Welcome Mariel, now, get on here and tell us why low bleed inks can "ghost" on cotton.
Which inks tend to have this potential?
What component is the culprit?
Is there a way to test for the potential?
Hola Frog,
Thanks for the welcome. Low bleed white inks that aren't with peroxide have the potential to ghost especially on natural color garments or gray. A combination of heat, bleed resistance and moisture can cause the perfect storm to make this happen. Certain dyes must be present in a cotton or cotton-blend shirt. It is evident that the cotton dye houses are using some reactive dyes. Though there are many suspect dyes, the
most prevalent troublemaker is an azo reactive dye, Procion Yellow. This dye adversely reacts to certain bleed-resistant ingredients contained in most of the new bleed-resistant lines of inks.
The following test will determine if the fabric dyestuffs are prone to discolor:
1. Print ink onto suspect fabric and fuse.
2. Cover the print area with a piece of the suspect fabric (sandwiching the print) and set in a heat press.
3. Set the heat press to 200 F and 5 PSI.
4. Close the transfer press and let sit for four hous before visual evaluation.
If the material is prone to discoloration, you will see a "ghost" imageof your printed image on the material that was covering the printed area.
Mariel