T-shirts printing

Follow these simple tips when ordering your custom screen printed t-shirts for a quicker and more trouble free experience. The first thing to be discussed is the difference between screen printing and digital garment printing.  In general screen printing is a more labor intensive process than digital printing and requires color separations and individual screens to be made for each color in the design. Digital garment printing on the other hand is simply a shirt printed in a printer much like the paper printer that most of us use everyday to print photos or documents.

The subject of a different article, but for now suffice it to say that digital garment prints work better on white or light colored shirts and are better suited to short run orders.

Artwork is a prime factor in getting your shirts printed in a timely manner. The better the artwork, the better the finished product. I’m sure you have heard the old adage “Junk in, Junk out”, well, this is truly the case when it comes to screenprinting. Artwork falls into two basic groups depending on what software program produced it or where it came from.The first group I will talk about are Raster images. Raster images will have file extensions such as .bmp, .jpg ,.tif, or .psd and are pixel maps which are dependent on resolution (dots per inch ) to maintain clarity. The higher the dpi, the clearer the image will be. While Raster images are great for digital printing, they can be problematic for screen printing in that file sizes are typically large and color separations can be more difficult, not to mention the pix-elation that occurs when up sizing images. If a Raster image is the only option that you have, be sure that it is sized appropriately for screen printing and in a high resolution (at least 300 dpi original resolution) before sending to avoid additional art charges or unnecessary delays.

The second group is called vector images. Vector images are preferred by screen printers due to their flexibility in resizing without degradation, smaller file sizes and ease of color separations. Typical file extensions for vector images are .ai, .eps and .cdr. Vector images use point coordinates and mathematical equations to define elements in an image as opposed to pixels and can therefore be re-sized without discrimination. Vector images are your best bet for getting a fast turnaround and avoiding additional art charges when ordering your custom t-shirts printing.

Color selection is also something to be considered ahead of time to help expedite your order. Your printer will need to know the pantone colors that you would like to be used in your t-shirts printing.

Shirt Selection can be confusing, but basically there are two main fabric weight classes to select from, 5.6 oz or 6.1 oz. Beyond that style will need to be decided, Ladies or Men’s, short sleeve or long sleeve, pockets or not, scoop neck v-neck or regular, as well as shirt color. It will save much time if all of this is decided ahead of time, and whether you purchase your shirts from our company or not, please feel free to shop and make selections with our online Catalog If your custom t-shirts printing order includes any individualization such as names or numbers prepare a list displaying properly spelled names, numbers, and sizes to help avoid confusion.

We hope that this article has been helpful in making a custom screen printing order a little less daunting. Artistic Apparel has been in the decorated apparel business for 6 years and is a supplier of quality apparel, Screen Printing, and promotional products. Please visit our web page here, Artistic Apparel

 

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We are often asked to print many colors in a design and one may think that the more colors you put in your t-shirt design the better your shirts are going to look. We have found in our experience that when it comes to screen printing t-shirts more is not always better. When designing, it is always advisable to use as few colors as possible for several reasons, the least of which is set up cost and cost per unit for printing. Obviously, the fewer colors here the cheaper the cost, and in the event of frequent re ordering this needs to be a consideration. Too many colors on many designs tend to clutter the space. In the printing process we often lay down one or two colors of a four or five color logo and say “that looks great right now, our client should have stopped at two colors”. We have found this to be the case far too often, and even though we attempt to steer our clients in this direction, they often insist on all the colors. Every once in awhile we will be so impressed with one or two colors that we will actually leave one shirt that way to show our client and most of the time they decide to go that way on the next order because they had no idea that their design would look so good in one or two colors, not to mention the cost savings. Our recomendation is to pay much closer attention to print color and shirt color combinations for the most pop and when possible use the color of the shirt and halftones to enhance the design and save money.

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Designing a Logo for t-shirts printing or embroidery is not difficult, but their are a few things to keep in mind during the design process. First let me say here that I am sure that their are a multitude of Graphic Designers out there that are very good at what they do, and are knowledgeable in their craft to a level far beyond what we do on a day to day basis. Having said that, however, with all due respect, I am convinced that many of them are not educated on the details of Screen Print or embroidery. I say this because we get logos in our operation on a regular basis that just are not screen print or embroidery friendly.  Unfortunately, most of these folks have paid a lot of money to have their logo designed, and they look absolutely brilliant, only problem is, some of those details that look excellent on a computer screen or on paper simply will not work and have to go away.  That’s too bad, because didn’t these people pay for a logo that would stay consistent throughout all applications?  Here are a few tips to keep in mind when you have your logo designed so that it will work well for t-shirts printing or embroidery as well as all the other applications.

Make sure your logo will look good in a black and white version as well as full color.

It is easy to forget that you may want to put your logo in places that more than one color either is not possible or is cost prohibitive. One example of this is for Promotional Products like pens where full color logos are just not practical. Think ahead here, and have your logo designed so that a single color version still looks good.

Watch the Fine Detail.

Fine detail is pretty in a picture, but it becomes very problematic especially for embroidery. Screen printing is better suited to handle this, but is not without it’s challenges.  The bottom line is that there are many elements that look great on a computer screen but absolutely cannot be embroidered and are difficult for screen printing.  Very small text, or very fine lines are the culprit here, and of course will cause the most trouble when used for a left chest logo. The goal is to keep the columns or fine lines in your design at least 1 mm in thickness.  As for text, while smaller than 1/4 inch in height can many times be accomplished that is a good goal to shoot for and at the same time, for left chest purposes, no more than 17 to 20 characters including spaces in a single row.  Avoid outlines on lettering less than 1 inch in height, particularily with embroidery as they generally do not look or work the best.  One final note is that gradients are more difficult for embroidery and are more expensive to have digitized. 

Recommendations

Our Recommendations are that if you can’t keep your design within these guidelines Have two different versions created that you can be happy with, one with all the bells and whistles, and one specifically for embroidery and or screen printing. Aside from that be sure that you get all of your artwork on disc from your designer saved in a number of formats to include both raster and vector images. Even though you may not be able to open some of these formats they will be extremely useful to your supplier, and you will have them ready to go when the need arises.

Follow these tips for logo design and your t-shirts printing or Embroidery will be much more productive and you will be more pleased with the result.

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