# water-based inks on dark colors?



## ECOTEES (Jan 29, 2007)

does anybody have any insight into getting pleasing results from printing water-based on dark color tees? I know that it doesn't work to get the colors to show up vividly, but what if I was trying to achieve a faded look? I've been told by my production staff that some water-based inks show up better than others, and that some water-based inks, when applied to a particular color shirt will create entirely new colors as a result of a blending between ink and shirt. Has anybody experimented with water-based to this extent? Thanks!


----------



## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

This thread might help:

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/screen-printing/t11113.html


----------



## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

I know it's possible, because I've seen great water based ink designs on dark shirts at oddica.com

But as far as the technical side on _how_ to do it, I couldn't tell you  Hopefully someone else here will have the insight.


----------



## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

ECOTEES said:


> does anybody have any insight into getting pleasing results from printing water-based on dark color tees?


Sadly not. Ideally you want someone who also prints plastisol so they know what they do differently.



ECOTEES said:


> I've been told by my production staff that some water-based inks show up better than others,


Yeah, it's a good idea to buy a few different brands and print some test swatches.



ECOTEES said:


> and that some water-based inks, when applied to a particular color shirt will create entirely new colors as a result of a blending between ink and shirt.


Transparent inks yes, opaques not really.


----------



## Annushka (Jul 26, 2006)

Here's my experience with waterbased on darks. Using the original ink on the shirt did not give me an opaque look - though ink was specifially opaque. So I tried two things:
- printed an undercoat with opaque white, waited till it dried then applied my color coat (wasn't bad but too much work for me)
- I mixed just a little bit of that same white ink with my color (it's Versatex Super Opaque White) and it did the trick. I came up with a very vivid, bright and pretty opaque yellow on a black t. 
Now, if you do want that faded look you mentioned - waterbased inks personally for me are great on darks. I've used both regular and opaque ones and they all came out nice. You can get all sorts of cool shades. Do keep in mind that whatever comes out on the shirt is usually NOTHING like the color in the jar so I'd advice to keep notes of the exact colors you are using.


----------



## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

Annushka said:


> Do keep in mind that whatever comes out on the shirt is usually NOTHING like the color in the jar so I'd advice to keep notes of the exact colors you are using.


What method do you use to keep the color note refference ?


----------



## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

actually to get a great print on darks with waterbased inks the best bet is to use a discharge as the underbase with white pigments added. this will render a white underbase with minimal to no hand what so ever 

We are getting a shipment of waterbased additives for our discharge setups for this such reason.


----------



## Annushka (Jul 26, 2006)

T-BOT said:


> What method do you use to keep the color note refference ?


In my notebook, I put the design name shirt supplier ink color used etc. Nothing sophisiticated  I also attach notes with clothes pins to the actual samples made. 



> actually to get a great print on darks with waterbased inks the best bet is to use a discharge as the underbase with white pigments added. this will render a white underbase with minimal to no hand what so ever


No doubt there are better ways to get the desired result. 

I should've mentioned that whatever I had described was purely at home testing. I am not a professional printer.


----------



## Greg Hamrick (Jan 25, 2007)

Union Inks sells "Discharge additives" that you can mix into your ink. It will bleach the color out of the shirt and give your ink the brightness you want.


Greg


----------



## BabaBooey (Jan 29, 2007)

Greg-

What exactly is the process? Do you add the additive to existing ink? Does it have to be waterbased ink?


----------



## Greg Hamrick (Jan 25, 2007)

The additives that I bought was for pastisol. It basicly turns the pastisol into a water based ink for a very soft-hand. The discharge additive bleached the color from the shirt so the pastisol color could be seen very bright, yet, leaving the print soft like regular water based inks.
Try Unions web site, it is Union Ink Company | Screen Printing Inks. I prefer Wilflex ink but I think Union makes better additives and specialty inks. They also sell transfer additives, flocks additives, metalics and more.

Hope this helps................Greg


----------



## Greg Hamrick (Jan 25, 2007)

One more thing that I should have added...Fa Fa Flooey.............
The name of the additive is "PlastiCharge".


Greg


----------



## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

> One more thing that I should have added...Fa Fa Flooey.............
> The name of the additive is "PlastiCharge


Yep thats it. Union specialty inks are good but Ive had great success with Rutland and Wilflex's so I havent found a need to switch.


----------



## toobig (Feb 8, 2007)

I used to use a brand called Texicolor. Then, I think the owner sold his product line to Advanced Color and Chemical. He had the standard opaque white but he also had some nice opaque red and yellow. Now I can't find those kinds of inks anywhere. Why can't someone just take the opaque formulation and add pigment to it? Give us the unpigmented base and we'll add pigment to it or something. I work in a shop where we can only use water-based ink. Union Ink only has opaque white and sometimes you can mix other inks to get what you want but it's tough to get certain colors. You can't really get a deep red or a nice blue by adding transparent inks to the opaque white, and printing a white base coat first gives less than desirable results sometimes. It also takes up a spot on the six color press I use. I too search for a good opaque water-based ink.


----------



## ECOTEES (Jan 29, 2007)

Thanks for your all your replies. I guess I will just have to experiment with water-based on darks and keep notes of which work best to get the faded or diluted look I want to achieve. 

As for using discharge ink, please beware of using it in an area that is not well ventilated because it contains formaldehyde, which is extremely toxic for one's health. We don't use it at all for this reason, even in our well-ventilated facility.


----------



## Oritron (Feb 26, 2007)

toobig said:


> I too search for a good opaque water-based ink.


I've had pretty good experience with Permaset Supercover ink. I haven't used a lot of colors, but it is pretty opaque in one pass. I unfortunately don't have much of a baseline, before that all I've used was Speedball  Anyway, the guy at G&S Dye (a local store for me) does a lot of printing, and he says it's the best.


----------

