What mesh?

[sportsshoppe]

What would be the highest mesh screen you would be willing to print WD through? I have a b/w picture I would like to print on shirts and it needs to be on at least a 200 mesh. Would that work?

[jvanick]

what's WD?

waterbase discharge?

-- we've done 305/30's before, but generally we'll print on 230/40's all day long.

[sportsshoppe]

Yes sir sorry about that....

[sportsshoppe]

what's WD?

waterbase discharge?

-- we've done 305/30's before, but generally we'll print on 230/40's all day long.

Thanks

[jvanick]

1 screen, 65lpi, Rutland White Plus Discharge on a 230/40:



printed like 50 of these with no problem.

[ZooCity]

Nice. 

About what tonal range did you trim (or lose) to image 65lpi on that mesh?

[jvanick]

Nice. 

About what tonal range did you trim (or lose) to image 65lpi on that mesh?

Held 8% to 85%.. adjusted the art knowing that...

[tonypep]

I've posted a lot of blends and halftones with DC. 230 to 280 mesh should get you in the comfort zone although two passes almost always required

[jvanick]

I've posted a lot of blends and halftones with DC. 230 to 280 mesh should get you in the comfort zone although two passes almost always required

we find that we do a lot of double stroking here as well with all of our discharge work... doesn't really affect production speeds that much as we can double stroke in the 'up' position AND the dryer is our bottleneck.

Tony: what's your thoughts on some of the current vendors saying that penetration of the garment for discharge inks doesn't matter as much as it did before -- my thought is that once the fibers from below the ink start poking through they're gonna look bad as they haven't been dyed.

[Sbrem]

1 screen, 65lpi, Rutland White Plus Discharge on a 230/40:



printed like 50 of these with no problem.

how the the hell do you get a 65 line on 230 without serious moiré?

Steve

[jvanick]

how the the hell do you get a 65 line on 230 without serious moiré?

230/40 is thin thread...

for whatever reason it works fine at 22 degree, elliptical... just know that you're gonna lose the finest dots, and blow out the most open, and adjust.

[Atownsend]

The balloons are incredible! How exactly are we adjusting our halftones to exclude a specific tonal range? This would most likely have to happen in the PS curves panel correct? I almost always play with the curves, but I didn't know you could clip the top / low ends to a specific percentage. If I go to image > adjustments > curves > options button, I find that I can clip the shadows and highlights, but to a max of 9.99%. Which makes me wonder if I am going down the right trail on this if jvanick is clipping the dark end to 85%. Should I be looking at my RIP rather than a PS adjustment?

[jvanick]

I adjust the curve in the rip so the 99% tones actually come out at 85...  basically before we had a densitometer we would just print a 0 to 100% scale and adjust the rip till we had a nice smooth transition from 0 to 100.

Then adjust the contrast curve in the art to match what is coming out on print.

[Atownsend]

Makes sense! My lamp is out on my Ihara densitometer, and don't really want to ship it back to japan and pay $500 for a repair right now. Its super tired and I should probably pickup a new one anyway. So i'll likely print Dans 0-100 scale and eyeball it from there. Thanks!

[Dottonedan]

Speaking of what Mesh,

For a while now, I've been hearing and seeing post that said they were doing 55-65 lpi on 150S mesh.
I have even seen our resident Murakami guy post similar info. I feel we need to be more clear on that. I expected that yes, you can, but not at holding the small dots. You can even use 65lpi on 110 mesh but with art and halftones that work or fit. IN other words, nothing lower in tone than a 20% dot etc.

I had the opportunity to do my own testing.  40, 45, 55,and 65 lpi test (all on the same screen) using an I-Image STE.  Now, mind you that my litmus test is to be able to hold the 2-3% DOT.

These screens were coated 2/1 sharp.  The 40 and 45 were the only ones to come out correct, holding everything as I expected. Even though the threads are spaced far apart, you still have threads and they still block small dots.  I post the picture later.