# Print Quality, Manual vs Automatic Press



## Slade8 (Apr 5, 2009)

Is there a big difference in the print quality between a manual and automatic press. Specifically is there a difference when printing high color designs (5-8). 

I ask because recently ordered a small quantity of shirts because I wanted to see how they turned out before ordering larger quantities. It was a huge mess. One design had an entire screen misaligned which ruined every shirt. Another design had a blemish (about the size of a pencil tip) where no ink was applied and the shirt came through (noticeable from feet away). Another had a spot where there was a thin line of under base showing through where 2 colors met. One shirt when I washed it small spots started to crack and peel a bit so now in some areas you see underbase and not actual color.

So is the printer telling me that this was due to them using the manual press and if I order larger quantities that they can put on the automatic press a valid excuse?


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## innothread (Jul 19, 2008)

Slade8 said:


> So is the printer telling me that this was due to them using the manual press and if I order larger quantities that they can put on the automatic press a valid excuse?


Absolutely not. If they can't print a quality product on the manual I sure wouldn't trust them on the auto either. Manual printing is just more labor intensive and the problems you mentioned can happen in both manual and automatic printing if not careful. 

I would look at it this way....If they wanted your big order they would have done a good job on the small one.


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## Slade8 (Apr 5, 2009)

Does it take a different skill set to print with a manual press? I guess I'm just trying to figure out how they managed to screw up so much stuff. Especially since it's a company with a good reputation for quality work.

They even screwed up some of my reprints.


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## innothread (Jul 19, 2008)

The mistakes you've mentioned have nothing to do with manual or automatic printing. Two of the mistakes are not properly registering the screens which must be done on both manual and auto printing. The blemish where there is no ink is probably the screen picking up lint on the print area....this will happen no matter who is printing, but it should be minimal. In fact this is worse with automatic printing because since your printing faster if you don't catch the piece of lint right away you can have already printed a bunch of shirts like that. And lastly, the ink washing off the underbase is not a printing problem, but a curing problem. The white underbase most likely is flashed to long which is actually curing it so that the top ink layers don't adhere properly.


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## denck (Apr 7, 2009)

Printing with an auto is soooooo easy
But with a manual press you have the option of making that second pass to make a color brighter where as wht on pass on a auto. Zippers are a pain in the a$$ with an auto but can be done with little or no care on a Manual
Light hand or heavy Push or pull are all at the printer controll on a manual.
Consistant prints goes to the auto hands down.
short runs go to the Manual
Screen cost definately goes to the Manual.
But if you need to turn out 1000s Auto all the way


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## jmlampert23 (Nov 7, 2008)

innothread said:


> Absolutely not. If they can't print a quality product on the manual I sure wouldn't trust them on the auto either. Manual printing is just more labor intensive and the problems you mentioned can happen in both manual and automatic printing if not careful.
> 
> I would look at it this way....If they wanted your big order they would have done a good job on the small one.


 
i totally agree!!!! i think that you need to learn on the manual and understand what it takes to print a quality product before using an automatic machine. the automatic is just there to speed up production


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## Slade8 (Apr 5, 2009)

Well I appreciate the information. Their reasoning for the problems didn't sound right but I figured I would ask just to make sure.


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