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Sonft Hand ink/ What is it?

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Fresh Baked Printing:
Technically, I don't think soft-hand refers to a ink type but rather the finished feel a.k.a., "hand".
For platisols, very generally speaking,  if it stirs like taffy it wont be soft-hand without help. If it stirs like warm butter then it has the potential to be soft-hand straight from the container.
Other consolidations go into a soft-hand print however. If I p/f/p through a 80 mesh on a white shirt, it wont be as soft as one stroke through a 230 mesh then cure on a white shirt. So it is possible to use so called soft-hand inks to a point where they're bullet proof and not remotely soft at all. Technique is everything.
For Union inks, the "soft" inks are the Ultrasofts. Sometimes, some soft base (a pigment free version of a Ultrasoft ink) can be added to thicker inks to improve hand. On the flip side, too much soft base will dilute the color, affecting the opacity.

Colin:
Howdy Chris  :)

You are all correct in stating that done incorectly, soft hand inks may not feel soft or as soft as we, the printers, expect.

If you are doing a sim-process job on lights with heavily "reduced" inks (lots of soft hand modifier) or pigmented softhand inks, where you are printing several colors on top of each other to acheive a blended color, yes you will definately feel the ink deposit.

If you are printing a spot color job with maybe some gentle gradients (no real blending) printed correctly: higher mesh counts, harder squeegiees, pushing the ink INTO the garment, then you will have little to no hand at all. 

I have several shirts from different customers that I can NOT feel the ink on.  Conversely, I have several shirts where the ink was stacked and the hand is VERY noticable.  Another thing you will notice is the inks (when in a thicker deposit) will feel more rubbery/have a bit of grip.  This again is due to the resins used to give the inks a softer feel.

And yes, softhand inks (in general) do not matte the shirt fibers very well.  This is why it's recomended to print this primarily on the lighter weight garments.

As far as being opaque on dark/darker garments, the only way to get close is by adding pigments/color boosters to your ink of choice.  Even then, it is art dependent as to whether or not it looks good.

Each Ink manufacturere has a version of this.

QCM: Softee Base
Wilflex: Fashion Soft
Rutland: Chino Base
I don't remeber the names for Union and ICC.  If anyone wants to chime in with those products that would be great.

ZooCity:
I'll put another word in on this:

You really can get an incredibly soft hand out of these, I've had clients who disburse their Ts we print across the country calling me up looking for help finding a printer in their area that can achieve that hand.  Most assume its a wb print.  Compared to the super heavy, often slop job prints coming out of many shops they're surprised that it's the same ink system used to achieve that hand.   

Fibrilation is the buzzkill with the softee inks though.  You need to plan for it and make it part of the finished, washed garment or just go with wb inks. 

ErinAllenLamb:
I wish there was a like button!! I would like Colin's post!

Colin:
I agree with Erin.  I've had the same thoughts on several posts lately!  ;D

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