# What went wrong here? Screenprint on polyester, jagged lines and blobby inkt.



## sailonsailor (Sep 6, 2017)

Had a screenprint done and not quite happy with the results. Trying to figure out what went wrong here. Hope you guys could lend your eye for a second. 

I've tried to replicate a print on a polyester bomber jacket I've had since 2001. The original print was done directly to the garment. It is completely worn out by now. Had it done by a professional on an identical blank which I managed to source with great difficulty. And the results are well..

The lines of the original look much sharper, no jagged edges. The inkt of the new one looks much thicker, has bled out, cracked in some places - and lot of sharp details don't show up on the print. But see for yourself:

https://imgur.com/a/tRuw0


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## NoXid (Apr 4, 2011)

Looks like it was printed from low-resolution bitmap art. Did you give them a graphics file with the image, or hand over the original garment for them to use as a guide? In either case, low resolution art caused the jaggies. For good results, you want 300 pixels for every inch of print, so a 10" wide print should use art at least 3000 pixels wide.

Vector art doesn't have jaggies, can be resized as needed, which is why CorelDraw or Illustrator or other vector program are a better choice for this sort of art than Photoshop or the like.


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## sailonsailor (Sep 6, 2017)

Certainly looks like it but that's not the case,

the file(s) supplied were both the original .ai and a svg.


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## Industryps (Aug 9, 2016)

Look like a couple of things:
The print was done on a low mesh screen- from the looks of the art it may have been a 110 or even an 86 mesh count. This would make sense when you can see the print is very heavy and looks like they tried to get it in one pass as most jackets are tricky to print without a special platen.

I would imagine the blurring of the print is due to the printers not have an actual jacket pallet. Seems like they were having issues with lift-off and the slick jacket material moving under the screen during the printing process. (This would also explain the use of a low mesh count)
Do you mind if I ask what brand of jacket it is? We recently found this very print-able bomber from Bella+Canvas, but it is on the thin side, more like a windbreaker.


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## sailonsailor (Sep 6, 2017)

Any thoughts on why the printer might have used such a low mesh count. Maybe something to do with the inkt? From what I'm told it's some finnicky inkt and because it needs to adhere to a nylon surface it has to be heated up and is rather thick but i'm unsure about the specifics. 

Thanks for the suggestion though but I'm using period correct vintage MA-1's for this.


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