You've picked your textiles, created a t-shirt design and placed your order. So what happens next?
The first step in getting your design onto a t-shirt involves printing films for the various colors used. A graphic artist will look at your artwork and determine the best method of printing the colors.
The two main methods of printing colors are spot colors and four-color process. Spot colors are individual colors that are printed separately. There are 100's of pre-mixed colors and an infinite number of colors that can be mixed to specification (e.g. Pantone Matching System colors).
Four-color process physically blends four colors (Cyan (sky blue), Magenta (hot pink), Yellow and Black) on the textile to create a large variety of colors. Four-color process, also known as CMYK, is used to simulate photographic work and graphics with sophisticated shading and textural effects. A hybrid form of printing known as simulated process is sometimes used, combining components of both process and spot color printing.
The graphic artist creates transparent acetate films of each color and prints them in black along with registration marks and identifying information. The films are then collected into an envelope with printing instructions and sent to the be burned onto screens.
Each color of your t-shirt design is then exposed via a high-intensity lightbox onto a fine mesh screen that has been coated with photosensitive emulsion. These screens were initially made from silk, thus the origin of the term silkscreen. When the emulsion is exposed, it hardens and becomes insoluble to water. The black sections of the acetate film prevent light from getting to the emulsion immediately beneath them. Those sections not exposed will dissolve in water. The screen is placed in a high-pressure washing unit where the unexposed sections of emulsion are washed out of the screen. What remains is, in effect, an intricate stencil for that particular color of ink.
While the Art Department is working on your films, your t-shirts are being ordered from wholesalers. Sometimes this can be a challenge; calls can be made all across the country looking for a particular size or color of t-shirt. When the textiles arrive, they are counted in and checked against the order for accuracy and then taken to the screen printers.
A multiple-head press holds a number of screens from as few as four to as many as sixteen. The screens are arranged radially and rotate over palettes that the t shirts are loaded on. There are both automatic and manual presses; on automatics the rotation is handled by pneumatics while smaller manual presses are physically rotated by the printer. Each screen is placed onto a bracket, or head, and locked into place. The printer then carefully adjusts the printed images from each screen until they are all in correct alignment for the final, combined image. The correct color of ink is added to each screen and is forced through the screen's openings by pulling a squeegee from the bottom of the screen to the top. A number of different factors affect the final silkscreen print result, including the hardness of the squeegee, the angle and force of the pull used, and the type of ink used.
After printing, your t-shirts are run through a high-temperature dryer to cure the ink so it will bind to the fibers of the material. A final test print is approved by the graphic artist working on your design, and the run of t-shirts is printed.
Showing posts with label printing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label printing. Show all posts
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
7 Ways To Ensure Your Artwork Is Print Ready
The following article provides a quick guide on what to think about when preparing your artwork for printing.
It is important you follow these guidlines as any errors made are likely to cause a delay or cause unncessary stress should the final print quality be sub-standard.
1. Check your files
Check your artwork for spelling mistakes, grammar and ensure all images used are high resolution. Double check to make sure as any errors found will delay the turnaround of your product.
2. Bleed
Bleed is the extra bit of the design page which you design on, as normal, with the knowledge that it will be trimmed off the finished flyer. Any images on your artwork should bleed off the page, and essential text should be away from the trim edge by a good few mm's. We use a 2mm bleed area on each edge.
3. Text
Keep essential text away from the edge of the flyer, by about 8-10mm for best results.
4. Print Resolution
Ensure your artworks resolution is at least 300dpi. The higher the resolution the better.
5. File Formats
If you are using un-common fonts, ensure you supply your artwork as a flattened jpeg or tiff. This will ensure there will be no font problems when your artwork is checked. The most commonly accepted program formats are Quark, Illustrator, Photoshop, Corel Draw, Corel Paint, Freehand, InDesign and Paint Shop Pro. Vector files such as .eps and pdf's are becoming more common and ensure a better end product.
6. Colours
Unless you have a calibrated monitor your artwork is likely to have slightly different colours when printed. Ensure your colour choices are correct before sending to print.
7. A Final Check
Before sending to your printer, have one more final check that everything is as expected.
WARNING
There are two things you should consider when designing your flyers:
Due to the quick turn around of our flyers, they are trimmed down not long after they are printed, in most circumstances we try to give a printed sheet 8 hours to dry completely, this isn't always the case. This is noticeable when one side of the flyer is left white, and the other side bleeds rich colour to the trim edge. This will cause slight powdering of the rich ink over, on to the white side. In this circumstance we recommend the use of borders.
Borders on the edge of a flyer, can sometimes give the flyer a classic look. But make sure the borders are a good few mm in from the trim edge, because of the way we print flyers (up to 32 at a time) and the speed at which we turn them round (from payment, to your door) these borders may not be an accurate trim to the exact 10th of a mm. This is why we ask for a 2mm bleed. The cutting blade could go either way. We cannot be held responsible for imperfect results if these borders are slightly uneven.
It is important you follow these guidlines as any errors made are likely to cause a delay or cause unncessary stress should the final print quality be sub-standard.
1. Check your files
Check your artwork for spelling mistakes, grammar and ensure all images used are high resolution. Double check to make sure as any errors found will delay the turnaround of your product.
2. Bleed
Bleed is the extra bit of the design page which you design on, as normal, with the knowledge that it will be trimmed off the finished flyer. Any images on your artwork should bleed off the page, and essential text should be away from the trim edge by a good few mm's. We use a 2mm bleed area on each edge.
3. Text
Keep essential text away from the edge of the flyer, by about 8-10mm for best results.
4. Print Resolution
Ensure your artworks resolution is at least 300dpi. The higher the resolution the better.
5. File Formats
If you are using un-common fonts, ensure you supply your artwork as a flattened jpeg or tiff. This will ensure there will be no font problems when your artwork is checked. The most commonly accepted program formats are Quark, Illustrator, Photoshop, Corel Draw, Corel Paint, Freehand, InDesign and Paint Shop Pro. Vector files such as .eps and pdf's are becoming more common and ensure a better end product.
6. Colours
Unless you have a calibrated monitor your artwork is likely to have slightly different colours when printed. Ensure your colour choices are correct before sending to print.
7. A Final Check
Before sending to your printer, have one more final check that everything is as expected.
WARNING
There are two things you should consider when designing your flyers:
Due to the quick turn around of our flyers, they are trimmed down not long after they are printed, in most circumstances we try to give a printed sheet 8 hours to dry completely, this isn't always the case. This is noticeable when one side of the flyer is left white, and the other side bleeds rich colour to the trim edge. This will cause slight powdering of the rich ink over, on to the white side. In this circumstance we recommend the use of borders.
Borders on the edge of a flyer, can sometimes give the flyer a classic look. But make sure the borders are a good few mm in from the trim edge, because of the way we print flyers (up to 32 at a time) and the speed at which we turn them round (from payment, to your door) these borders may not be an accurate trim to the exact 10th of a mm. This is why we ask for a 2mm bleed. The cutting blade could go either way. We cannot be held responsible for imperfect results if these borders are slightly uneven.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)