Print "too thin"

[jvanick]

one of our customers is complaining that our white plastisol print feels too thin... no wash issues, no fibrilation, nothing like that, just that he thinks it feels 'cheap' because the print doesn't feel like it's there.

(he doesn't like discharge, but that's a whole different story).

He showed us a shirt from another local printer here that had to have been printed on a 83 mesh screen and PFP, the jaggies were aweful, and the print felt like it was about 1/8" thick...

What do I tell someone like that?

[ericheartsu]

one of our customers is complaining that our white plastisol print feels too thin... no wash issues, no fibrilation, nothing like that, just that he thinks it feels 'cheap' because the print doesn't feel like it's there.

(he doesn't like discharge, but that's a whole different story).

He showed us a shirt from another local printer here that had to have been printed on a 83 mesh screen and PFP, the jaggies were aweful, and the print felt like it was about 1/8" thick...

What do I tell someone like that?

we deal with this all the time. We just tell them, this is the way most of our clients like their prints, and so it's the way we print. most of the time, in fact all of the time, the clients that are complaining, or ordering 12 shirts.

We also tell all of our clients up front, our goal is for soft prints.

[mimosatexas]

Tell them that thick prints are the result of poor control over the variables that make a great print.  I can't think of a single reason a thick print would be better...

[Frog]

Tell them that thick prints are the result of poor control over the variables that make a great print.  I can't think of a single reason a thick print would be better...

Historically, for rugged athletic applications, bulletproof numbers stand up to the combative grabbing and pulling on the field better than fashion prints.

[Squeegie]

We had a client years ago that had a summer resort.  He had been dealing with the classic 70's & 80's era prints...thick and plastic-y (is that a word).

I delivered his first order of 100 sweat shirts and 200 tees...he just about had a coronary.  Hated them!
I had to drop my mesh and flash every color so that it had a thick "something he could feel" print.

I was so happy when his son took over and asked me to change the logo and the way it was printed.  He too hated the thick stuff but had to go along with his dad. ($$)

I charged more for the thick nasty prints.

Good luck!

[mk162]

maybe it goes back to why people also ordered those raised print business cards...even though they were so cheap

[starchild]

Thick prints has it's place.. On the streetwear side of things, if the print is too soft, then is too metro. Having a hand to the print denotes quality.

[mk162]

I remember the first time printing a base through a 230, i thought it wouldn't work...and when it did I knew we'd never go back to a 110 base(which we actually do on some things)

[Frog]

maybe it goes back to why people also ordered those raised print business cards...even though they were so cheap

Actually, meant to be a cheap simulation of proper die stamp engraved cards. (I actually served a few month sentence, between real jobs, LOL! running a letterpress with a thermograph hopper sprinkling plastic powder on the wet ink before going under a mini-dryer) Stuff was probably similar to the adhesive powder we use on transfers.

Thick prints has it's place.. On the streetwear side of things, if the print is too soft, then is too metro. Having a hand to the print denotes quality.

This may also be like my reference to athletic prints standing up to the rugged combat on the field

[dirkdiggler]

we printed some prison uniforms and they wanted it so thick, I almost had to use cap film to make them happy.

[GKitson]

one of our customers is complaining that our white plastisol print feels too thin... no wash issues, no fibrilation, nothing like that, just that he thinks it feels 'cheap' because the print doesn't feel like it's there.

(he doesn't like discharge, but that's a whole different story).

He showed us a shirt from another local printer here that had to have been printed on a 83 mesh screen and PFP, the jaggies were aweful, and the print felt like it was about 1/8" thick...

What do I tell someone like that?

Love this question, it just points out how important understanding customer expectation is.

My favorite example, it is impossible to make both the Football Coach and the Cheer sponsor happy with the same print, think about it!

~Kitson

[Screened Gear]

My beer is too cold, My wife is too hot, my kids are too good and my house is too big. I know how that guy feels.

[AntonySharples]

Oh my god!  I had a horrible day capped off by a new client, who orders $75K+ a year, tell me today that our prints were too thin and he wanted the bulletproof print he was getting before.  I've been so pissed about it.  Some of the sweatshirts up close have an opacity issue due to the dreadful flouro yellow, but that was about 5 out of 350.  I now know to make sure to find out what each persons expectations are.

[JBLUE]

Let him know that that he is uneducated in the screen printing process (in a nice way). The thicker print is not a sign of quality but just the opposite. People print thick to cover up the short comings in equipment or just lack of experience. We print for street wear and it boils down to opacity not thickness. A lot of customers confuse the two. When they want it thick I let them know its a price increase due to the large amount of ink wasted and time spent to actually make the print look bad like their competition.....lol