T-shirt help

[John Butto]

I agree with post #40 and they need to find someone who does this kind of work. Just a good stat camera with 4 positives and lay down a good white base on the black and go from there. Still have some good full color shirts from the 70's pull by hand and the colors still pop. Back then "vector" and "spot" would have received a "huh"?

 

[Joe Diaz]

I agree - 4cp is not as vibrant as spot color... but I'll betchya there's a budget too. 8-10 color will double your printing price on the job. What kind of quantity are you talking Joe?

If money is no object - hell yeah - run it in spot color. But expect to pay for it. And if the client is probably expecting a price around the one he's already gotten from the other shop.... he'll be in for a pretty big sticker shock on a 8-10 color print.

I don't know how many they want to order, or budget for printing. I was basically just hired to do the design work. He had picked out the screen printer before I even did the work. When the screen printer he picked out started having issues with this jobs then I was thrown into the printing process. I did hear him say that they wanted to do 5 colors, but that was with this screen printer though, so I'm guessing all of that would depend on his budget (what ever that is). I'm just guessing, but 8-10 might be more than he is willing to do. However, he does want nicer ones for the members and then cheaper ones for the public.

Honestly, I don't want to act as the middle man here. As Mosh pointed out, I don't know enough about this process and so I want the customer to talk to the real professional about these options, I just want to pass him off to someone who is going to do a good job. I can work with the printer on sending files over, but the customer would be placing the order, not me.

I would slap the printer in the face who asked for a vectored design, they do not have a clue how to separate art -plain and simple.

That struck me as being odd too which led me to questioning their abilities and ultimately led me to posting this thread.

 

[CanuckSigns]

At what point does a DTG print make sense? if the artwork requires 8-10 different screens and colours would it not be much more cost effective to go DTG? I've never had anything DTG printed before, and my experience with screen printing has been 1-2 colour spot printing. If we were producing these we would probably print on heat press material on our roland and do them that way.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

At what point does a DTG print make sense? if the artwork requires 8-10 different screens and colours would it not be much more cost effective to go DTG? I've never had anything DTG printed before, and my experience with screen printing has been 1-2 colour spot printing. If we were producing these we would probably print on heat press material on our roland and do them that way.

The problem that I keep on hearing with DTG is with regard to the white ink. If you have a high turnover volume, I don't think that it would be a problem, but if you don't have a high turnover, especially for darks, you can have issue with the white ink.

If I recall there is one user on here that had a DTG printer capable of doing both light and dark garments, but due to issues with the white ink, I think he only does light colored garments.

Until the white ink has a little bit more of a fix I'll either do sublimation or embroidery. I'm always looking back at the DTG printers though. I do like the technology. I just wish it was more reliable.

 

[CanuckSigns]

The problem that I keep on hearing with DTG is with regard to the white ink. If you have a high turnover volume, I don't think that it would be a problem, but if you don't have a high turnover, especially for darks, you can have issue with the white ink.

If I recall there is one user on here that had a DTG printer capable of doing both light and dark garments, but due to issues with the white ink, I think he only does light colored garments.

Until the white ink has a little bit more of a fix I'll either do sublimation or embroidery. I'm always looking back at the DTG printers though. I do like the technology. I just wish it was more reliable.

Thanks for the insight, like I said i'm completly out of the garment side of the business.

 

[tcorn1965]

The problem that I keep on hearing with DTG is with regard to the white ink. If you have a high turnover volume, I don't think that it would be a problem, but if you don't have a high turnover, especially for darks, you can have issue with the white ink.

If I recall there is one user on here that had a DTG printer capable of doing both light and dark garments, but due to issues with the white ink, I think he only does light colored garments.

Until the white ink has a little bit more of a fix I'll either do sublimation or embroidery. I'm always looking back at the DTG printers though. I do like the technology. I just wish it was more reliable.

We have the Kornit 932 DTG Printer. It prints beautiful on any color shirt but orange, not bad but not as good as the other colors. We dont have a problem printing white but we do a 100 plus shirts a day.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

We dont have a problem printing white but we do a 100 plus shirts a day.

That's why. 100 shirts a day should keep the fluids flowing. As long as you were doing something a day that would help, but if garments is just such a small portion of the business, I don't see the upside to owning one.

 

[Graphics2u]

That's why. 100 shirts a day should keep the fluids flowing. As long as you were doing something a day that would help, but if garments is just such a small portion of the business, I don't see the upside to owning one.

Owning one is one thing. Having this design printed by someone with a DTG is another thing. The Kornit printers are awsome! But they cost as much as my house! So you need to alot of shirts.


Joe,

I don't care if you know anything about screeniprinting, Digital printing, cutting vinyl letters, or gardening for that matter! As long as you can put out designs like that you know all you need to!

 

[signage]

From what I have seen the Epson based printer do a better job than the Kornit in resolution. For about 1/4 to 1/3 the cost.

 

[WDP]

At what point does a DTG print make sense?

That is the question. We beat out many screenprinters prices often. And we lose just as many due to nickel and diming. We also enjoy the relationships we have with screenprinters who trust our work.

 

[Dkherr]

Looks like a simulated process job to me.

 

[LarryB]

I have a Brother GT-541 t-shirt printer and can knock them out. They would look best on a white or light colored shirt. If you send me the file as a jpeg I can print a sample and email you a photo of it.

 

[ProWraps]

but I was amusing this wouldn't be all that different.

well, you know what happens when you amuse. you make an, err amu out of eh, sing.

 

[Joe Diaz]

well, you know what happens when you amuse. you make an, err amu out of eh, sing.

Yup that's me... I'm just a big Amu$$ , but you know what? We did find a printer who felt the same way. So in this case I assumed (I mean "amused") right.

Again thanks for everyones' help. I feel much more informed now... although I'm confident I will never be an expert on this subject. We found someone to take care of this job and is willing to make my life easier and not give me a hard time about my lack of t-shirt knowledge, which is what I was looking for. So all is good.

 

[Joe Diaz]

On a somewhat related note, You know I think it's funny, how some people might give you a hard time about not having a full understanding of their process, but I know when customers come to me, I have a harder time working with the know-it-all's who try to tell me how to do my job, so I like to trust in the expertise of people I hire and let them do what they do best. I kind of don't really need to know every aspect of their business, I just want to pay them to do a good job, and make it as hassle free on my end as they possibly can.

 

[Dwelltime]

In my experience 4cp printing on t-shirts just doesn't look very good. It's primarily a technical thing regarding half-tone dots that have to sit on the warp and woof of a fabric. In other words, the substrate is not smooth. We would actually send this out to a professional separator who does nothing but separate these kind of images. They charge $25.00 per color for the file, not the film. This would probably be about 8 spot colors printed at 65 to 85 linescreen on 230 mesh.

 

[mikey-Oh]

Which way did this end up going?
I'd like to see a pic

 

[westpointsigns]

4-5 COLORS....That's Not Gonna Happen.

Great Job on the Design!