# White ink on dark garment automatic screen setup



## chilly15 (Nov 9, 2009)

Hello, we just purchased our first automatic press and I'm curious to know about screen setup when printing white on dark garments. Say I'm printing a white logo on a black shirt. It's my understanding that I need to have 2 exact same screens to p/f/p the white logo. But my question is do I need to choke the first white screen design and spread the second white screen design as I would if I were printing say red ink on a black garment with a white underbase? Thanks


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## Asheville Promo (Oct 2, 2015)

If you're printing two whites you can get away with two screens the same size. Although it makes things easier to register if there is a .5 point white stroke on the First screen. If your top color is different from the underbase I would definitely choke the underbase. We often print a cream color over a low bleed white to control dye migration and it helps a lot to have that first color choked instead of just printing two creams the same size.


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## numbercruncher (Feb 20, 2009)

chilly15 said:


> Hello, we just purchased our first automatic press and I'm curious to know about screen setup when printing white on dark garments. Say I'm printing a white logo on a black shirt. It's my understanding that I need to have 2 exact same screens to p/f/p the white logo. But my question is do I need to choke the first white screen design and spread the second white screen design as I would if I were printing say red ink on a black garment with a white underbase? Thanks


Don't know what kind of auto you have but many come equipped with either a step back mode or a cycler/revolver mode, while that slows production some what, they do not require a second screen - talk to the people you bought the press from and good printing...
Nichael Jirasek
Anatol
847-582-1694


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## chilly15 (Nov 9, 2009)

It will jig a full step forward and a half step back. But you're correct, that would slow production down like crazy. That's not an option. The people we bought the press said a 2nd white screen is the way to go. I just wasn't sure if the 2nd one would need a spread.


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## Kevin2coolair (Jan 9, 2017)

For white only logos on dark garments, I cannot recommend choking the first screen. When registered together the larger (unchoked) white has a tendency to leave a soft fuzzy "halo" around the graphic. 
I use 1 film and shoot it twice. Take your time to get the registration precise and you should end up with a nice clean print.


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## Printor (Apr 16, 2015)

I don't choke when doing that. It's the same as print flash print with 1 screen, on a manual, if registered right. And for me it depends on the size of the run. If it's 24pcs. I find 2 revolution to take the same amount of time as the set up and tear down of a 2nd screen. At 50-100 pcs you start seeing a noticeable time savings.


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## wrkalot (Mar 2, 2011)

I agree with no choke 100%. We do a ton of this kind of work and we never, ever, choke one of the whites.

For us, like Printor, if the order is more that 60-ish pieces we do 2 identical screens and p/f/p. If it's less we go around twice.


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## TheFoundry (Jul 31, 2012)

I agree with the common knowledge here, contracting the base plate can cause the top white to separate around the edges of the art. We use the same file for both top and bottom screens.


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## rajesh90 (Mar 4, 2017)

Hi
Pre-treatment is quite possible one of the most critical components to the high-quality DTG equation; too little pretreat chemical and your print results will surely suffer, whereas too much pretreat chemical can easily compromise your wash results. In addition to finding the right volume of pretreat for the specific garment you are printing, you must also take steps to minimize fibrillation and reduce “pre-treatment marks” on the garments (you can read more on pre-treatment marks by clicking here).There are many different ways to apply pre-treatment to blank garments, but the most common methods include the use of a Wagner HPLV (“High Pressure Low Volume”) spray gun or some sort of automatic pre-treatment machine.

Some DTG machines, such as the Kornit brand of printers, actually apply the pre-treatment while the shirt is loaded on the machine; there are basically two schools of thought on whether or not this makes sense, with one side advocating for the ease-of-use and reduction in the overall number of steps required to print, and the other side claiming that the inclusion of the pretreat step on the machine actually reduces overall efficiency (since it can’t start printing until the pretreat step is done, causing downtime at the printer) and presents the possibility of a “single point of failure” (if the pre-treatment nozzle becomes compromised or starts acting up, your entire print operation is offline). Personally, I prefer to do the pretreat step off the printer, for a number of reasons:If a Wagner HPLV spray gun starts giving us trouble, we can easily replace it at any time; we even keep extras around at all times, reducing the possibility that we will be stuck without the ability to pretreat shirts.

By pre-treating the garments off the machine, there is no downtime at the printer itself. We simply load up shirts that are ready to be printed, and the printer continues to spit out completed product without delay.
When pretreat is applied on the machine itself, there is no opportunity to heat press the garment to flatten out the fibers and evaporate the excess PT fluid – this reduces the overall clarity in the print, and can leave room for fibers to stick up after the pretreat is applied.Watch a video on Pretreating Technique provided by DTG Print Solutions


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## rajesh90 (Mar 4, 2017)

rajesh90 said:


> Hi
> Pre-treatment is quite possible one of the most critical components to the high-quality DTG equation; too little pretreat chemical and your print results will surely suffer, whereas too much pretreat chemical can easily compromise your wash results. In addition to finding the right volume of pretreat for the specific garment you are printing, you must also take steps to minimize fibrillation and reduce “pre-treatment marks” on the garments (you can read more on pre-treatment marks by clicking here).There are many different ways to apply pre-treatment to blank garments, but the most common methods include the use of a Wagner HPLV (“High Pressure Low Volume”) spray gun or some sort of automatic pre-treatment machine.
> 
> Some DTG machines, such as the Kornit brand of printers, actually apply the pre-treatment while the shirt is loaded on the machine; there are basically two schools of thought on whether or not this makes sense, with one side advocating for the ease-of-use and reduction in the overall number of steps required to print, and the other side claiming that the inclusion of the pretreat step on the machine actually reduces overall efficiency (since it can’t start printing until the pretreat step is done, causing downtime at the printer) and presents the possibility of a “single point of failure” (if the pre-treatment nozzle becomes compromised or starts acting up, your entire print operation is offline). Personally, I prefer to do the pretreat step off the printer, for a number of reasons:If a Wagner HPLV spray gun starts giving us trouble, we can easily replace it at any time; we even keep extras around at all times, reducing the possibility that we will be stuck without the ability to pretreat shirts.
> ...


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