# how do I print bright colors on dark shirts



## spennyd (May 30, 2009)

Having a really tough time trying to figure out how to print my illustrations of brightly colored images and have them remain brightly colored on dark and bright colored t-shirts/onesies. Been looking on this forum for months and I am getting nowhere. HELP!!

Images are many colors (over 12) so silk screen is not an option.
also can not find bright colored shirts that are not 100% cotton, and I hear I can cad print but only on 50/50, although not loving the white border around the image. Any other choices out there?

PLEASE help me. thanks for your time.


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## Pwear (Mar 7, 2008)

What method are you currently using to print?


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## spennyd (May 30, 2009)

none- have not figured one out yet.


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## GHEENEE1 (Jan 8, 2007)

I use Jet Opaque, contour cut with with a vinyl cutter. I then press with a heat press. I only use 100% cotton shirts. I hate the feel, but a neccesary evil. Tell the customer what to expect. Mike


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## miktoxic (Feb 21, 2008)

if you're printing many colors on a dark shirt there are really only a couple of methods that make sense. first there is the opaque inkjet transfers which when applied to the shirt via heat press leaves such a heavy plasticy feel....yuk. then there's silkscreen. you can print alot of colors at once using the four color process method. what you are basically doing is mixing the base four colors cyan, magenta, yellow and black (cmyk) to reproduce all the colors in the rainbow. since it's printing on darks they'd probably have to lay down a base white first as an undercoat. might i suggest you repost this thread here: Graphics and Design Help - T-Shirt Forums and maybe with a pic of one of your designs so the experts could come back and tell you what they would do. -good luck!


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## bornover (Apr 10, 2008)

spennyd said:


> Having a really tough time trying to figure out how to print my illustrations of brightly colored images and have them remain brightly colored on dark and bright colored t-shirts/onesies. Been looking on this forum for months and I am getting nowhere. HELP!!
> 
> Images are many colors (over 12) so silk screen is not an option.
> also can not find bright colored shirts that are not 100% cotton, and I hear I can cad print but only on 50/50, although not loving the white border around the image. Any other choices out there?
> ...


Spen, don’t worry about how many colors your designs have. That is not the issue as all printing methods can deal with painted, photographic and photorealistic images in super high color. All the printing methods (DTG, various forms of heat transfer, sublimation, screen printing) look spectacular when done by someone who knows what they are doing.

I think the way to decide what printing method to use should be determined by a few main things. 1st, how big will the design print on the garment and where? 2nd, is the design high color or low color? 3rd, how many pieces will you print? 4th, what is your budget?

Zeroing in on these things will either eliminate some printing methods or make one or two printing methods rise to the top of your choices.


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## spennyd (May 30, 2009)

here is a sample of one of the drawings.all drawings are as brightly colored as this sample. all 12 designs are at max 4x3.5 inches...all to fit on baby onesies and toddler tshirts and maybe sweatshirts. We will be doing 100 of each of the 12 designs to start off with. budget is depending on what looks the best. since it will be on a very small portion of front of t-shirt not sure it it will matter if it is a bit stiff but keeping the colors bright and true to the color is what is most important and to be able to get those lines that are showing behind the plane is important as well.


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## bornover (Apr 10, 2008)

Spen, at 1200 pieces I think screen printing or screen printed transfers might be the best choice. Indexed color screen printing will give you the bright colors you are after and be best cost wise at those numbers.

But, and this is a big but, you are going to make children’s apparel. That means you must get yourself familiar with the CPSIA laws for kids stuff. There are new inks for screen printing that take care of the issues about Phthalates in plastisol inks. You must need to make super sure you work with a company that uses approved inks for kids and/or has had all their products tested. You need to deal with this regardless of what printing method you ultimately choose.


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## spennyd (May 30, 2009)

Thanks Mark that is awesome advice. Would NEVER have thought about the legality issue in a TRANSFER!! and I have a 2 year old! wow. 
ok so when you say screenprinted plastisol transfer that is done at a place like F&M, right? I can call and ask them about the kid friendly.
What and who does screen printing? Is that a place like a 4 color printer but they print right on the fabric? have anyone in mind?


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## spennyd (May 30, 2009)

shoot Zach from F&M said: Our transfers are not Phthalate free

do you know someone that is?

thanks


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## miktoxic (Feb 21, 2008)

that would be a good question to ask in a new thread. i'm inteested also!


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## itsnotthatbad (Apr 29, 2009)

spennyd said:


> here is a sample of one of the drawings.all drawings are as brightly colored as this sample. all 12 designs are at max 4x3.5 inches...all to fit on baby onesies and toddler tshirts and maybe sweatshirts. (snip)


Hi Spenny,

We were in a similar situation. We also have very small designs and bright colors -- actually very specific PMS colors that we want reproduced.

We looked into plastisol/screenprinted transfers, but by the time you add $35-50 per PMS color for matching (and that is PER design for some reason even if you are ordering a LOT) PLUS we would have also had one ink color change done three times, etc. etc. Those really added up for us.

We were trying to add flexibility in our response and inventory requirements -- as far as being able to make and have on hand what our customers wanted. We were doing 4-5 color silk screening (done for us), but as we added more designs (and we have to have 3 versions of the same design for each design) and garmet options, it just gets too expensive, at least for now.

Soooooooooo, we went to the ISS here in Atlanta to get a firsthand look at heat press transfer options for what we wanted...

We chose the Stahls ID Cadprintz Opaque. We just got our order of approx 1000 total transfers (we ganged some up to take advantage of the lower price when you go greater than 20 sq inches) and we are THRILLED.

The good news:
1) very soft feel
2) VERY easy and quick to apply
3) They did a really nice job on the colors for us -- some they couldn't match precisely, but they were close enough that we were happy and the designs look super

The cons:
1) Most designs (and it looks like yours will fall into that category) have to have a border around them. Our screenprinted designs DID NOT. That was probably the hardest decision, but I asked customers and they did NOT care. It actually ended up looking cute, so it's not really a con anymore. You may or may not like it with your designs.

Stahls ID customer service was AWESOME. I had some confusion/misunderstanding along the way and they were VERY patient with me. I had also recently purchased my heat press from them (16x20 autoclam) so I had a contact there.

We chose them because our budget could not swing what it would have cost to do this in plastisol. I don't even think that it makes sense to EVER do our designs in plastisol bc of all the pms matching and ink changes.

I think it works great for smaller designs like yours and mind. My biggest is 4.5 x 4.5. And it's very economical and flexible. We were already getting a great price on screenprinting, but we just didn't want to carry the inventory and worry about the wait when we had to restock. We can order transfers and have them in just a few days, giving us much better response. If my math is right, the cost of our average transfer is around $1.

Maybe this can work for you??

I've attached a kind of poor quality photo of our swatch board we made last night. It doesn't quite do them justice, but you can get the idea. They do have cases where they can do a full bleed. But not with mine...

-Kristie


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## miktoxic (Feb 21, 2008)

yes kristie, but does that answer the most recent question about phthalate free inks and the CPSIA issues about printing garments for kids? i would be interested to know if the stahl's opaque that you talk about follows the new guidelines as stated above.

also not every vendor of plastisol transfers have a charge for screens. most do charge for color changes and pms matching but my vendor offers 80 standard colors to choose from. i mean you should be able to pick something close with 80 colors.


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## itsnotthatbad (Apr 29, 2009)

miktoxic said:


> yes kristie, but does that answer the most recent question about phthalate free inks and the CPSIA issues about printing garments for kids? i would be interested to know if the stahl's opaque that you talk about follows the new guidelines as stated above.
> 
> also not every vendor of plastisol transfers have a charge for screens. most do charge for color changes and pms matching but my vendor offers 80 standard colors to choose from. i mean you should be able to pick something close with 80 colors.


Just talked to Stahls and the inks used for the digital prints are eco friendly and contain neither lead nor pthalate (sp). The rep said that the bill that passed is a few months from being a requirement (bear with me because this is my first experience with this info) -- she said that their other products are being transitioned over, but that the digital prints are currently compliant with the new requirements.

With colors, we have had a really hard time matching the chocolate and yellow labs, which are kind of creamy/pastel versions of yellow and chocolate. I carried our designs around the ISS show and spoke with every transfer vendor (I think 5-6 -- versatrans, quick trans, transferexpress, stahls and a couple of others) and got the same answer. I was hoping I could "make a deal" given that we were ordering so many, but everyone wanted that PMS color matching for each individual design. I don't know how it works, but I thought they could just make a bit tub of ink and use it for all of the designs since they contain the same color palette...

Thanks for the info on the lead and the pth??? Let me/us know what you end up going with. I'd love to see how your designs turned out. 

-K


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## miktoxic (Feb 21, 2008)

itsnotthatbad said:


> I don't know how it works, but I thought they could just make a bit tub of ink and use it for all of the designs since they contain the same color palette...-K


unfortunately i think the days of screen printers holding onto customer screens and tubs of their inks are over. i imagine there are still mom and pop shops that will do it but imagine the warehouse space needed given the volume these large vendors put out.

it's amazing the transitions and changes businesses must go through these days with overbearing protectionism forced upon everyone involved. i remember half of the kids in kindergarten eating paste. from what i can recall is that it didn't taste that bad! 

oh btw here is the standard colors available from howard (my vendor) don't know about the 'child proofing' ink formulas though.

Howard Sportswear | Heat Transfer Colors


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## itsnotthatbad (Apr 29, 2009)

miktoxic said:


> unfortunately i think the days of screen printers holding onto customer screens and tubs of their inks are over. i imagine there are still mom and pop shops that will do it but imagine the warehouse space needed given the volume these large vendors put out.(snip)


That part I understand. I wouldn't expect them to warehouse my ink. I just thought they could buy enough for the job so I'm not getting hit with $150+ per design (So that's 20 designs...????). Granted the $50 per color was the high end of the quotes I got. I think the lowest was still $25/30 for pms color matching. 

And, on the note of your original discussion... I had a friend come over a little bit of go. She used to be a department store buyer as well as a merchandiser and other retail/apparel related stuff. I showed her the transfers and she really liked them. I asked about the perception of the "transfer" versus screenprinting and she commented that the colors looked really bright and vivid on the new transfers. I really trust her judgment (she has great taste, lol) and she thought they looked great.

-K


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