First CMYK Job

[jwcarder]

I am working with a customer that is willing to let us experiment with their design. They would like the attached design on Black shirts.

We have a 6-color press with an additional stations that can be set up as our flash. I am thinking these would be White Base + CMYK + Highlight white.

Planning on printing 55 LPI on S-Mesh 225 for the base and 310 for all other screens.

I will use this guide https://printwearmag.com/features/separations-four-color-process-printing as a starting point for my settings in photoshop and will be using Union Ink's Trutone inks on press.

Anyone see anything that I might be going about wrong, or will this be a good start?

[im_mcguire]

Be careful with a plasitsol base, I would recommend a Discharge base if you could.  But all the best to you on this journey.  You might be able to see what Dot Tone Dan can do with the seps, and possibly make this a straight 6 color Sim Process job, which will give you better color , ease of printing vs. 4CP.  "But that is just like my opinion man."

[Dottonedan]

What is the quantity of shirts?  also, Manual press I assume?

[Admiral]

Be careful with a plasitsol base, I would recommend a Discharge base if you could.  But all the best to you on this journey.  You might be able to see what Dot Tone Dan can do with the seps, and possibly make this a straight 6 color Sim Process job, which will give you better color , ease of printing vs. 4CP.  "But that is just like my opinion man."

I would recommend this as well if the garment can be discharged.

We just did a 4CP with a white base since it was on ash shirts - the darker grays in that shirt show through otherwise.  It took 4 additional screens (3 total setups) and art adjustments to get right but it worked out...and this is on ash, on black shirts it would not work, just wouldn't be opaque enough to cover the shirt.

[im_mcguire]

I remember my first 4CP on a black shirt.  I was new to screen printing, and thought everything could be printed 4CP on a base.  Though I have done some shirts that came out pretty good, they did take me countless hours of setup to achieve the desired look I was going for.  The thing that killed me was the color shifting.  I was printing by hand, and I couldn't keep consistent pressure from one shirt to the next, let alone one color to the next.

I then had a client demand we do a 4cp with a plastisol base, and I refused, and tried to get them to go with a full color transfer (vinyl).  They said no, and wanted to see what it did with a plastisol base.  I obliged, and they paid for all of the setup.  after the first 5 shirts came off of the press, they switched to white shirts.

[jwcarder]

Job is only 25 shirts, but customer is willing to pay a fairly high price for them. It also an excuse for us to try new printing methods.

I would be open to doing a discharge base, but read about plastisol having issues with durability when printed over discharge.

I would also be willing to look at sim process.

We are currently a manual shop, but have a diamondback 6/8 set for delivery next week and this would be one of the first jobs on the new press.


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[Maff]

Another vote for discharge base if possible. We also add 15% discharge white to our base. Our base screen is in halftones like a sim process print.
We also prefer the 3x strength Union true tone process inks when printing on black or color shirts, they make it much easier to get a more vibrant print.  Depending on the seps and the design , you can always switch down to the normal strength inks if the print is over saturated.
We will also add in the highlight white last.
We print manual as well and the tough thing is keeping your print stroke consistent every time. Team printing can help with this. If you have a second printer or even just someone that can load and unload shirts on press for you, you can set it up so that you only print continusly and it well help get into a rhythm of consistent print strokes. 

[Ross_S]

If you can't run discharge for the base you will save yourself a lot of time and headaches going with a simulated process print.  No problem using 6 colors for the print either.

[RICK STEFANICK]

Another vote for discharge base if possible. We also add 15% discharge white to our base. Our base screen is in halftones like a sim process print.
We also prefer the 3x strength Union true tone process inks when printing on black or color shirts, they make it much easier to get a more vibrant print.  Depending on the seps and the design , you can always switch down to the normal strength inks if the print is over saturated.
We will also add in the highlight white last.
We print manual as well and the tough thing is keeping your print stroke consistent every time. Team printing can help with this. If you have a second printer or even just someone that can load and unload shirts on press for you, you can set it up so that you only print continusly and it well help get into a rhythm of consistent print strokes.

The 85/15 underbase is the ticket. With that the reg. strength tru tones will be good enough. be sure to run at least a 200 for the base if using regular mesh with a nice sharp firm squeegie

[Admiral]

25 shirts...DTG (contracted out) would be better than making 5+ screens.

Not to take away the learning experience but price wise...

[jwcarder]

Thanks for the advice everyone! I'm going to give it a shot doing cmyk with a discharge base. If that doesn't work I will look at other options.

[3Deep]

Always good to learn something new so you can add it to your print list, good luck I think you've got some good advice on how to get it done.

[Homer]

problem for us is it usually takes about 20 shirts for the inks and screens to settle in when running process. I understand this is a learning tool so I would suggest to have another 20ish shirts hanging around to run on. Grab a whole bunch of different colors and see what discharges, you may be surprised. and prepare to go DTG if you hit a wall.

[kingscreen]

For only 25 shirts?  I'd order some Freedom transfers from F&M and get it out the door.

[srabadan]

Used to work over at F&M, their 4CP transfer product is pretty tight and might work out nicely for such a small run.