# Advice on printing black and white image onto a t-shirt



## kasabian (Oct 26, 2007)

Hi everyone,

I was thinking of printing a black and white photograph onto a white t-shirt, but i'm not too sure how to do it, so I'm hoping for some tips.

Do I just have to convert the photo to bitmap in photoshop, and that's it? The image is ready to print? 

Also, is a 110mesh screen ok for this job? or do I need something finer? 

thanks in advance!


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

Photographs are not easy. You will need a finer screen than 110 I think because of halftones.


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## kasabian (Oct 26, 2007)

splathead said:


> Photographs are not easy. You will need a finer screen than 110 I think because of halftones.


what screen do you think would be best?


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## tpitman (Jul 30, 2007)

Your mesh count should be 4 to 5 times the halftone linescreen you intend to use. In other words, if you're going to use a linescreen of 50 lines per inch, your mesh should be 200 to 250 or more. The mesh has to be able to support the halftone dots.

You can output the photo as a halftone by coverting the file to a bitmap, and in the subsquent dialog boxes, set the linescreen and screen angle. Choose halftone in the dropdown menu beneath the resolution setting, then your screen frequency and angle in the next box. Most screenprinters select an ellipse as a dot shape as it's slightly elongated and spans the mesh threads a little better.


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## kasabian (Oct 26, 2007)

That's very helpful, thankyou! 

I was going to try it on my 110 mesh screen, but I definately won't now. I'll invest in some finer mesh screens. All my screens are 110!


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## tpitman (Jul 30, 2007)

kasabian said:


> That's very helpful, thankyou!
> 
> I was going to try it on my 110 mesh screen, but I definately won't now. I'll invest in some finer mesh screens. All my screens are 110!


For what it's worth, in the meantime output your film at 25 - 30 lines per inch and try printing it. It'll be coarse, but depending on the photo you can get a cool pop art look. I've done stuff like that deliberately for a certain effect. For the cost of a little emulsion you can at least see how it turns out. Also, and this goes for all mesh counts, you need to put enough emulsion on your screens to get good emulsion over mesh on the shirt side for good detail, I coat everything 2 wet coats on the shirt side followed by t wet coats on the squeegie side, drying the screen shirt side down to draw the emulsion to the shirt side so it makes a good gasket when it contacts the substrate.


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## Starbaks (Jun 13, 2011)

thank you tpitman. very helpful


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