Advice on printing certain designs with specific noob equip.

This is the place to talk about what it takes to get started. This would include what equipment to buy, space requirements, electrical needs and anything related to getting ready to begin screen printing. Have a question regarding what it takes to screen print tee shirts? Please post them here...

Moderators: Shamax, Leadfoot, ApeShirt, Catspit Productions

Krenzathal
Screen Trooper
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Dec 25, 2012 12:38 pm

Advice on printing certain designs with specific noob equip.

Post by Krenzathal »

Hi all,

I've recently got the t-shirt printing bug and I'm anxious to give it a go, just as a hobby to start with of course.

I've been using Paint Shop Pro since I was a young teenager and Deluxe Paint before that so I'm no stranger to the design side of things but I'd appreciate some advice on getting them onto the t-shirt.

I have 6 designs (nothing more I just want to keep it simple) usually sourced from photos with some added block text sometimes and made into a one colour (black) high contrast "Che Guevara" type effect, See link below for an example -

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&sa ... ,s:0,i:103

Backgrounds are all transparent so they can be applied to any colour t-shirt.

Now I've thought about outsourcing the designs to be printed on Plastisol transfers, but I really want to get stuck into every aspect of the process myself so I'm going to buy a heat press and I already have an Epson inkjet printer.

Could someone please give me advice on the best way to get these kind of images onto t-shirts (White, red and Blue) with the equipment that I have? I'm sure my printer can handle printing the images on transfers fine but it's excess polymer and weeding that I'm most concerned about and I don't really know the choices.

Thanks any info will help!
User avatar
Catspit Productions
Site Admin
Posts: 1995
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 10:47 am
Location: Phoenix, Arizona

Re: Advice on printing certain designs with specific noob eq

Post by Catspit Productions »

Unfortunately there is no easy answer for this question. You could use digital inkjet heat transfers but they are limited to mostly white tees. There are some transfer papers that will work on dark garments but you would have to explore them and test them for quality.

See this post for more on that:

http://www.catspitproductionsllc.com/fo ... ?f=38&t=13

I would seriously consider having them done as plastisol heat transfers because the quality will be much better than digital transfers. And you would be able to use more than one color very easily. What you have is basically a posterization of a photograph. Like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49WY1Ehxb28

So if you want to print black only on red, white and blue garments then maybe a digital heat transfer would suffice but if you want something like the sickle or text in color like the yellow shown there in your image then you can either do plastisol transfers or a digital inkjet transfer for dark garments.

Most new digital heat transfer papers will be self-weeding. That is what you would want. You can learn more about different transfer methods here:

http://www.catspitproductionsllc.com/sc ... icles.html

In the end in using digital heat transfer papers you will need to do the research and see what papers you like. I hope that helps you out a bit. Good luck and let us know how you do.
Jonathan Monaco
Catspit Productions, LLC
Learn how to screen print tee shirts!

http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/CatspitProductions
User avatar
Leadfoot
Master Screen Printer
Posts: 234
Joined: Fri Apr 13, 2012 2:07 pm
Location: Tennessee
Contact:

Re: Advice on printing certain designs with specific noob eq

Post by Leadfoot »

Starting out one thing I have had to learn is to keep designs and colors simple. That can be hard to do when you start doing things for others but there is nothing wrong with being up front about your limitations. Unless you have a 6 or 8 color press and comfortable with process you will not be able to do everything. But I have found most people just want one to four colors with most wanting one or two until you start going more advanced.
Krenzathal
Screen Trooper
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Dec 25, 2012 12:38 pm

Re: Advice on printing certain designs with specific noob eq

Post by Krenzathal »

Hi, sorry for the late reply, hope everyone had a good Christmas or whatever you celebrate.

Thanks for the information. For now I'm definitely sticking to 'posterization' shots with one colour on lighter garments. I'm not in any rush and I'd like to keep it simple.

I thought about ordering Plastisol transfers but I really want to get my hands dirty, especially at this early stage and TBH the quality doesn't need to be super great as It's just a bit of fun right now.

So digital heat transfers would be best for this kind of image then? Any recommendations on transfer paper brands or ink? I have an Epson printer but it's been used already with standard Ink for office stuff and I'm not sure if that would affect any t-shirt printing process as I'm sure I've heard that you need a clean unused printer.

Thanks once again! :)
User avatar
Catspit Productions
Site Admin
Posts: 1995
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 10:47 am
Location: Phoenix, Arizona

Re: Advice on printing certain designs with specific noob eq

Post by Catspit Productions »

Honestly if this is a one color print then you can screen print it with hinge clamps and a screen. It should be fairly easy to print film positives and burn the screen as it is a spot color. You would need a squeegee, screen, film positive, and ink.



Water based black ink will be pretty easy to work with. The biggest challenge is not letting it dry in the screen while you work. Then you can use parchment paper and an iron to heat set it after it dries. Black stains pretty well so I wouldn’t imagine a washout problem unless you can’t heat set it properly. After the iron you can also throw it in the dryer at the highest heat setting for a cycle or 2.

Or you could look into heat transfers because again as black it should set pretty well with a decent paper. You would want a self-weeding transfer paper like this one:

http://www.catspitproductionsllc.com/fo ... =38&t=2136

Or an inkjet paper if you have an inkjet printer. You should be able to use your existing Epson printer. If it prints crsip and clean it should work fine. Most new inkjet papers will be designed for pigment inks which is what the Epson should have. I don’t have any recommendations for a self-weeding inkjet paper however. Not yet. But you could try any of the Neenaheat papers sold by RhinoTech:

http://www.catspitproductionsllc.com/rh ... plies.html

Those would probably be your cheapest options.
Jonathan Monaco
Catspit Productions, LLC
Learn how to screen print tee shirts!

http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/CatspitProductions
Krenzathal
Screen Trooper
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Dec 25, 2012 12:38 pm

Re: Advice on printing certain designs with specific noob eq

Post by Krenzathal »

Thanks for the information, your explanations are always easy to follow and helpful.

The hinge clamp screen looks really interesting and I'd definitely like to give that a go but I'd need to do more research on screen printing as I've just been studying up on transfers and the like.

On that note have you or anyone else ever used Kisscut self weeding paper? http://www.kisscutpaper.com/

It looks too good to be true, which it probably is but it would also be ideal as well.

Thanks once again!
User avatar
Catspit Productions
Site Admin
Posts: 1995
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 10:47 am
Location: Phoenix, Arizona

Re: Advice on printing certain designs with specific noob eq

Post by Catspit Productions »

I have heard of Kisscut but I have never used it. I wouldn’t mind testing it out but the thing that would hold me back is they want you to buy their special ink. I would guess that is not cheap to convert a 6 head Epson inkjet printer to all Kiscut transfer inks. And then that printer can only print those transfers because you wouldn’t want to waste the ink on anything else.

Then you have to buy the paper. So this could be a very viable process but it evidently takes a decent amount of commitment to undertake.

I have never seen them at any shows that I can recall. But I would love to see this stuff work. They recommend Epson inkjet printers. Many screen printers may have an extra one to use for this purpose.

It looks like it is worth investigating.
Jonathan Monaco
Catspit Productions, LLC
Learn how to screen print tee shirts!

http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/CatspitProductions
Krenzathal
Screen Trooper
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Dec 25, 2012 12:38 pm

Re: Advice on printing certain designs with specific noob eq

Post by Krenzathal »

I think they only 'recommend' that they use their ink and you can use others. I'm sure it isn't much better than any other (I'm assuming pigmented!) ink on the market and is more a sales tactic then anything else.

I'll be getting my heat press soon and will order a pack to try out so I'll report back after a few presses and washes and see what it's like (Some margin for noob error of course!) :)
User avatar
Catspit Productions
Site Admin
Posts: 1995
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 10:47 am
Location: Phoenix, Arizona

Re: Advice on printing certain designs with specific noob eq

Post by Catspit Productions »

That sounds great, thanks and good luck!
Jonathan Monaco
Catspit Productions, LLC
Learn how to screen print tee shirts!

http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/CatspitProductions
Post Reply