# Printing black ink on black AA TriBlend



## Summitfever (May 27, 2018)

So Im making shirts for a friends business and Im having some issues. He wants to use the Tri-Black American Apparel TriBlend shirts. His designs are black and one is a 2 color white and black. We did some testers on a straight black shirt and it came out awesome, however the tri-black shirt is more of a dark grey and very close to the color of the ink. Therefore you can barely make out the design on the shirt. BTW im using Wilflex LAVA black plastisol ink.

How can I make the design more "black"? More coats? I don't want to go too thick and ruing the soft feel of the shirt. Perhaps a white underbase? If all else fails I may try to lighten the black by mixing in white and make it lighter that the shirt.


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

At one point you say you want the design blacker and another point you said you wanted to mix it with white to make it lighter. 



How did it look when you printed on a straight black shirt? Did the ink look gray? Do you want it to look gray or do you want it to look black?


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

The answer is no.
Black on navy blue, or on dark grey is not going to pop, obviously.
You can try using a white outline on the black parts, or use a different color.
You can also try transparent with some glitter, instead of plain black.


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## Summitfever (May 27, 2018)

My hope is to darken up the black, if that fails I will have to lighten the ink in order to provide contrast so that you can see the image. We understand that its not going to "pop". Were going for a bit of a subdued look, however in its current state its pretty much invisible. 

When I tested it on a straight black shirt the ink looked grayish. However on a light color shirt it looks jet black. Im guessing that I may be dealing with a bit of dye migration from the polyester.


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## NoXid (Apr 4, 2011)

Other than getting a blacker black ink, you aren't going to get it darker, and there may be no black dark enough to contrast with the tri-blend shirt.

Consider this. The first test was on a shirt that was blacker than the ink, and that came out great. Now that you are working with an off-black shirt, you need to use a lighter shade of black ink to achieve the same differential and contrast you had the first time. Color is relative in applications like this, not absolute.


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## Summitfever (May 27, 2018)

Thank you NoXid!

Taking your advice about the differential contrast, I mixed some white in with the black and made it lighter and the shirts turned out awesome! 

Im new to this so every bit of advice helps! Thank you


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