# Trying to print red ink on a black shirt & freaking out, PLEASE HELP!



## pacificthinktees (Oct 3, 2011)

You guys have been very helpful to me in the recent past and I'm praying you can rescue me again from my dilemma. I've never printed red ink on a black shirt before and I'm not starting out too well here. I'm trying to print up 70 shirts and luckily I have about a week to get this right. 

There is red text & 2 small images that are metallic silver. I tried printing the red text first and it didn't seem to come out dark enough so I flash dried it and then tried again only the screen didn't print again in exactly the same spot. 1 shirt ruined. I've ruined 2 shirts so far and had to stop and come to you for some advice. 

I know that some inks require you to put an undercoat in order to print on dark shirts but I was told that I wouldn't need to do that with this particular ink. What am I doing wrong? Please help!


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## bleeder (Jan 8, 2010)

Are you using a 50/50. If so they try flashing the shirt to pre-shrink it before printing. Not too hot though, you don't want the shirt to get above 340 degrees. I had the same problem with my registration then remembered to pre-shrink.


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## pacificthinktees (Oct 3, 2011)

No, they're 100% pre-shrunk cotton


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## pacificthinktees (Oct 3, 2011)

But that's REALLY good for me to know when I do print 50/50 so thank you


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## sben763 (May 17, 2009)

What press. Inks. The biggest problem I've seen with most cheaper press is not getting the off contact set right. Reset off contact making sure the print arm is on your print arm stop. Make sure if you have nylon bolts for registration gate they snug enough there there is no side to side movement but not so tight its hard to hit the arm stop.


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## pacificthinktees (Oct 3, 2011)

OK, so once I make sure of that, is there something else I need to be doing? I've seen arguments on whether or not a base undercoat (of what, is also up for debate) is necessary when printing on dark shirts. What's your experience?


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## sben763 (May 17, 2009)

pacificthinktees said:


> OK, so once I make sure of that, is there something else I need to be doing? I've seen arguments on whether or not a base undercoat (of what, is also up for debate) is necessary when printing on dark shirts. What's your experience?


Unless you are using opaue ink you have to use an underbase. Make sure to choke by 1pt on underbase or even 1.5pt so that your red lays over the top. I personally like the underbase over the opaque inks but they do save time.


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## pacificthinktees (Oct 3, 2011)

sben763 said:


> Unless you are using opaue ink you have to use an underbase. Make sure to choke by 1pt on underbase or even 1.5pt so that your red lays over the top. I personally like the underbase over the opaque inks but they do save time.


Here's the ink I purchased. I'm not sure how to tell if it's opaque, forgive my ignorance. 1122 Scarlet

How do I "choke" in PS CS3? Thank you for your advice.


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## sben763 (May 17, 2009)

pacificthinktees said:


> Here's the ink I purchased. I'm not sure how to tell if it's opaque, forgive my ignorance. 1122 Scarlet
> 
> How do I "choke" in PS CS3? Thank you for your advice.


Most opaque inks will say opaque my guess from the link those are not. When I do use opaque inks I use the ryopaque from Ryonet but very rarely do this in my opinion the colors are brighter with standard plastisol and a under base. Since you already have you red screen done. Use the same file put a 2 pt stroke on your artwork. The stroke color make white. The will give you a 1 pt stroke as by default adobe put stroke in center of the fill outline. I know there is a way to change that but it's been years since I have used adobe products on a regular basis. I switched to corel.


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## pacificthinktees (Oct 3, 2011)

I'm so seriously confused and overwhelmed right now. I appreciate your advice but I'm not sure how to "choke" my image...also, everyone seems to have a different idea of how this is supposed to be done. I know it varies on each individual job. Here's the font I'm printing with. bleeding cowboys - Search - dafont.com
What do you think I should do? Do I need a more opaque ink, an underbase, or both?


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## etshirt (May 8, 2008)

I would put a white underbase for any red printing even if the ink is high opacity low bleed. For the 1pt stroke it will be much easier to do with Illustrator then PS. If your design as lot's of details just put a 1.5pt stroke white for the white underbase that will remove 0.75pt from each side of the stroke, making the red layer bigger then the white.

Maybe there a way to add stroke with PS but I have no idea how to do that


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## pacificthinktees (Oct 3, 2011)

I don't have Illustrator


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## etshirt (May 8, 2008)

you get a 30 free trial for illustrator


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## sben763 (May 17, 2009)

pacificthinktees said:


> I'm so seriously confused and overwhelmed right now. I appreciate your advice but I'm not sure how to "choke" my image...also, everyone seems to have a different idea of how this is supposed to be done. I know it varies on each individual job. Here's the font I'm printing with. bleeding cowboys - Search - dafont.com
> What do you think I should do? Do I need a more opaque ink, an underbase, or both?


Pm me I can help ya out. I will give you my contact info in pm


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## tshrtman2000 (Aug 25, 2011)

use a mikopake ink which union inks sells or i am sure and other company sells. wih thos ink you dp not have to sue a underbase. print flash print and you should have no problmems. i think the reason you are getting a double print is that you are not using enough sticky spray so the shirt is moving after the first print. we probaly respray about every 5 shirts or so. hope this helps


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## tshrtman2000 (Aug 25, 2011)

sorry for thr errors in spelling. did not go over my post


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## Pvasquez (Feb 19, 2011)

I know your now going to use a base under the red but you should try plastacharge mix it 50/50 with your red plastisol add discharge agent and one hit should suffice if you want to get into discharge just remember to use 100% cotton. If your press is not holding registration can you tell us what press you have?


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## tpitman (Jul 30, 2007)

To do a choke for an underbase white in Photoshop, select the art so you get the "marching ants" around the edge, go to the Select menu, and pick Modify/Contract and enter 1 pixel or so. It'll shrink the selection down by the amount you enter. While you still have the shrunken selection, press Command/Shift/i to change the selection to everything outside the selection and press delete. It's the Command button on a Mac, probably Control on a PeeCee.
You might need more than one pixel depending on how large the art is and what resolution your art is. Kind of hit or miss that way.
Zoom in on an edge of the art when you do it so you can see the effect. Deleting one pixel sometimes is hard to detect when you've zoomed out to see the whole piece.
If you're dealing with the finer lines of the font you're using, it will likely shrink some of the art completely away, again depending on how large/small the art is.
With a lack of experience, though, and considering you're having problems with registration on a print/flash/print, I think I'd be inclined to figure out why you're getting a double image first, then use a high-opacity red ink and print/flash/print. Getting two screens for an underbase/overprint to register the fine lines in the font you're using will be a challenge on a good press with everything just right.
Using what looks to be a standard plastisol from your link, you're not going to get good results on a dark shirt.


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## macumazahn (Jan 11, 2007)

High opacity inks are the way to go here. The underbase thing worried me too so I just tried the ryonet high opacity inks as a last ditch effort on one of my first orders. The standard red ink looked horrible, where as the high opacity red worked great. Print it just like you would if you were using white ink.


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## sben763 (May 17, 2009)

macumazahn said:


> High opacity inks are the way to go here. The underbase thing worried me too so I just tried the ryonet high opacity inks as a last ditch effort on one of my first orders. The standard red ink looked horrible, where as the high opacity red worked great. Print it just like you would if you were using white ink.


The ryopaque does a great job but colors are still slightly duller than standard ink with underbase. I have a comparison at shop and give customers a choice and most choose the white underbase with standard inks over the opaque even given the extra cost.


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## happyprint (Sep 29, 2011)

in my experience red on black,1 underbase 1 red more bright than double red stroke.. my press also bad registration so i choke underbase 3-4 pixels


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## cataHMN1 (Nov 2, 2011)

happyprint said:


> in my experience red on black,1 underbase 1 red more bright than double red stroke.. my press also bad registration so i choke underbase 3-4 pixels


That's true!! That is the best way to do it. Also make sure your press is holding the registration


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## mimic (Nov 28, 2011)

tpitman said:


> To do a choke for an underbase white in Photoshop, select the art so you get the "marching ants" around the edge, go to the Select menu, and pick Modify/Contract and enter 1 pixel or so.



That will work.

Another was is to select the artwork/contract and then fill on a new layer. That would be the underbase screen.

To add a stroke in photoshop double-click the layer and in the properties in the bottom left corner are the stroke options.

Good luck and try to fix your registration issues. Its better to cure the disease than fight the symptoms.


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