# Plastisol + gradients and shades. Please help me understand



## gordo2dope (Feb 14, 2014)

Hi, first, thank everyone for their help that I read form this place. 

I had a question about looking into plastisol transfers. Right now, our small business only does transfers but it is not practical to do this for large orders. We have had people ask for 200+ of something but it would be too expensive for us to do them. so we end up turning them down and ask them to go to a screen printer. (after all, all my selling market is to do the ONE single shirt you have an idea for ). So I wanted to look into the plastisol transfers which would cut our time and cost down alot for large orders like that. 

I pretty much understand how screen printing works, but when I look into ordering plastisols I am having trouble completely understanding their color process. I understand 1 color means a single color, 2 colors is 2 colors, and so on. But most places seem to stop at 6 - 8. 

My question is how do they get a screen print plastisol transfer with gradient tones. For example, say you did a rainbow of the max 6 colors but the colors fade into each. Are plastisols capable of doing this?? I'm sure it would drive up cost obviously, but I want to know if it's possible and what specs I would need to be lloking for when choosing a company. 

i saw on the sticky of the vendor list some are CMYK and are digital. are these the companies that can reproduce an image with various colors shade and tones? Can anywhere steer me in the right direction to know which company would be capable or printing say a "photograph" transfer with multiple colors. 

Thank you


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## drdoct (Jul 26, 2011)

Hi, welcome. Plastisol is just the type of ink used and even then there are many variations. There is no reason at all for you to turn down ANY business! Well, unless you're near me... and if you are... send them my way! anyway, let me try and help out some. Here are the main transfers.

1. Spot color plastisol. This is a transfer that uses individual colors. Most transfer places have 20+ PMS colors to choose from. Most of the time these will be used as solid colors and not overlaid with gradients, etc. to make different colors. You will look at the design and the colors should be obvious. Usually with transfers, 3 colors is where you will start being way out of line with cost, unless you have a large quantity. 

2. Process plastisol. There are actually two categories with this because there are some suppliers who will do a fine screen CMYK transfer. The only problem is that you can't get very fine detail due to the heat press squashing it all together. But it can work as long as your dots are large enough. I believe Seay told me that he will do old fashioned CMYK. 

2b. Process plastisol redux. Now there is a version of plastisols available that use an offset printing method (my guess anyway). This allows you to get great detail. F&M calls their version "Freedom". Versatranz is "versacolor". I'm sure there are others that offer this type of transfer. They look great. They can feel soft but still plasticky. And some people notice a clear outline around the artwork, which I assume is necessary to keep it all in place when pressed instead of squashing it. 

3. Digital. This would be printed vinyl. They print the design on a solvent printer and then cut and weed but not really detail weeding, that will be printed or white. This can look exactly like you could print from a regular desktop printer. It lasts very good but if you have a block of it on the shirt it makes the shirt unwearable. Ive started using this method when the customer wants multi color but only 20. Most people do these and even your local vinyl store probably does too. Any sign guy could. The printable vinyl has gotten much better hand wise, but still it needs to be a fairly small or broken up design to keep the heavy feeling down.

Most of the stock plastisol designs are done with multiple spot colors. However they are printed 10k at a time or so and so it's cost efficient to do it that way. I'm sure someone will correct me, but I've tried to cover what you asked. If you ask F&M for a sample of their products, you'll see each version. I don't think they're necessarily the best, but I do use them for cheap spot color transfers. And they do about every version of transfer.


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## wormil (Jan 7, 2008)

To add a little more info. 

Every cmyk plastisol transfer I've tested was printed on some sort of white base, usually vinyl.

Digital transfers are basically ink jet transfers with better ink than you'll find on the shelf. They are printed on a vinyl substrate and often rated for 50 - 60 washes.

Lithograph transfers are printed on an offset press, I don't know much about the inks, onto some type of backer. These are the type that were popular in the 70's although I'm sure there have been some advancements (maybe?) since then. 

Very few transfer makers will print plastisol gradients/halftones. Howard Sportswear printed some for me several years ago.


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## gordo2dope (Feb 14, 2014)

Thank you both for the input, it helps me understand a little more. I did receive all the samples I orders the day I made the original post. I have not pressed any due to time and I will leaving town this coming week for a while also, so I might have to wait a bit to test. 

I read some other people's complaints about some of the plastisol suppliers, but I ordered samples from SEMO, Versatranz, and ProWorld to start with.

I plan to cut the testers in different pieces to try on different materials and colors and see which company has a better overall rate, or at least on the dark shirts since I think this is where it would help us the most for large orders.

If I get the money, I might order a small minimum order of the same exact test image from different companies and see how they press next to each other. I will try to use a difficult image also. This won't be for a while though... sorry guys. 

Thanks again!


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## franktheprinter (Oct 5, 2008)

gordo2dope said:


> Thank you both for the input, it helps me understand a little more. I did receive all the samples I orders the day I made the original post. I have not pressed any due to time and I will leaving town this coming week for a while also, so I might have to wait a bit to test.
> 
> I read some other people's complaints about some of the plastisol suppliers, but I ordered samples from SEMO, Versatranz, and ProWorld to start with.
> 
> ...


I would ask whoever you are going with to send you samples of previous work they've done with halftoning.

You cannot produce a gradiated screenprinted transfer...all you can do is simulate the look by halftoning the area that's gradiated. most companies will not halftone a design with a gradient of less than 30 % (our parameter is that we need at least 30 %)

when done properly halftoning the gradiated area(s)should satisfy even the most discriminating customer


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