# Do I need to overlap my colors



## shartman (Dec 18, 2008)

If I am doing a multi color job (and the colors touch) do I need to overlap my colors? If they are not overlapped when the shirt is fully cured will the inks shrink and leave a gap? If I do need to overlap the how do I do that and how much overlap should there be?


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## RichardGreaves (Nov 7, 2006)

Inks will never shrink and leave a gap. Water-based ink will loose thickness as the 70% water evaporates - but that is not your real problem.

Screen tension is the single most important step to produce butt-to-butt registration. Images blur because the mesh fails you by moving when the squeegee blade passes over it. 

Take your index finger and move the skin on the back of your other hand. This is the same way your blade manipulates low tension mesh. When the stencil moves, the ink strays out of the open area of the stencil and the image blurs.

Overlapping colors has long been used to mask poor mesh tension. You can study this in your Illustrator or CorelDRAW manual by looking up "trapping".

Everybody knows that tight screens print better. You _*can*_ raise the off-contact distance and use your squeegee as a *mesh tensioning device*, but you also stretch the printed image size so the final image is not in registration.

The original Apple Computer logo is the most difficult image I have ever seen printed. Rainbow colors stacked together, with no outer cartoon border to cover up overlapping mistakes.


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## midwaste (Apr 8, 2008)

The other thing to keep in mind is that if you do use a "choke" or "trap", you will need to test the print, as some colors will bleed into each other, requiring a flash in between, i.e., yellow/red, etc.


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## rudi (Mar 7, 2007)

RichardGreaves said:


> Inks will never shrink and leave a gap. Water-based ink will loose thickness as the 70% water evaporates - but that is not your real problem.
> 
> Screen tension is the single most important step to produce butt-to-butt registration. Images blur because the mesh fails you by moving when the squeegee blade passes over it.
> 
> ...


Your so right Richard,While doing my apprenticeship years ago the college made us do the same "apple" logo on corflute with "but rego" no bleed or anything
Mine looked quite good....from about10ft away..ha.


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## PositiveDave (Dec 1, 2008)

Ink spreads naturally on fabric and provides a small bleed but you can try this: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/t-shirt-articles/t106997.html


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