Black on white underbase

[ScreenPrinter123]

Do any of you ever print black on top of a white underbase in a multicolor design.  And I mean solid black and not halftones in order to get shades of grey.  In a design where we are trying to use 310s for all top colors I am not sure the black will show enough unless we print it on top of the white or go with a lower mesh count and I am not sure what I need to consider in making this decision so I thought I would get some feedback.

[prozyan]

I've done it before for fine lines.  The two pics below both had black printed on top of white in some places.

[3Deep]

About the only time I would over print a solid black on a white underbase is on dark color shirts where I want the black shine or have some pop to it, other than that trying to make grey out of black halfs which you already talked about.

Darryl

[JBLUE]

We only print black on a base for detail like prozyan. Anything else gets knocked out.

[alan802]

Very rarely.  I'm not saying to never do it but the need to seems very few and far between.  I don't like the way it looks but I understand it might be necessary in some cases, especially when you are tying everything together with a border or outlines.

[screenprintguy]

We print the black on the under base to keep all of the ink textures as close as possible, especially after the customer has done the first wash and dry, the 1 hit of black will tend to fibrillate if its direct and give a different texture, but it really always boils down to each design and what the customer is looking to achieve as an after washed product. I see shirts in retail all the time where the printers would not print the black outlines ect on the under base and after the first wash really loses the quality of the artwork's look. It really comes down to what you want to represent your company as final products too. We took different printer's advice, and wash tested various prints using different methods to find that keeping the ink textures as close as possible will keep a long lasting print that keeps the customer happy.

[alan802]

We print the black on the under base to keep all of the ink textures as close as possible, especially after the customer has done the first wash and dry, the 1 hit of black will tend to fibrillate if its direct and give a different texture, but it really always boils down to each design and what the customer is looking to achieve as an after washed product. I see shirts in retail all the time where the printers would not print the black outlines ect on the under base and after the first wash really loses the quality of the artwork's look. It really comes down to what you want to represent your company as final products too. We took different printer's advice, and wash tested various prints using different methods to find that keeping the ink textures as close as possible will keep a long lasting print that keeps the customer happy.

You need to keep your black parts of your design from fibrillating

[screenprintguy]

You know what I mean, it all looks nice and thick until the end wearing customer has it in their hands and beats the crap out of it in the washer and dryer. That is with a one hit of black and way, a nice p f p on the black always lays down, but since you are already under baseing with white, top it with the black and boom, right. I'm always up for trying new techniques as long as the long term result is nice.