Sonft Hand ink/ What is it?

[Dottonedan]

Some people are referring to a "soft hand ink" as if that was a "type" of ink.  Is it?  Soft hand ink has always been similar to "process inks or any thin in system like Rutlans M@'s or Unions Uni match.

Is a "soft hand ink" a water base inks?  I have heard all three mentioned in one sentence.

Soft hand ink on this screen,
Water base on this one
Plastisol ink on this one.

??

[Clark]

People are adding soft hand, or fashion soft base to plastisol to get a softer hand these days.  I am assuming when the say they are using soft hand ink, this is what they are referring to.

[Colin]

There are sofhand additives/bases that you can either add pigments to or add to finished inks.  The difference (mainly) are the resins that go into making these inks.  When cured the softhand/softee/chino base/fashion soft plastisol will feel much softer than standard plastisol.  When printed correctly you can barely tell the difference between them and waterbase inks.

[Evo]

There are sofhand additives/bases that you can either add pigments to or add to finished inks.  The difference (mainly) are the resins that go into making these inks.  When cured the softhand/softee/chino base/fashion soft plastisol will feel much softer than standard plastisol.  When printed correctly you can barely tell the difference between them and waterbase inks.

Hello Colin. Nice first post!


I had a customer just recently send me a sample they had done by another printer. They used a "soft hand" plastisol that while had a decently soft hand, it was no where near the "no ink at all" feel of a laundered wb print. You could roll the print between your fingers and still feel a bit of "grip" to the ink.

So yeah, I always think of a "soft hand" print as a based-down plastisol print.

[ZooCity]

What up Colin, good to see ya over here.

Dan, if I was the separating son of a gun that you are I'd be careful with how multi-color seps workout with "soft hand" inks.  They're not only more transparent but they don't hold great dot shape, can get weird applied over underbases and they can and will fibrilate like all get out.  Not that I don't like 'em, in fact I love them in a lot of ways but they have their own unique application for sure.

You know this already but with these inks you really need to consider the garment color, and especially the percentage of "soft hand" base in that ink to it's pigmentation as well as the ink color and keep the fingers crossed.  It's difficult to predict what the final color outcome is going to be just based on the ink color and mesh count.  Higher EOM alone could change the color dramatically. 

[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! 

[Frog]

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.

Union -  Soft Hand Plastisol Base
IC  - Soft Hand Clear Base