# White T-Shirt Printing



## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

With all of the posts dedicated to printing white ink, it occurred to me that there was very little information on just printing on white shirts. I am sure we all use little tips and tricks, so I thought I would start a thread so everybody could post up their recipe for their best white shirt print!

I'll go first:

1. I always adjust the art in PS. I adjust the saturation, brightness, and contrast. I also play with the curves and levels to get just the right amount of ink. If you test this on a couple dozen shirts, with variuos types of art, you can really get the feel for what looks the best on the garment.

2. Prepress the shirt for 10 seconds to flatten it out.

3. Print at 720x720 with a double pass.

4. Cure the shirt. I just got a new dryer for my DTG prints, and am currently dialing it in, so I will update this when I have accurate info. Previously on the heat press I would let hover for 60 seconds followed by a 90 second press with light pressure at 335. 

NEXT!!


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## sewexclusive (Mar 14, 2009)

Glad you started this.
I always work up my art in Corel or AI then import into PS for printing. I import at 600 dpi. Maybe could go 300 dpi.
Always go two passes using normal setting (using Rip Pro Ver 4.0)
I hover cure also, about 1/4" away from shirt at 330, then lightly press using teflon sheet for another 10 sec. I find this method washes better. I do the same with my darks except time goes up to 160 sec at 330. I do find that with designs that have red, the color next to the red bleeds into the red. Only happens on white shirts, no problem with white underbase on darks.
Thanks


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

pre-treat each shirt with pre-treat for light garments.

MOD1:
print 1 pass at 1440x720

Kiosk 2:
print 2 passes 720x720

run through vastex db-II conveyor dryer twice. 330 - 350 degrees 1 min per run.


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

Wow 2 1440 squared passes. That must take a while!

Keep em coming guys.


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## spiderx1 (Oct 12, 2009)

TJet 2 doing 2 passes 720x720
TJet 3 1 pass 1440x1440
Using Light garment pretreat on whites. Cure for 30 Sec medium pressure. 330F
Curing ink at 90 Sec at very very light pressure. they are washing well. 
Question for all, If I have a file in vector it prints great, however if I convert the file to raster it looks faded and dull when printed. File is the same dpi 300. Overall I have a difficult time getting the raster files to look good on the white shirts. Dark with an underbase is not a problem. Well in most cases anyway. I brought this up once before and in that thread I was talking about using Great Dane Graphics files, it was suggested not to delete the seperations that come with the file. Tried that and I did not see a change. I generally run Corel X4. I have tried color managment off, tried embedding a NTSC 1953 profile. I have two rips Fast Rip and Cobra RIP (Rip Pro or Multi Rip GP with different skin.) Anyway any suggestions. I have played with sat brightness and contrast. Printzilla I would be interested in knowing more about your settings in those areas. Thanks for starting the thread.


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## chobay (Aug 4, 2009)

Pretreatment for light shirts, (Black ink pops.) 720, 2pass ALWAYS. Sometimes unidirectional depending on the details in the design. Adjustments to image as required. No hover, cook @ 335 for 120..


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## IYFGraphics (Sep 28, 2009)

Light shirt pretreatment cured 20 sec covered light pressure then 10sec uncovered (hover) @ 320, depending on artwork 360 or 720 2 passes cured at 320 for 90-120 sec very light pressure. We have done whites without pretreatment (normally single pass) basically simple text with no bleeding but the colors especially red & yellow don't pop like they do with the pretreatment.


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

Printzilla said:


> Wow 2 1440 squared passes. That must take a while!
> 
> Keep em coming guys.


Ooops, meant 720x720


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## spiderx1 (Oct 12, 2009)

anybody tried 360x360 x 2?? I only bring it up because I saw on a video for Fast Artist that Dave was suggesting this as a sweet spot, however it does not seem likely. I have not tried it.


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

spiderx1 said:


> anybody tried 360x360 x 2?? I only bring it up because I saw on a video for Fast Artist that Dave was suggesting this as a sweet spot, however it does not seem likely. I have not tried it.


On the kiosks we could never get acceptable prints at 360x360 or 360x720, the banding was too noticeable.


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

I do not get the banding at 720 x 360, but I cannot get the saturation of ink I like, so I use the 720x720. I have not used the light PT in over three years. Has it changed? Seems like alot of you guys are using it, so it must be worth it.

Do you apply it just like the dark PT? Do you use a roller/brush/etc....Do you put down the same amount? Is it as important to get it right aka, if to much does it effect washability? Do you cut it 50/50?


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

The light pre-treat requires a very light misting, say 1/4 as much as dark PT. Press for about 15 or 20 sec to dry.


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

I'm like Tahoe, on the Mod1, I use 720x720 with a double pass. I have to reduce my CMYK ink to about 93%. Sometimes I will go 1440x720 with a double pass, depending on the graphic, but the vast majority are 720x720.


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## chobay (Aug 4, 2009)

Printzilla said:


> I do not get the banding at 720 x 360, but I cannot get the saturation of ink I like, so I use the 720x720. I have not used the light PT in over three years. Has it changed? Seems like alot of you guys are using it, so it must be worth it.
> 
> Do you apply it just like the dark PT? Do you use a roller/brush/etc....Do you put down the same amount? Is it as important to get it right aka, if to much does it effect washability? Do you cut it 50/50?


I didn't realize that others were pretreating light shirts either. I think it's worth the extra minute or two, b/c of the end result. I spray much lighter than with regular pretreat. Washability is good. For 50/50, I'm about to test a poly pretreat from DTGInks..


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## IYFGraphics (Sep 28, 2009)

spiderx1 said:


> anybody tried 360x360 x 2?? I only bring it up because I saw on a video for Fast Artist that Dave was suggesting this as a sweet spot, however it does not seem likely. I have not tried it.


We have tried 360x360x2 and the coverage was less than desirable for us although with some chest logos that are just small text it has worked ok, the bigger the print area the lack of coverage and banding were much more noticeable. The sweet spot for our T-Jet is the 720x720 for whites that have been pretreated.

Hope this helps.


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

Just ordered some light garment PT, so I will post up my review next week.


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## spiderx1 (Oct 12, 2009)

Anyone try just watering down the dark pretreat at about a 1-5 ratio??


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## chobay (Aug 4, 2009)

spiderx1 said:


> Anyone try just watering down the dark pretreat at about a 1-5 ratio??


I don't think it's a matter of the thickness of the pretreat. Some other experts on here have said that dark pretreat doesn't hold cmyk ink (without underbase) as well as the light pretreat does..


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## spiderx1 (Oct 12, 2009)

I think I will have to try this. Let you know.


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

I know when I print white ink on a white shirt, I use the dark garment pretreat and it does great. Not sure what would happen if I just used CMYK ink. Things that make you go hmmmmmmm????


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## CoorsDTG (May 12, 2010)

On some of the images that have deep dark colors as well as bright lights...images that would normally look better with two passes anyway, I'll actually seperate out the darks using Photoshop or Illustrator and print 1 pass for the light colors and 1 pass for the darks using different settings for each. I use EK Print Studio with an Anajet Sprint and open multiple sessions at once in order to get the registration exact. This has been the difference for me between a great looking print and a phenomenal looking print. I feel like the extra 5-10 minutes that I spend in Photoshop keeps me from having to pretreat my white shirts. If you have any kind of graphics knowledge, I would recommend trying it out.


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

When printing personal shirts i actually use the separations output choice in Photoshop, and rip pro will print the seps. It is pretty cool.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

K2, in addition to the pt and the 720squared printing 2 passes we print vivid darker. talk about vivid colors. 

On a side note we got some great prints with dark pt and white ink underbase 720 on heather shirts


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

I print my personal white shirts with dark pt and white under base. They really pop!


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## cavedave (Dec 5, 2006)

The sweet spot was 720x360 and was on the T2 (not later models). The Epson 2100/2200 based machine had a bigger dot volume (about twice that of later machines), so you could do 720x360 2 pass and get a good saturation of color.
With any 2400/1800/1900 or 48XX machines a 720x720 is the same vol of ink (more or less) as the T2 at 720x360 so an eqivalent on these is two pass 720x720 and the same for next res up a 720x720 on a T2 is the same as 1440x720 on later machines.

Spiderx1, with FastRIP you can get exactly the same output for a bitmap as a vector if not something changed and without looking at your work flow I canttell you what. But theer are a number of things it could be, depending on how you send the data, color managment settings etc..

If you want private message me and we can arrange a time to do a netview and I will look at what you are doing and work it out.

Best regards

-David


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## spiderx1 (Oct 12, 2009)

Thanks Dave I will get something together soon and let u know.


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

Cutting down dark PT looks good after printing but does not wash well.
The light PT has additional pigment binders, not only will your prints look more vibrant they wash better and it helps reduce the curring time.

The PT is milky white in color, my research leads me to believe it is a standard Acrylic-based pigment binder for textiles. If i can find a company to sell samples or small enough qtys id like to test it out and see if its the same.


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

One more thing about the dark PT on white shirts, even cutting it down can leave a yellow tint on the shirt. Using less PT helps but negates the vibrancy effect on the shirt. 

Its a trial and error proccess with no real world end gain.


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## spiderx1 (Oct 12, 2009)

Tahoe Tomahawk I send you an PM.


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

TahoeTomahawk said:


> One more thing about the dark PT on white shirts, even cutting it down can leave a yellow tint on the shirt. Using less PT helps but negates the vibrancy effect on the shirt.
> 
> Its a trial and error proccess with no real world end gain.


I do not find that 50/50 stains my white shirts. I only use it when I am putting white down on a white shirt. I do find they do not wash as well.


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