Artwork

[Reavesse11]

I am obviously new to printing and am running into a tough time. My positives line up out of the printer for a two color job but when I tested the screens, the stencils are way off. I have huge gaps all the way around my design. I looked at my screen and I have some emulsion right around the edge that looks like is should have washed out but didn't. Could that have that much to do with it? How do I get my stencils finer? Thanks in advance.

[Catspit Productions]

We’ll it’s difficult to diagnose form here but it sounds like you may be over exposing and “choking” the artwork some.

“I have some emulsion right around the edge that looks like is should have washed out but didn't.”

That’s why I am guessing an over exposure but there are other reasons for difficulties like this such as:

Distorted film positives - sometimes printing the film positive can be problematic with a nasty printer. Make sure the film sheet is loading correctly and not bending at all as it feed through the printer. Laser films can also shrink during printing.

Poor artwork - make sure you don’t have any strokes missing or where they shouldn’t be. And make sure any strokes are the proper color black to print well on the film positive the same as the fill.

Exposure issues - using warped Plexiglas or weights or not being able to sandwich the film positive to the screen during the exposure may also cause distortion issues for multi-color jobs.

So yes, that could have to do with it and you may want to try backing off on the exposure until you get it to where the emulsion cures but no more.