Question for screen printers

October 19, 2016 6:32 AM

Please give me the words with which to speak with a screen printer in order to get what I'm looking for.

I have a bunch of drawings/designs that I would like to translate to tshirt prints. However, I have a specific look/feel for the prints, and want to make sure I explain my needs correctly without insulting the printer (or sounding like an idiot.)

• These are b/w sketches that I see as being large prints on various color shirts, and a bit rough looking.
• The prints should be slight tones of the shirts themsleves (i.e. NOT black on a color)
• I'm seeing slightly darker/lighter tones of the shirt color it's printed on.
• I DO NOT want that heavy plastisol look and feel. The print should be as close to being part of the fabric as possible. I want this to be soft and not stiff.

What might you, as a screen printer suggest? Are there terms I should be happy to hear or terms I should run away from?

Also...Are there printers that would do a small run first, in order for me to test the market?

posted by Thorzdad to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

Best answer: used to manage a screenprint/embroidery operation:

point 1) this description should work just fine. You might say that you want these scanned exactly as-is, not "cleaned up."

2&3) trade term is "tone on tone." You might specify that the imprint needs to be same shade as the garment, but a little darker.

4) that heavy feel generally results when you have to get a high contrast, so what you want tends to line up with what you don't want. trade term is "underbase," and you might say "can we do these without printing twice or using a white layer underneath, since I want a tone-on-tone effect?"

Be aware of possible complications:

- a good printer should welcome a customer with some knowledge, especially if they're looking for something a little unusual. Just don't try to wow them with your knowledge, as it sometimes signifies a customer who's going to be picky or difficult. Don't be that guy.

- if you want a lot of different shirts printed in production, with a color match on each, you're going to be requiring them to possibly custom-mix ink and clean the screen between each color run. So keep your shirt color to one or two or be prepared to pay a lot of setup charges.

- they can do a test print sometimes, but again, setup is complex. So best scenario is to have your entire order ready to go, then be prepared to come to the shop when they are ready to run the whole thing. They can do the first print, run it through the curing station, and bring it up to you in the office for your immediate approval. Otherwise, be prepared to pay a charge for doing that sample. Not every shop will do this, as production schedule are tight and a lot tends to go wrong in doing this (as in, customer doesn't show up and/or is impossibly hard to please or wants to go back there and try to tell the operator what they want - not saying you'll do this, just saying these things do tend to happen).

You probably know this is you're an artist, but the number one problem we had in trying to sell screenprint was that people didn't know (or care) that setup is a really complex, mechanical process. Short-run work done profitably really depends on both charging what setup is worth, even if it's just cost recovery, and keeping it to a minimum. 100 shirts with ten different colorways is going to be 10 jobs of about 10 shirts each, so expect to pay more both in setups and per shirt than if you wanted 100 shirts all the same. Here's another thing I wish people knew: the low bidder is almost NEVER the guy you want to do the job, unless the shirts are going to be very simple and just to be given away (for a company or organization you don't care much about). :-)
posted by randomkeystrike at 6:51 AM on October 19, 2016 [7 favorites]

^^^That's all you need to know right there. Tone-on-tone, no underbase. Ask to proof the art before the screens are burned to make sure it looks like you're expecting.

You could order a small run of maybe a dozen as a test, but it'll be more expensive. Prices go down the more you order (you can spread the costs over more individual units), but it might be worth it for peace of mind.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:24 AM on October 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If you want excellent soft feel you might check out people using discharge ink (haven't used this company before, but they have a good description of discharge ink).
posted by gregr at 8:10 AM on October 19, 2016 [3 favorites]

discharge process or the like could be a big cost saver for you if you're willing to be a little flexible about the exact color variation.
posted by randomkeystrike at 8:13 AM on October 19, 2016

Sounds like you want a tone-on-tone print with a soft hand which you can get by using a water based ink or by adding a 'fashion' or 'chino' extender to regular plastisol ink.
posted by metaphorever at 8:38 AM on October 19, 2016

Also look into dye sublimation printers for a non-screenprint option that colors the fibers themselves rather than laying ink over. This is what's used in all-over printed shirts.
posted by rhizome at 10:45 AM on October 19, 2016

Do note that the dye sub shirts will be 100% polyester.
posted by gregr at 11:17 AM on October 19, 2016

I thought that's what teespring, cafepress et al use, on cotton shirts. Whatever it's actually called, I meant the one that works on regular tees.
posted by rhizome at 1:22 PM on October 19, 2016

Response by poster: Hold crap, gregr, that discharge ink process look exactly like what I'm wanting!
posted by Thorzdad at 9:38 AM on October 20, 2016 [1 favorite]