Author Topic: White ink for garment dyed shirts  (Read 6679 times)

Offline LoneWolf2

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White ink for garment dyed shirts
« on: March 27, 2015, 04:04:36 PM »
What white inks are yall using for these awful garment dyed shirts? 90% of what I print is comfort colors and getting a good bright white is not the easiest thing in the world. I've been using mainly triangle glacier white and Phoenix white and have had decent results, but they're tough to clear the screen unless
I'm using a double stroke, and the suppliers I have to get them from are 2 days shipping from me, which isn't ideal for time sensitive reorders. I've also tried Wilflex amazing white, and rutland snap white. Both left a lot to be desired and I found myself going back to the Triangle. Have any of yall had any success with other inks? I actually don't have any "cotton" whites on hand since I rarely print anything 100% cotton that's not garment dyed, but I'm looking to work in a cotton white for those colors that don't bleed, so any recommendations for that are appreciated as well.


Offline Frog

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Re: White ink for garment dyed shirts
« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2015, 04:06:50 PM »
Well, I use Rutland Street Fighter, but it seems to have fallen into disrepute with some here.
I should mention that I print manually.
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Offline mimosatexas

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Re: White ink for garment dyed shirts
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2015, 05:43:31 PM »
My go to white for everything is triangle poly excel.  I also print manually.  It mats down nicely, is super creamy, handles bleed well, etc.  I actually just printed about 200 comfort colors yesterday and it handled perfectly.  The print was giant block white letters with a thin colored stroke, standard college/frat type crap.

Offline alan802

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Re: White ink for garment dyed shirts
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2015, 06:14:58 PM »
I just got burned on some comfort colors shirts.  White imprint on dark read, we used a low bleed white and should have used a poly white.  Had to eat 24 of them.  My printer says he looked at the tag and it said 100% cotton so he used our cotton white...but it didn't work out so well.  One Stroke Production on comfort colors from now on, but I think any decent poly white will be fine, just don't trust a low bleed.  I'm not saying they won't work, but there's no guarantee they won't bleed so print at your own risk. 
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Offline Frog

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Re: White ink for garment dyed shirts
« Reply #4 on: March 27, 2015, 07:33:48 PM »

Do you guys have trouble with all garment dyed shirts or just Comfort Colors?
Since "garment dyed" only really means dyed after it's made into a shirt, I assume that different dyes can be used.
Are these Pigment dyed, is that the real killer?
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Offline ol man

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Re: White ink for garment dyed shirts
« Reply #5 on: March 28, 2015, 07:18:21 AM »
We used sonnys mustang white to good success this past week on some red comfort colors... prefer discharge when applicable though..

Offline LoneWolf2

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Re: White ink for garment dyed shirts
« Reply #6 on: March 28, 2015, 11:29:39 AM »

Do you guys have trouble with all garment dyed shirts or just Comfort Colors?
Since "garment dyed" only really means dyed after it's made into a shirt, I assume that different dyes can be used.
Are these Pigment dyed, is that the real killer?

It's mainly the pigment dyed ones that suck. Half of their offerings are "pigment" and the other are "reactive dyed", which aren't as bad.

Offline Lizard

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Re: White ink for garment dyed shirts
« Reply #7 on: March 31, 2015, 10:05:34 PM »
Lone wolf is correct. The reactive dyed shirts will print white. The pigment dyed shirts will turn the white ink a shade of the dye. Just need to inform the customer of that. Some of the colors are really bad. The darker reds and greens are the worse. And as for dye blocking inks, well that doesn't work on pigment dyed shirts so we just print cotton white. If the customer isn't ok with the ink dis coloring then use a reactive color. Most people are fine with it.
Toby
 Shirt Lizard Charlotte, NC 704-521-5225

Offline gtmfg

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Re: White ink for garment dyed shirts
« Reply #8 on: March 31, 2015, 10:17:50 PM »
  Has anybody ran LC additive in their whites when they print CC shirts?

Offline Binkspot

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Re: White ink for garment dyed shirts
« Reply #9 on: April 01, 2015, 02:47:48 AM »
We have had a couple of them turn on us, depending on the art I would use a poly white or use a under base grey/white mix as a base. We had one set of shirts, Moss Green turned the white pink.

Offline 1964GN

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Re: White ink for garment dyed shirts
« Reply #10 on: April 01, 2015, 06:28:33 AM »
We have a job coming in this week with these tees. We should be getting them by the end of the week. How do you determine if they are reactive dyed shirts or pigment dyed?

Offline DCSP John

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Re: White ink for garment dyed shirts
« Reply #11 on: April 01, 2015, 07:30:23 AM »
We are running our first Comfort Colors this week. 450 pieces, assorted colors.
This thread is well timed. We've elected to print the run using One Stroke Dry Fit Poly White
If I hadn't read this thread, we would have most likely printed using Street Fighter 100%.

The dye used should be listed on the product spec page.

V/r -John

Offline Rocky Bihl

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Re: White ink for garment dyed shirts
« Reply #12 on: April 01, 2015, 07:35:40 AM »
ELT White, or ELT-S White from One Stroke Inks were developed with lots of input from a certain very large screen printer in Carroll Iowa to eliminate this type of problem as well as the Under Armor Hoodie fronts from shrinking when printed and cured above 290F. The ELT-S  is a slightly softer, better matte down more opaque, ever so slightly less bleed resistant version of the ELT White. For all of you printers out there not familiar with One Stroke Inks, white ink is the vast majority of our business for a reason! We have many customers who buy only our white, and other ink companies color lines.( boy that must drive em crazy!!). Best results though are to use the full series,, white and colors.
Rocky Bihl
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One Stroke Inks
502-366-1070 cell: 502-750-1111
rbihl@osinks.com

Offline 1964GN

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Re: White ink for garment dyed shirts
« Reply #13 on: April 01, 2015, 07:38:41 AM »
We are running our first Comfort Colors this week. 450 pieces, assorted colors.
This thread is well timed. We've elected to print the run using One Stroke Dry Fit Poly White
If I hadn't read this thread, we would have most likely printed using Street Fighter 100%.

The dye used should be listed on the product spec page.

V/r -John

It's a contract job... guess we'll wait until we get the tees and go from there. Thanks.

Offline Binkspot

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Re: White ink for garment dyed shirts
« Reply #14 on: April 01, 2015, 07:58:57 AM »
The PIA ones the tags are the same color as the shirt. Belive it or not IMO the Crunch Berry ones print best even though they look like they will be a disaster.