# Calibrating film, screen and automatic press for simulated process



## deadbat (Nov 5, 2009)

I just got an automatic press. In 20+ years of printing manually, I have only previously done a handful of simulated process jobs, and none have really been color critical so I was able to stumble my way through it mostly by adjusting my manual squeegee pressure and angle to get "close enough".

Suddenly, within weeks of installing an automatic press, I have six upcoming 5- and 6-color simulated process jobs to print. So now, I really need to be much more critical in having the result on the shirt match the color in the supplied artwork, and I'm looking for the best process by which to calibrate my whole workflow.

That is, how much do I need to adjust the levels in the file before I output to film with halftones?

What's the fastest way to dial in my screen exposure so the dots on the screen match the dots on the film?

What adjustments to squeegee pressure and angle are going to affect how the image prints on the shirt?

Should I add some soft-hand to the ink to make it print more smoothly?

How will printing wet on wet alter the appearance of colors that are printed first in the chain?

To be clear--I have a rough idea how I could test each of these things individually, but between all of them they create simultaneous moving parts that can all have nearly infinite effects on the process, and I only have so much time to do testing. I can't really run 10 different films, and expose each of them on screens with 10 different time adjustments, etc, etc. 

Does someone have a written guide or process for the least effort intensive way to dial all these factors against each other into a predictably repeatable workflow? I want to get this locked in one time so that I can confidently knock out these kinds of jobs even when they're on a rush time table.


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