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screen printing => 4 Color and Simulated Process Printing => Topic started by: blue moon on May 22, 2012, 05:39:23 PM
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We have a customer wanting this printed with metallic inks. I can possibly even come up with two or three shades of silver, but is it even worth the headache?
my thoughts:
metallic inks require coarse screens and will look like crap
possibly use liquid silver and add some black to create different shades. Would that work? Liquid silver should go through finer screens, but not sure how it would handle additional black.
foil is a no go as they want the different colors. Hmmm . . . could we do a halftone underbase and press the foil?
any thoughts?
pierre
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What about the white? There's no white metallic I've seen; maybe a crystalina? Can you show them how it would look with traditional inks, white, 2 or 3 grays, a tiny bit of black, like printing chrome wheels? You might spend the time on the metallics only to find it looks, well, not so good...
Steve
Artelf had some pretty good chrome effects, maybe he'll chime in?
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What about the white? There's no white metallic I've seen; maybe a crystalina? Can you show them how it would look with traditional inks, white, 2 or 3 grays, a tiny bit of black, like printing chrome wheels? You might spend the time on the metallics only to find it looks, well, not so good...
Steve
Artelf had some pretty good chrome effects, maybe he'll chime in?
they are asking for a quote on both regular plastisol and silver ink. They are willing to pay more for the metallic, but I don't even know how to quote it!
pierre
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I had a thought, how about a silver shimmer for one gray, and liquid silver (wilflex I think) for a different metallic? They have different finishes which might add to the effect, maybe even flash them and overprint on a shimmer or liquid silver with, well, I don't really know yet, these things come in spaced out pieces sometimes...
Steve
Anyway, just hit 11.5 hours, so I'm going home to eat, relax, and do some more art for stuff we need for the long weekend...
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I had a thought, how about a silver shimmer for one gray, and liquid silver (wilflex I think) for a different metallic? They have different finishes which might add to the effect, maybe even flash them and overprint on a shimmer or liquid silver with, well, I don't really know yet, these things come in spaced out pieces sometimes...
Steve
Anyway, just hit 11.5 hours, so I'm going home to eat, relax, and do some more art for stuff we need for the long weekend...
that's a good idea! possibly even print some gel over something else . . .
pierre
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Silver Shimmer is tintable. In offset printing they use silver ink and add whatever pantone ink you want to make it a metallic. This would work with our inks as well. Just make sure to use translucent inks. They may not be as shinny but they will have a metallic look to them. I have printed a shimmer with a 165 screen and got surprisingly good coverage. Not sure how a long run would go. Its really one of those jobs you need to take just to figure out if it can be done. Good luck.
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Sep it normally to get the visual feel and then add in a clear, particle base, overprint with some shinies in there of your choice....or foil it selectively.
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Is the print actually metallic?
It could just be very well done very well through the art and seps..
*( kinda cheesy filter overkill, but whatever )
I realize what they ask for, but..I would think the metallics would look
wrong on a 2D shaded representation of a 3D object, as the art is what
is making all those reflections and such, not funky ink.
perhaps your customer is mistaken in what they actually want.
.02
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I thought the pic was just a mock up.
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I'm pretty sure it is, but I'm talking about this.
Yes, it's quick and dirty and the jpeg was uber low to begin with, but,
On black garments only, I see using:
- White
- Lt gray
- medium gray with a blue tint, for simplicities sake
- and a dark gray with a blue tint
( if you want to go overboard )
Substitue the grey for metallic, thinks might look weird.
Just throwin some thoughts your way.
Cheers
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Here's the deal Pierre. Liquid silver and many metallics and shimmer are indeed tintable. The best way to tint is with............anyone?
Also consider the clear foil I would add $1.00 for either could go down to .75
Ok I'll spare the suspense, you tint with process inks, especially process black for blk/wht tonal work. Try 45 LPI
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Here's the deal Pierre. Liquid silver and many metallics and shimmer are indeed tintable. The best way to tint is with............anyone?
Also consider the clear foil I would add $1.00 for either could go down to .75
Ok I'll spare the suspense, you tint with process inks, especially process black for blk/wht tonal work. Try 45 LPI
Tony to the rescue!!!
I was about to call Wilflex and have a chat with them this morning, but you just saved me the trouble. Foil would not work as we are still limited to plastisol. Since I would have to buy liquid silver, we'll add at least $1 per shirt, possibly more. 'gotta make the call now and find out what's to going rate for a quart of this stuff. . .
pierre
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No problem buddy......the obvious reason for the process tinting is that their transparency allows the metallic properties to show through. You may have to sniff around for quarts, Nazdar only sells it to me in gals but I believe other distributors will break it down. Last gal I purchased was $120 I believe. So tint with care!
tp
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Yea, whatever you choose to tint with, make sure it has no white in it. The white will cloud it very very quickly. Pigments are great, mixing system colors are great, again, as long as they are clean clear colors. Process inks work great because of this.
Also, be very careful about cure times... The silver ink reflects heat just like reflective inks do.... it will easily take 1.5 times as long to cure because of this. And don't ask about flash times... ;)
If you want to over print a clear or gel... that's another topic...
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Tony, I actually knew to tint it with process colors as they are the most transparent colors.
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Colin,
I have some pigment concentrates for the waterbased inks (Matsui). It's just liquid pigment of some sort. Could I add that in instead of the process ink? We are talking a gram or two at the most. Could such a small qty mess up the plastisol bad enough to cause problems?
pierre
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Yikes NO! Oil and water don't mix.
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it figures . . .
Thanx Tony! You are GRRRREEAAATTT!
(http://www.interactive.org/images/games/tony_the_tiger-lg.jpg)
pierre
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Yea, like Tony said, do not mix the two :)
Huzza for East Coasters getting up earlier then me ;)
When you get in the Silver ink, do a simple print cure test. If you can get away with it Pierre, flash the print just before it comes off the press so It goes into the dryer hotter. This will help with cure times.
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Yea, like Tony said, do not mix the two :)
Huzza for East Coasters getting up earlier then me ;)
When you get in the Silver ink, do a simple print cure test. If you can get away with it Pierre, flash the print just before it comes off the press so It goes into the dryer hotter. This will help with cure times.
thanx Colin,
I knew you'd catch up with the east coast! 'was actually surprised Tony beat you to it!
pierre
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I'm on Central time and my key is in the door no later than 6:00 am so thats the reason I am getting sneak peeks. Usually get to get out at 4:00 sharp right after night shift shows up though.