PRINT AND CUT

[J. Hulme]

Neither.

Screen print

Digital print / sublimation print to a white heat pressed based carrier looks and feels awful.

Saying that, a heavy layered 3/4 colour screen print looks and feels just the same.

[Robert Lambie]

are we talking single colour onto dark t-shirt mate or multi-colour?
what price band are you working too, if any?
what do you hope to print. only t-shirts or other products?

ill try elaborate tommorrow. 😀

[Rodney Gold]

I agree with outline. Thermal print and cut is a VERY expensive option , both in capital costs and consumables for T-shirt printing (which is generally a cut throat field) . Screening is a schlep , especially if its a multicolour job , but a cheap 4 table , 4 screen carousel will do the job well.
If you are doing volume , this is the best way anyway and if you are doing small runs , why not use someone with a thermal printer to do the transfers for you at a favourable price.
Garment printing here is very competitive , and even tho we have our own screening facility , its often cheaper to get someone else with a more automated setup to do it for us and let them have the headaches etc while we concentrate on the more esoteric and profitable jobs.

[CTS]

we need to print 1 off’s up to 100’s of full colour logos
onto t-shirts,poloshirts,sweatshirts & caps etc.
the garments are in dark colours cad cut/print seems to be the way forward for us.we try to work a “while u wait service”
😕 DAVE

[J. Hulme]

quote CTS:

we need to print 1 off’s up to 100’s of full colour logos
onto t-shirts,poloshirts,sweatshirts & caps etc.
the garments are in dark colours cad cut/print seems to be the way forward for us.we try to work a “while u wait service”
😕 DAVE

You can’t , well you can but the only way you’ll do it print to a white heat pressed carrier of the print, the problem being is reproducing white. Now, if it was white garments, no problem, polyester weave T’s and sublimination print, a little trickery converting the image with adobe photoshop to CMYK and output to your printer with the correct colour profiles ( supplied by your ink supplier ) you should be OK.

White isn’t a problem with layers of screen print so any colour can be printed and layered on any colour garment.
But you don’t set screen(s) up for 1 item.

The cad cut stuff is an option, but it lies upon the fabric, not within it, like a transfer, not nice to wear and will deteriorate with general washing.
( Depends if you like your products to last which ultimately generates a good reputation )

One off’s only come in white in sublimation at my company

When the customer ( and yourself ) has seen the quality ( and price ) of a *good* sublimation print, no-one will be looking to produce with the colour cut stuff. I’d steer clear of confusing and telling the customer how it’s actually produced, sublimation is quite misleading, customers get the idea its done on a cheap £25 inkjet printer so therefore low quality, in reality I have invested huge amounts on my sublimation printers and software have all cost more than all of their latest complete PC packages.

Anything done on a cheap printer using incorrect dye inks will be low quality and **will** wash out after the first laundering, those hobby-craft type users should stick to something less taxing… like basket weaving, beard-growing or w*nking, in not any particular order.

[Kevin.Beck]

we do full colour on the edge, using material from grapitype, (sp)
or white paper from express, using sub inks then contour cutting by hand (ball ache)

I`ve seen the result after 6 washes and it looks just like it did when it was first done.

BUT it is like wearing a piece of A4 paper on your chest.

we steer away from the “while you want” sale. its not a fast process, mistakes happen etc. you`ll have the customer in the shop for 30mins.

we, personally would never make alot of money purley on this service alone, its an add on to us. we do these jobs while waiting for the dryer to warm up, or having a tea break etc. we get approx 10 max in a week.

[Adrian Hewson]

To print full colour on white t-shirts spandex sell a heattransfer paper and this works well and does not leave horrible feeling on t-shirt, they also sell ac-flex white is a white material that you can print colours onto so that you can put full colour pictures onto coloured shirts, thsi stuff i good but expensive and a ba****d to weed, forgot to mention you need an edge to print the stuff