What order would you put these colors in?

[sqslabs]

I've been following all the WOW threads lately, in anticipation of printing our first 10 color this week.  Previous to this, the most my shop has done is 4.  The artwork is a spot color job on green kids shirts, so the print is only 8" wide and many of the hits are minimal.  I've attached a copy of the art, and listed the colors we'll be printing below.  I have a 12 color machine, so I have room for two flashes for the run.

So for the WOW pros out there, what order would you print this, and where would you put the flashes?

Colors
Base White
Cool Grey 8C
Purple 2665C
Blue 300C
Lt. Blue 304C
Pink 189C
Red 485C
Yellow 102C
Top White
Black

Thanks much.   

[CSPGarrett]

I would DTG the print 

Unless the quantity was high enough for screen printing.

[tonypep]

Careful! 2 flashes=no cooldown stations=possible trouble as things heat up. Also watch for where colors touch with no outline separation (minimal here)

[sqslabs]

I would DTG the print 

Unless the quantity was high enough for screen printing.

The runs for this customer are usually between 300-400 pieces, and they'll be reordering every few months.  I've been printing for them for years, and now that we have the higher color capability they're just designing with a lot more colors.

Also, I can't stand DTG.  And I have a Brother machine in-house. 

[sqslabs]

Careful! 2 flashes=no cooldown stations=possible trouble as things heat up. Also watch for where colors touch with no outline separation (minimal here)

I don't mind running the shirts around the machine twice if necessary.  Do you see a way to get it around once with minimal issues, or am I better off revolving it with a few cooldowns?

Thanks for the tips, it is appreciated.

[Parker 1]

I would drop 2 colors (Grey and the 304 blue) and use a % of Black and Top White for the grey do the same for the Lt. Blue.

1_Base White
2_FLASH
3_Open
4_Yellow
5_Pink
6_Red
7_Purple
8_BLue 300
9_Black
10_Flash
11_Open
12_Top White

I would have ink troughs between the touching colors, and a 70-80% half tone base under the Red, Purple & maybe the Darker Blue.
Base white 160 mesh, minimal of 225s on everything else. 

[Dottonedan]

On a job like this, it can be a little easier to reduce color count. Yes, you can print 10 colors, but (do you have to) and would the customer be more happier to have it reduced down to save money?  If sending to a separator, many would jsut give you ten spot colors. For me, I prefer to suggest options of how it can be done and at the same or very near the same image quality. Saving colors (using more halftones) may even soften the print a little. The down side, is depending on the art and shirt color restrictions reducing colors and blending (can) take away from the image quality at times. It all depends on the situation. Each job is different.


THE MOST reduced-With this art, I don't expect this to be too difficult and look too much less than it's original quality if using 230 mesh at 55lpi.
1 Base White
2 Yellow 102C
3 Red 485C
4 Blue 300C
5 Top White (Correction), I would include this top white here so it can help me make the lighter/more pastel colors such as gray and pink. Keep in mind tho, that when I make a gray, I don't just use black and white. I use a small% of many colors and that depends on the shade of gray.
6 Black.

From here, you can add in any other colors you feel are important such as purple. It's a little harder to get closer to the original purple.


The price difference between 5 colors or 10 colors can be huge so it's something worth considering on a job like this. How important is it to the customer to have it look exact...would be my question to the customer. As long as you have 230 mesh, have thinner halftone inks for high mesh and can hold 7-10% dots, you can do this in a reduced color count.
------------------------------------------------------------
Original sequence request:


Colors
1 Base White
2 Yellow 102C
3 Cool Grey 8C
4 Pink 189C
5 Red 485C
6 Purple 2665C
7 Lt. Blue 304C -I put this near the end based on it's size. Larger areas are more visible and if put too early in the run, can get picked up and loose intensity, allowing the shirt or underbase to show thru more.
8 Blue 300C- same as #7, but also darker colors tend to get put near end (but not always true). I know some good printer who print dark to light.
9 Top White - For the very small amount, on a green tee, I might not even use a top white.
10 Black

[dirkdiggler]

I was about to give my 2 cents, then I read Dan's.  That's how we would do it.  Only difference, is I would use 305 instead of 230.

[Parker 1]

THE MOST reduced-With this art, I don't expect this to be too difficult and look too much less than it's original quality if using 230 mesh at 55lpi.
1 Base White
2 Yellow 102C
3 Red 485C
4 Blue 300C
5 Black


From here, you can add in any other colors you feel are important such as purple. It's a little harder to get closer to the original purple.


We would do this ^^^ since we only have an 8 color press, and would add a Top White and Purple if needed. 

[Underbase37]

If your using quartz flashes, you can try a quick flash (2 sec.) & a longer dwell (5sec.) with the carousel in the down position to help with not having a cool down, it will slow the press down but you won't have to send it abound twice. 

Murphy37

[alan802]

I'd be printing the black first, then the base.  It's not much but it does reduce one color in the long sequence of WOW.  I'd also use a fast flashing, low tack white ink and then print directly after the first flash all day long.  There would also not be a need for a second white screen so you can get rid of that.  Maybe that gray could be done with the black screen or if not, make a special gray with a good WOW black ink and you could then print the gray and the black before your base.

[jsheridan]

Id hit the base, flash then darkest to lightest with a flash after the red and before the highlight white.

For  bonus, the screen after base flash becomes your 'roller screen' use a fast print speed with a little more off contact (if possible) to avoid any sticking and be very aware of your heat to avoid cure in the screen.

Alan said black before white, great tip!

[Underbase37]

I agree with Alan, if you can do the black first, that's the way to go. Not sure if you're planning to UB the 300c ( green shirts can be tricky ) but if you can get away without it, you could put it before the base too.

Black
300c
Base
Flash
Grey
Purple
Pink
Red
Lt. Blue
Flash
Pop White
Yellow

Or get rid of the second flash & switch the Lt. Blue & the white. But to much WOW with the black pencil lines first could end up being a problem.

Murphy37

[Underbase37]

On the reducing part. The luck we have with customers & art like this, is that they want all PMS color matches on all colors, this makes using a gradient to make colors out. ( at least for us )

Murphy37

[sqslabs]

Wow, thanks for all the great responses guys.  I should have probably mentioned that I already sent this out for seps, which is how I ended up at 10 colors. 
I'd normally run spot color separations in-house, but the artwork was very low quality to begin with and with this many colors was beyond my skillset.  I was expecting less colors, but figured it couldn't be done.  The separations were done by Scott at MySeps.

The shirts are a light lime green, so I'm thinking the top white may not be necessary if the lighter pastels don't rely too much on it (there are some minor halftones in the top white screen).  I really like the idea of black first, and we've used that technique in the past with great success.  We just add a bit of softhand base to our house black (QCM WOW) and it gives pretty good results.  Unfortunately in this artwork, many of the lines are so thin that they'd get lost if we didn't run it at the end.

In regards to the initial white screen, everything looks to be underbased except the black.

There's already been quite a learning curve on this job and it will be my first foray into any real WOW printing, so I really appreciate all the comments and tips.  Feel free to keep them coming, I can use all the help I can get.