# Water colour effects in printing



## mempo (Apr 26, 2010)

I was wondering how the water colour effect on shirts like these are printed; 
my best guess would be using alot of colours and halftones, but that seems kind of impossible to print...

I'd love some insight on this, 
how would you print this, etc..

doing my final project on shirt printing, so would be nice if I could explain how some special techniques/applicaitons are done

D A R A |apparel|cute is what we aim for

D A R A |apparel|nevertheless

D A R A |apparel|designbyhumans


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## red514 (Jul 21, 2009)

I've done several water color designs and i used both simulated process and index methods. I found the index method produced the best results but simulated process used a couple fewer screens.


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## ole Jobe (Jun 16, 2009)

Those could be done 4 color process or DTG. I would guess screened, 4-color, process or simulated process. God Bless.


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## mempo (Apr 26, 2010)

thank you kindly for the swift responses 

red514; when you say simulated process, how is this different than 'regular' process (CMYK) - I'm guessing solid instead of opaque inks?
And what angles would you place the different screens at with 4+ colours using halftones?

ole jobe; I figured you could do this with DTG, but the final project reasearch is all about what the strenghts and weaknesses are of the different printing techniques. When they say 'well you can DTG that' I want to be able to answer why screenrpinting would be the better choice, etc.


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## red514 (Jul 21, 2009)

mempo said:


> thank you kindly for the swift responses
> 
> red514; when you say simulated process, how is this different than 'regular' process (CMYK) - I'm guessing solid instead of opaque inks?
> And what angles would you place the different screens at with 4+ colours using halftones?


simulated process uses halftone dots just like CMYK process printing, the difference is the ink colors. Simulated process uses specified colors by the artist and uses basic plastisol ink (or waterbased) where as CMYK uses specially formulated inks and only uses Cyan Magenta Yellow and Black. The CMYK inks a very translucent, where as simulated process uses opaque inks.

Simulated process uses all the same angle for every color (any angle that reduces moire but use that for all screens)

there's allot of good info in this thread for you if you haven't already checked it out
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/general-t-shirt-selling-discussion/t37985.html


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## mempo (Apr 26, 2010)

I had seen that thread (been lurking for a while now), but thanks alot nonetheless! 

Thanks for the extra explanation, I thought using the same angle for screens wouldn't work out ok - or that's what they told me in college. I've only done single colour halftones when screenprinting pictures on artboard, think it was around 30lpi.


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## red514 (Jul 21, 2009)

mempo said:


> I thought using the same angle for screens wouldn't work out ok - or that's what they told me in college.


there's still some debate about this. i have done allot of CMYK jobs in the past but not so much in the last few years. When i was doing CMYK i experimented allot but always used different angles and had only read about people using the same angles for all CMYK in the past couple years. There was a good article i found linked from this forum (can't seem to find it now) that explained why using the same angle was more beneficial to a screen printer. I've seen great results using both methods


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## red514 (Jul 21, 2009)

regarding water color designs, not sure if you've ever seen the 'born to shop' designs, it's all water colored.
[media]http://images.productserve.com/preview/1702/99162197.jpg[/media]

i did allot of these a couple years ago and index worked the best, we got all the nuances of the coloring. i'm going to hunt around the sample room and see if i can find one to take a pic of.


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## mempo (Apr 26, 2010)

Well, in theory using an angle between 15 and 20 gives you a sharper image (mask) on your screen. But I thought using the same angle on each colour might get you Moiré.

But you say both techniques yield good results?
What raster percentage/lpi and kind of screens did you print those with?

I'd love to see a close up shot of a simulated process print if you can make one. Haven't been able to find a local printer that tackles that sort of work on shirts.


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## red514 (Jul 21, 2009)

here's a good thread on CMYK printing http://www.t-shirtforums.com/screen-printing/t71004.html

with simulated process, you want to use the same angle, you want the dots to fall on top of each other. You don't need the rosette pattern with simulated process as you aren't mixing colors, it's more like you're blending shades of color so you want the dots to fall onto each other or fill in the gaps of the other color.

The 'born to shop' water color designs i did were all done using index and not simulated process. i could show you some simulated process work but the colors are very vibrant and saturated, not washed out like water coloring.


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## mempo (Apr 26, 2010)

I was a bit confused by the info in the thread, your two line comment explained it alot clearer 

I'd love to see some simulated process work


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