# Screenprinting grayscale pic



## Ross B (Apr 28, 2006)

Rodney, or any other screenprinters watching on, I wonder if you could educate me on something basic, please?

With a vectorised grayscale graphic in, say, 4 shades of grey (see example attached), would screenprinting require 4 separate screens, one for each shade of grey, or could you do it with one screen?

I suppose another way of asking the question is: would the printer need to use 4 different colours (one for each shade of grey) and therefore charge for each colour? 

Displaying my absolute ignorance of the practical aspects of screenprinting here - it's a bit hard to understand the process just by reading about it. Anyway, hope some experienced person can clear this up for me.

Cheers


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

Hmm.. I think you forgot the attachment. 

In any case, I think what you want to do (print 4 different shades of gray with one screen) can be accomplished using halftones.

Check out this tutorial:

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/showthread.php?t=6426


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## Ross B (Apr 28, 2006)

Hey, you're too fast, Jasonda! I didn't forget it - I attached the wrong one and while I was just editing my initial post, you've popped up! Speeeedeee!!


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## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

you can print a greyscale image with one color, Black, using halftones for the various shades. This looks okj but in the graphic you posted printing specific colors would look better. Honestly if your wanting to print one color I would convert the photo to greyscale and edit using curves to lighten the lights and darken the darks in the image. 
Keep the image raster and print using 
45 dpi
25 angle
196-305 mesh frame


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## Ross B (Apr 28, 2006)

Thanks, Fluid

What do you mean by "edit using curves", please? Are you referring to PhotoShop?


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## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

yes photoshop. Essentially when printing high end jopbs with tons of halftones you need to help the print by editing the image. Screen printers typically loose dots in the 0-10% range and fill in the 90%-100% range. Editing the art by adjusting the curves wil essentially help to fix this problem making the print that much better.

This can be done in just about any raster editing program.


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## Ross B (Apr 28, 2006)

Thanks, Fluid - will research as per your advice.


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