Simulated Process Screen Printing for Garment Decoration Charlie Taublieb Taublieb Consulting 6122 South Boston Circle Greenwood Village, Colorado 80111 Tel. 1(303) 290-8009 Cell 1(303) 618-8955 Fax 1(303) 779-0750 Skype drprint2001 www.taubliebconsulting.com drprint@aol.com

Chairman: Academy of Screen Printing Technology

Simulated process is simply the breakdown of an image and made to look like it was printed

using four color process but without the use of the process colors and not limited to a specific

number of colors. It would usually be a raster image, meaning it was created or broken down in

Photoshop or a similar program and is made up of pixels which would later be output using

halftones.

Simulated process printing is usually associated with printing on black or dark colored garments.

It could and should be used for all colors because, unlike four color process, it is very forgiving

and since many customers are not sure what color garments they want a job printed on, this

would allow for choices to be made without a problem if designed correctly. Designing correctly

means designing for a black garment. If you design for black, you only have to add in the black

when printing on other colors. Should you design for light colors, you’ll have to lay down a solid

underlay to print the colors on and will have to print black on a black shirt. In order to design

properly, design on a black background and not a white one.

Here are a few of the design elements to consider:

1-Make sure the image has lots of contrast by having light come from a single point other than

straight forward. Exaggerate the

black areas.

2-The shadow areas should have lots of black in them so the black of the garment and the

design are integrated.

3-Your computer screen should be black when designing and not white.

4-Don’t worry about being anatomically correct with your shadow areas, this is for a tee shirt

and not an anatomy book.

This article will address several ways an image can be used if designed properly for a dark

garment, simply meaning, lots of contrast and able to print on a black garment without the use

of black ink.

I am working with John McGee of Airship Printing in Castle Rock, Colorado. We started out with

a separated image produced by Great Dane Graphics and sold on their website that is able to

print on garments from white to black and all colors in between, but we had a problem. In order

to work on all colors, it required the use of seven colors. Only having a six color press available,

we had to go in and make a few adjustments. We opened the image in Photoshop and took the

green separation and added it to the blue and yellow separations so we would get green when

we printed the image. Although the green would not match the color of the original green, in this

instance, it wouldn’t matter. And, although we would be printing with opaque inks, they would

blend together and create a green anyway.

Image of the seven color art on the computer. Artwork is set up for use with an M&R Tri-Lock. Once we eliminated the green separation, we printed out the separations using a 45 lpi, 61 degree angle and elliptical dot for all the colors.

Films were done and set up on the exposure unit. Newman Roller Frames were used.

Screen tensions were all at 35 N/cm using a dual exposing emulsion. Dip tank for developing. The mesh count used for the white underlay was 156/64 and 230/48 for all the other colors. There is quite a bit of work being done using mesh counts with thinner thread diameters such as 150/48 and 225/40 with great results. The tension for these mesh counts is between 17-23 N/cm. It is very important not to use excessive pressure when printing the thinner threads as they are not as strong as the thicker ones. They do allow the ink to pass through easily with a single pass so the ink sits on top of the garment giving vibrant colors and a strong white underlay. A single pass will also add speed to production and clarity to the image.

Put the white underlay into the press, center the image and add ink.

Spray adhesive on the pallet and load the garment to be used for registration. Although spray adhesives are the most popular, they create a mess. Many printers are going over to liquid adhesives which cost less and don’t create a mess.

The hardness and sharpness of the squeegee is critical. A hard flood stroke loads the screen.

For my white underlay, I like to use a 55/90/55 squeegee made by Serilor. The soft outside

allows the edge to collapse a bit and lay down a good amount of ink, and the harder center

allows for some pressure without the squeegee folding over and printing on its side. The

squeegee should always be sharp and straight.

For my other colors, I use a 65/90/65 squeegee on an automatic press with just enough

pressure to clear the screen on one pass. On a manual press, I use a 70 durometer squeegee.

All squeegees should be sharp and straight.

A hard flood stroke will help load up the image area making it easier to clear with the print stroke

and possibly reducing the number of strokes needed to get a good underlay. Remember, the

underlay does not have to be very bright, but does need to show all the detail to be held. A

double stroke will make the underlay brighter, but detail may be lost in the process making for a

vibrant, but flat looking print.

Pushing the squeegee for the print stroke. The underlay should look like a good one color print.

By leaning forward and pushing instead of pulling the squeegee, your body will do the work

instead of your arms and you will not need as much force to get the ink through the screen.

Once the underlay is printed, don’t flash, tape it with a clear packing tape. Register to the print.

You can use a clear sheet of polyester or any plastic instead of the tape by spraying it with

adhesive and placing it on the print. The reason we don’t want to flash is the chance the image

might shrink from the heat and cause a registration problem.

Flood and print, them check the registration.

If off, wipe and print again. Repeat until perfect. D this for all the colors.

The color order we printed was dictated by Separation Studio, the software that was used.

By using a clear cover over the underlay means only one garment will be used for the set-up.

Y

You Wipe as often as necessary to get the registration of all colors perfect.

Once all screens are registered, put on a fresh garment and do a test print. Usually, the first

print isn’t very strong because as each color is being printed, the next screen is picking off some

of the ink and makes the colors on the first print look like they were washed out. What I like to

do is multiple strokes, four to six per color to get a build-up on the bottom of the screens so

there is enough of a build-up that the ink being printed won’t be pulled off by the subsequent

screens.

Print the underlay. On a manual, two strokes, on an auto, one stroke should be fine.

Flash, then print all the rest of the colors wet on wet. Do not flash after the underlay.

In this case, we tested out a variety of color orders to get the best results as the original one

was not working well because we eliminated a color and are allowing two colors to blend and

create the color we need.

Printing on black shirts only requires five screens, as does printing on white shirts.

Colored shirts require a black screen as well as a white screen to get the complete design

printed. White shirts do not use the underlay and black shirts do not use the black screen.

The finished print on a black shirt. Bottom of the highlight white screen with all the inks on it.

The bottom of the last screen should look like a good print done backwards with all colors and

detail.

Printing on ash or any garment other than black or white requires one additional screen. White.

Flash, then blue followed by the red.

The color order has been changed to get the desired results.

Although the software lists the black following white but after the flash, in this case, printing it

after the yellow gave the best results and the best blend for making the green.

The highlight white adds the dimension to the print. Once done, send it through the dryer.

John McGee of Airship Printing, Castle Rock, Colorado with the finished six color print.

Now the question is, suppose your client doesn’t want to spend what it costs to do a five of six

color job, what can you do that will separate you from what most other printers do, which is

create a one or two color vector job that ever printer in the world can do.

First thing, well designed artwork for a black shirt should have an underlay that looks like a great

one color job, show it that way. You might also print the black only on any color shirt other than

black and show that.

Another full color image from Great Dane Graphics on ash.

White on black shirts.

Black on an ash shirt. White on an ash shirt. Not every design works.

Underlay, flash, black on ash shirts.

By printing the underlay, flashing it and printing the black, you get a great looking two color print

on shirts other than black or white.

Black, highlight white on ash shirt.

The other way to print on any color other than black is to print the black first then the highlight

white without a flash. The production is better and the finished print is different that the one with

the underlay printed.

Original design as done for a show in Germany in 2005 before it was separated.

This would have required eight colors to produce.

Creativity is always important and offering options will get you jobs that you might otherwise

miss out on. Get creative!