, that bottom one looks more like a motion blur
I'm not sure where 4-color process would enter into any of the above three designs, unless I'm just not seeing something correctly.

Let us know how it evolves.

[guyinsf]

I have a similar situation and was wondering if anyone could tell me on how to go about looking for a good printing place to do screen printing for a brand new tshirt company that I'm about to start.
Thanks