What have you printed lately?

[Doug S]

Alan you got me, what is the trough method?  By the way your print looked much cleaner and better.

[starchild]

Alan you got me, what is the trough method?  By the way your print looked much cleaner and better.

It looks like those are gutters that were too wide and ended up looking like strokes that changed the look and feel of the design. Austin Pride.. but separate.. is the problem with Alan's design.

[alan802]

Alan you got me, what is the trough method?  By the way your print looked much cleaner and better.

It looks like those are gutters that were too wide and ended up looking like strokes that changed the look and feel of the design. Austin Pride.. but separate.. is the problem with Alan's design.

Gutter, trough, that's what we did.  We've done thinner gutters before but holding those lines on the preferred mesh count for 50/50 blacks we bumped it up a tad to hold on a 120/54.  We can definitely make the gutter thinner and move to higher mesh counts and on cotton shirts we have been getting great opacity on darks with 180 and 225 underbases.  I just hate 50/50's and mid and high mesh counts give us weak opacity for jobs like this on navy and black.  I wish the gutter wasn't so noticeable in the yellow block but from an overall standpoint, even including the gutter being a tad too thick, I couldn't imagine anyone thinking the other prints were better looking or from a technical aspect a better print.  We've used the gutter methods for years now and never had an issue, but perhaps we need to look at this again and make some changes, I'm completely open to making things better.

What kind of gutter do you guys who use them go with?  Hairline, 1/2 point, 1/4, etc?

[Gilligan]

I think we compromised at. .33 pts if I remember correctly.

[prozyan]

I think the problem, Alan, is you are looking at this from a professional point of view whereas your customer sees nothing but the black outline around the letters that he doesn't want there.

I think in his mind (like most simple, average customers) doesn't recognize things like slightly better opacity, smoother prints, and such things.  All the customer could see was an outline that wasn't supposed to be there and to hell with everything else.

[ZooCity]

I think the problem, Alan, is you are looking at this from a professional point of view whereas your customer sees nothing but the black outline around the letters that he doesn't want there.

I think in his mind (like most simple, average customers) doesn't recognize things like slightly better opacity, smoother prints, and such things.  All the customer could see was an outline that wasn't supposed to be there and to hell with everything else.

I agree on that. We need to look with a printer's perspective but also get into the minds of our customers and their perspective.  Since it's well nigh impossible to get inside the heads of many of our customers I would have made sure we mock up with the gutter  / trough showing and explained that, presenting them with the option of a very clean very crisp and  opaque print with the gutter or one that is butt registered but less crisp and less opaque. Sometimes we need to let them make that call.

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[Get Shirts]

Alan, did you put a trough around the letters too? 

[starchild]

Alan, did you put a trough around the letters too?

The gutter does not go on the top colors. What you do is put a canal in the under base for the top colors to fall into and that is what creates the sharp lines. So you've got to choke the color blocks and letters equally where ever they supposed to touch each other. If you choke one and not the other then you end up with an uneven print with a lip and maybe even see the underbase peeking if it was printed on a lower mesh count than the top colors. Plus the top white might flow/gain differently than the other colors so trial and error to get the correct choke size for each side.

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[Get Shirts]

No, I understand that.  I don't understand the purpose of creating a gutter around the edges of the letters, since that is not an area where two top colors meet.

[starchild]

Well doesn't the letter "A" top white meet with the top red block?
If in fact the white was done with one screen, then that design cannot incorporate gutters because gutters are an underbase thing..

[Get Shirts]

I guess I didn't think about the highlight white, if he used one, needing the benefit of a gutter. 

[3Deep]

I've use a gutter in the pass and really didn't like the look so I go butt reggie 99% of the time, you still might of had a problem if he looked at it on screen before you printed, because the gutter may have not been very visable on your proof unless you over did it.  The top print look fine to me in the first pic and yours Alan is nice and bright...that's why I tell my customers you are paying for my expertise of printing (however much that might be) and not just a T-shirt, you can pick up a blank T-shirt at Wal-mart.

Darryl 

[mk162]

i agree, I try and avoid gutters, but will use them on some prints...always in the UB though.  They might poke through the top color a bit, but not enough to be noticed.

I hate spot color jobs like that.  I don't care what inks/screens you use, you will have pickup on them, it's all a matter of managing it.

[GraphicDisorder]

I really need to start using a better camera.  This note 3 is trash.

[TCT]

Pretty sweet prints Brandt! You are right, your camera makes the prints look like a amateur printed those   Seriously though those are great, I really like the text in the wood grain in the truck one.

So I have NEVER printed a fancy "car" print. We just don't have the clientele. Printed a few gangster car club shirts years ago, but nothing fancy, I do remember being paid in a large wad of 20's though