# How to fade to black (on a black garment)



## danbeaulieu (Oct 7, 2012)

Hey tshirt peeps,

I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to make an image fade to transparent on a black garment?

My confusion:
I use photoshop and unlike on a white garment a black garment requires an underbase so during the gradient fade-out the underbase creates a halo effect for the image to fade out on, not desirable at all. 

So I am curious if there is a way to customize your underbase layer to not print where the fade is and if that would even look good.

Thanks in advance for any help


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## kevrokr (Feb 26, 2007)

Alot of the time that you see the fade outs to black on a dtg print, the RIP software is usually what makes this happen.


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## GraphicGuy (Dec 8, 2008)

Does your rip let you import a .psd file with an alpha mask? If so, you can make an image file that has a faded alpha mask that just covers up the outer edge of your image fade, this will knock out the halo effect in the final print.
Fading a colored edge on black shirts sucks. I've had to play with this for a while because it was pissing me off to.


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## kevrokr (Feb 26, 2007)

GraphicGuy said:


> Does your rip let you import a .psd file with an alpha mask? If so, you can make an image file that has a faded alpha mask that just covers up the outer edge of your image fade, this will knock out the halo effect in the final print.
> Fading a colored edge on black shirts sucks. I've had to play with this for a while because it was pissing me off to.



What was the black threshold that worked for you?


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## GraphicGuy (Dec 8, 2008)

Sorry, I don't understand the question about the black threshold. When I do it, I make a selection of the part of the image that has the fade, then I contract it a bit, a couple of pixels depending on the resolution that the image is in (depending on the resolution a couple of pixels could make a lot of selection or not much) after I have the selection I go to the channels, in the bottom of the channel layers there is a button to make the alpha mask. I save the image, import it into the rip. There is a section in the rip where I can adjust the amount of the mask to use, here is where I make the final adjustments.
I hope this helps with your question. If not I will try to explain further. I'm in the middle of setting up my new shop so i'm answering on the fly.


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## Silky49 (Aug 1, 2012)

if the color youre requires a fade to shirt color, you need to scope out the different percentages of color in your fade. In photo shop, use the "info" window and scroll your mouse over different parts of the fade. I would then open the same file again (for your underbase) and reduce the fade so that the lightest (say 25%) matches the 100%-90% of the original.

Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesnt. if you can get away with not using an underbase on a fade or gradient, do it!


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## Deathtricity (Oct 9, 2011)

or just cut out the underbase 1/4 or a 1/3 down so you only have to worry about the larger "fade" or halftone. i have done this before and it works pretty good. This way you also dont have to worry about doing any rip software changes or longer press set up. Maybe this is just the slacker side of me but it seems to work well for me.


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## Silky49 (Aug 1, 2012)

Deathtricity, Thats basically what I was saying. Im just crazy about details ;P

Cheers!


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## cavedave (Dec 5, 2006)

Depends what version you have and if you are trying to do this in FastArtist or another say PhotoShop.
Lets say you have the latest FA and PhotoShop, then the easiest way is as Kevin said, just use the transparency to fade into the background and when the image is printed from the queue the white layer is buuilt from the transparency alpha layer and will be a fade.

Te are other ways, but depends on th eprogram and if vector or bitmap data.

Best regards
-David


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