4 color process-a good idea?

[Rockers]

This will print on 200 tees, either aqua blue or maybe royal blue. Too many colors- I`m thinking 4 color process with a discharge underbase and maybe throwing in a highlight white and a spot black. You think the outcome will be acceptable?
Otherwise it will be DTF which I would hate on 200 tees or DTG which I hate too.

[Dottonedan]

For my choice, I’d do DTF for this one. The reason being, the top image being the way it is with the retro arcade pixel art style, doing this in cmyk would put dots over pixels. It’s already not that crisp. Tossing dots all over it would make it even more funky. IMO. 

The DTF would be very clean, more so than the DTG.  I just hate pressing 200 shirts. LOL.

[brandon]

If you have access to someone with a hybrid / Digital Squeegee just outsource it. Once the job is on press that should be about 45 or 50 min. It can handle the low res art and will be a lot faster than heat pressing 200 shirts. You will make less since you are outsourcing but you free up your time for more profitable jobs.

[zanegun08]

This is a rare occasion where using a transparent black to overprint the light colors to make the darker shades could work for both the front and back.

Hybrid would be a good option as well if you could outsource, but if you wanted to do this in house without heat pressing or direct to garment 400 times then here is how this could be done if there is flexibility in not getting the exact colors, but also no halftones so it will look great, just not the exact same.  Some concessions should be able to be made to make a great product.

Also, Royal Blue doesn't discharge well so I would push the client towards the Aqua shirts.

Here is how this could be done, and since you have a 12 color press you'd need to go around twice (gasp) unless you could cut like the orange out, and put a flash there.

Back

1 ) White Base (may not need to base most colors on Aqua blue)
2 ) Flash (or inline heat press)
3 ) Black (under prints light pink to make dark pink)
4 ) Mid Blue
5 ) Skin Tone
6 ) Mid Red
7 ) Light Pink
8 ) Light Green
9 ) Orange
10 ) White
11 ) Transparent Black - like .01% black pigment in clear base with matte additive (overprints to make darker shades of Blue, Skin Tone, Red, Pink, Green, Grey)
12 ) Transparent White - like .02% black pigment in clear base with matte additive (overprints Light Red, and Light Blue to make lighter Shades)

Rotation One

White Base, Flash, Black (thin ink on no base should be fine with no cool down), Mid Blue, Skin Tone, Mid Red, Light Pink, Light Green, Orange, White

Rotation Two

Flash, Transparent Black, Transparent White

The front can be done in the same method as above.

This result will get you all solid colors, it could also be done using simulated color process in one rotation but same thing is that some colors will likely shift and you may still have to go around twice.

Like Brandon said, sub it out, or do hybrid transfer or DTF / DTG, but if you wanted to push yourself and do some real time R&D this can be done the way I said above.  If you do it post results, and if you send me the file for the back I can show you how I'd set it up in illustrator, basically just take the darker shades, and add it to the light, and then the dark shade becomes a overprint layer.

Good luck and report back!

[Rockers]

This is a rare occasion where using a transparent black to overprint the light colors to make the darker shades could work for both the front and back.

Hybrid would be a good option as well if you could outsource, but if you wanted to do this in house without heat pressing or direct to garment 400 times then here is how this could be done if there is flexibility in not getting the exact colors, but also no halftones so it will look great, just not the exact same.  Some concessions should be able to be made to make a great product.

Also, Royal Blue doesn't discharge well so I would push the client towards the Aqua shirts.

Here is how this could be done, and since you have a 12 color press you'd need to go around twice (gasp) unless you could cut like the orange out, and put a flash there.

Back

1 ) White Base (may not need to base most colors on Aqua blue)
2 ) Flash (or inline heat press)
3 ) Black (under prints light pink to make dark pink)
4 ) Mid Blue
5 ) Skin Tone
6 ) Mid Red
7 ) Light Pink
8 ) Light Green
9 ) Orange
10 ) White
11 ) Transparent Black - like .01% black pigment in clear base with matte additive (overprints to make darker shades of Blue, Skin Tone, Red, Pink, Green, Grey)
12 ) Transparent White - like .02% black pigment in clear base with matte additive (overprints Light Red, and Light Blue to make lighter Shades)

Rotation One

White Base, Flash, Black (thin ink on no base should be fine with no cool down), Mid Blue, Skin Tone, Mid Red, Light Pink, Light Green, Orange, White

Rotation Two

Flash, Transparent Black, Transparent White

The front can be done in the same method as above.

This result will get you all solid colors, it could also be done using simulated color process in one rotation but same thing is that some colors will likely shift and you may still have to go around twice.

Like Brandon said, sub it out, or do hybrid transfer or DTF / DTG, but if you wanted to push yourself and do some real time R&D this can be done the way I said above.  If you do it post results, and if you send me the file for the back I can show you how I'd set it up in illustrator, basically just take the darker shades, and add it to the light, and then the dark shade becomes a overprint layer.

Good luck and report back!

Hi Zane, what an awesome reply. I really wanna try this even if the customer might go for DTf in the end due to a lack of funds. But hey it`s for a blockchain company , we do a lot of work for this industry, money is very often not an issue. Anyway, I do want to try the black underbasing and overprinting with transparent white and black. This sounds like a pretty neat way of doing this job. I`ll send you the file in the next few days if you don`t mind. I think I still got your email address from many years ago, unless of course, it has changed. Again thanks a lot for this detailed reply, really appreciate it.