Rainbow Seperations?

[mimosatexas]

Have a budget conscious client wanting a rainbow style print (see attached for an idea of the colors/style).  Needs a white base (probably double hit as the shirts are fuzzy) and cannot be done with discharge.  I was thinking of basically sepping it like it was CMYK, knocking out the K and substituting the CMY for based down neons or flo inks instead to brighten it up.  I would love to be able to hit it with just 3 screens (plus the base), and having perfect color accuracy isn't crucial, just getting all the relative secondary/tertiary colors.  I don't mind adding a 4th screen, but which color would be ideal for that?

Any thoughts are appreciated.  Thanks!

[Sbrem]

I don't think you'd get much K out of that art anyway. I think the fuzzy surface is going to knock the brightness down some. If you are going to add a color, check the oranges, purples and greens and see which one you would do as a spot, unless you want to go with 6 colors on a base...

Steve

[mimosatexas]

Definitely can't do 6 colors, though obviously that would be ideal.  There is literally no K in the CMYK channels as far as I can see, so I should be good with 3.  Any thoughts on how to increase the vibrance vs standard cmyk inks?  Those always pale out a ton on a thick white base in my experience, and I really want the design to pop.

[Homer]

use the triple strength process inks from Union. we usually end up boosting a color with some regular plastisol if more color is needed. not always, but sometimes....

[3Deep]

The triple Strength cymk is the jam we got some from Rivercity graphics supply good stuff, there's is call Printers Choice, we did a print like that many moons ago and I did it as a sim process job and just let all the colors blend, you'll have to careful with your underbase as it will cause problems.

[Full-SpectrumSeparator]

The issue is whether using process/transparent inks or you need the opacity/plastisol...   

If using transparency over base you may be able to just run CMY and get the blues/reds/greens deep as they are.

If using plastisol you would be best to run flo inks and blend 45 degree offsets for each or just interlock, and you will only get however tints of purple, green, and orange/red.... it wont' create deep reds and blues... greens will be bright basically and it will make nice purple and orange blends but not the true hues of red by magenta/yellow or blue by cyan/magenta... or a deep green.

But on a budget this is the kind of stuff I cut my teeth on separating back in '07-'09  where a client would often print on black and we would just use lemon yellow, solar blue, and brandywine pink or hot magenta.... and I found through trial and error that at least if I'm running the default seps and not pushing the gradients then using 22.5 degrees and then 67.5 degrees for the next screen would give a rosette that isn't true-interlocking (I hadn't looked into that yet) but was much better than all 22.5 or flamenco - because then you have to push the curves or really smash the prints with pressure and too much dot-gain to get it to blend -then your gradients are compressed.   

It was a situation where basically client is like... "No, I'm not paying for green.  Make green from blue and yellow."    So I did... its easy. 

Attached is an example of rainbow blends with opaque inks over halftone base on black shirts.

The one with the heart and skeletons etc was just a test on black shirts, it was run on sport grey with just base white, magenta, flo blue, and lemon yellow on top which has some opacity to get the reds etc....  could have been hit-flash hit on the black with the base and probably come out with the whites brighter as well...

So on a budget you can still get amazing full-color with just CMY process on white,  CMY opaque and blending on blacks - even hit flash-hit no base, or over white underbase... play a bit with the mixture but getting good CMYK with process inks over base on black is very tricky...     If you want I will do a set of free test seps for you on this one.   Also you have basically no black in there, you can just run CMY... but a lot of people don't realize with screenprint you can run CMY on white and make all the blacks with the process CMY inks - they saturate very well... but the registration really needs to be great - all same angle then... . but the opaque inks you blend together with interlocking angles - which of course you can't quite get the pure blends although you can see if putting the more opaque magenta first - then a lemon yellow on top you may get some deep reds. 

Also just saw the reply about the triple-strength CMY and that is a great recommendation I have as well.... but play around with adding reducer to your opaque inks or try the print order with inks and use fluorescents like solar blue and a magenta and see if you can get the royal blues, also the yellow over magenta.....   but keep in mind they are different separations if you are trying the over-prints to get the red/green/blue or if you are trying to just compromise and interlock them which could only result in the tints of red/green/blue which looks orange/light-green/purple....  with some ink mixing or getting them to overprint right you'll get all the hues...  the one with the wings is just 45-degree offset/rosette flo blue, hot pink, and lemon yellow over underbase choked dots...  (there is metallic silver in there spot-color also) -- but the one with the skeletons and heart and all the crazy stuff they wanted put into one design lol...(don't beat me up I just did what they wanted!) - that one is more separated like overprint cmyk so there is magenta/yellow overprint to get the red, etc for the deeper blues and greens - still not process but regular inks and the print sequence set to work well with the inks opacities -- the hot magenta is a lot more opaque than the regular lemon yellow - tends to be thinner.. and over an underbase.   Hope this helps.

[mimosatexas]

The triple Strength cymk is the jam we got some from Rivercity graphics supply good stuff, there's is call Printers Choice, we did a print like that many moons ago and I did it as a sim process job and just let all the colors blend, you'll have to careful with your underbase as it will cause problems.

I actually have those inks and have used them with success, but I feel like they will still be too paie in this case.  I may try using them to thin down neon/flo's instead of a clear base though.  Going to probably test a few options using the same screens (unless it's obvious a change needs to be made in the seps) and see what I like best.  I'll try to post results after I get it how I like it!

Thanks for the tips everyone!