I always struggle with this mascot and we print him all the time...

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

Honestly, I switch back and forth based on the art.  On something like this, it might be beneficial to do the black first to prevent it covering up detail, or it might be beneficial to print it last to help trap.  <snip>

Exactly why I am going to try it this time.

This little guy is kinda cool and we always want him to look JUUUUUUST like the pic. It does't always work like that though.

Sometimes, WU is on black shirts. Sometimes on Gold (or yellow) or even Burnouts, Night Shirts, or Sweats. Sometimes he's imposed over a medallion. And every size imaginable. Sometimes, he's got the vintage distressed look. The bulk of these designs are retailed from our store, but we print for local shops too. I dislike that I can't always "hit it" with a reliable level of perfection.

I'm definitely going to shoot these planning for black down 1st. It might be the answer to repeatability. I don't know the term (embarrased) for ink spreading--the spot color equivalent to dot gain--and I don't know if there are any formulas.

But a .005 or .008 "spread" is NOTHING whatever on a large design. On this design, I chase my tail sometimes. 

It's like if you're trying to vectorize poor art, and doing some hand editing of "nodes". The hardest places seem to be facial elements...like nose, eyes or lips. The hardest blocks of spot color I print are these little WU mascots. People are used to looking at him, and just like a face, a little error is INSTANTLY wrong looking.

[ScreenPrinter123]

White ub 150s
Flash
White hl 225s
Gold 225s
Flash
Black 225s

All butt reg.  The weird order is because I want the two colors that touch the least between the flashes AND because I wanna be different!

[jsheridan]

I might be in the minority here but I absolutely do not like printing black in front of an underbase or flash for that matter. Maybe it's me but damn near all the blacks I've run over the years flash so much faster then any other ink that for me it has created problems. Also flashing the black I've seen draw heat from the flash down into the pallet faster creating the pallets to get hotter much faster and harder to control on long print runs. For me personally I just avoid printing black first or before flashes for those reasons. I would run that print above all on murakami s mesh 225/40 for sure though. As long as art is good, screens proper, and press settings controlled should be able to have super clean crisp prints.

I don't like a black first for the same reason. It looks much cleaner and richer at the end of the print.

[Sbrem]

Hmmm Danny and Steve are both IMO world class printers and got two different methods of printing black, let's me know what works in one shop might not work for another in there shop but still get the same results.  There has only been a few times that I would like to and have printed black first but the build up was a pain in the booty because I didn't flash it.  I will agreed with Danny small graphics can be printed crisp and clean as long as the seps are right and you use the screens etc.

darryl

Now this is funny, I misread what Danny wrote, I thought I was agreeing with him.  We haven't seen those issues, which maybe just means that we haven't seen those issues because we're just missing them. (BTW Darryl, I don't put myself in that class, but thanks anyway). I originally thought the other way when I was an actual printer, but when I became the screen/R&D guy, our best printer worked that way, and the results were excellent. So when I tried it myself (I just had to know) it made sense. Really, the best way to know is to try both and compare results. You'll like it or not like it, and it may not be that big a deal either way. That being said, If I need a black halftone to print, then yes, it comes near the end.

Steve