Coarse screens and half tones
Submitted by Steve on Thursday, 19 June 20088 Comments
It is pretty standard practice in screen printing to use very fine screens where a half tone is required, but unfortunately fine screens and water based inks do not work well together. So what do you do? Ignore everything you have been told about mesh counts and half tones! Experiment a little, good fades are achievable in water based inks without the use of retarders or even high definition bases. We experienced no drying in screens on this particular job and were amazed yet again at the detail coarse screens can achieve. We also think the job benifited from the jerzees 180M Tee.
Hey
how did you get this gradient with half tones? i read about the index separation but it is not so sharp as this how did you do this?
Hope to get a reply soon.
Hi Kevin
This is not index printing, this is half tones at 55lpi printed on top of solid vector shapes. The smooth appearance of the tones is helped by the colours where the fades occur being similar, the grey shadow is a transparent water based ink this also helps in making the gradients more subtle. Hope this helps a little.
[...] coarse-screens-and-half-tones [...]
It’s seems great even with water based inks.
Hi, How course did you go, I’ve just tried a 90T with permaset aqua and not enough ink is getting through on my halftone. I’ll be ordering some coarser screens to try (down to 43T) but just wondering what mesh you used for the above example as it is very cool.
Regards
Steve.
Fred Thanks
Steve: We get 55LPI on 50T screens with no problems, our printing is primarily waterbased, we very rarely use screens finer than 81T. We survive quite happily on a diet of 50T and 65T meshes. Appropriate screen coatings and good exposures are essential to keep the emulsion from falling off your mesh as there is little for it to hold on to.
Thanks for the response on your mesh sizes, I’m very much a newbie getting to grips with printing so being able to see what can be achieved is a great help. Keep up the good work.
What screen angles have you found that work best on your 50T and 65T meshes? I’m in California and the equivalent meshes we use would be 120-55µ or 130-55µ (120 Threads per inch and 55 micron Thread Diameter). For most plastisol jobs we use 230-40µ and the best angle has been 26°. It is totally moiré-free and we can consistently hold down to about 4% dot at 75 lpi. We’ve also found that the water-based inks benefit from a coarser mesh around 120 threads per inch, but we haven’t found the time to test every angle at an assortment of different lpi’s. I appreciate your response.
Leave a comment!
Discharge Printing »
Discharge printing textiles and T-shirts
Discharge screen printing is one water based solution for light prints on dark clothing or textiles. It ticks the environmental printing boxes, but it is not without it’s limitations. Firstly we would not use this …
Organic »
New organic products for 2011
A big change for Advertees in 2011, New website is very near completion with more emphasis than ever on T shirt printing, and all inclusive deals. Lots of new products have become available this year, …
screen printing »
Making way for new auto.
The arrival of our new 8 colour automatic is getting closer, but preparation for the machines delivery is nigh on impossible with our current workload.
The new machine will bring much needed added capacity, and make …
Speciality inks »
Soft feel T shirt prints and foil
When screen printing Mixed Martial Arts T-shirts soft prints are nearly always a requirement. Screen printed foil T-shirts are currently a common request.
So we are now offering foils using a phthalate free adhesive, when used …
t shirt printing »
Screen Printing of Water based inks
May has been a very busy month for us, this blog has only seen one post at the beginning of this month, as printing T shirts has been required from waking to sleeping. Our new …
True process or CMYK »
Mr Chuffiewuffie full colour organic T shirt prints
Some projects are simply a pleasure to work on, and Mr Chuffiewuffie and friends was certainly one of those jobs Advertees enjoy. These illustrations by Rob Wills seem to spread a little bit of happiness …
Using Index printing »
Index Separation Method for Screen Printing
There are several ways of achieving this, including transfer printing and direct to garment (DTG) printing. The most commonly used techniques for screen printing however, are index and simulated process. The following is an insight into index separations.
We have taken this photo of a handsome rooster and opened it in Adobe Photoshop.
water-based »
Port Eliot 2010 T shirt.
This weekend Port Eliot Festival plays host to a huge variety of creative talent, and as usual there seems to be something of interest for everyone.
Unfortunately for Advertees a consequence of this event is that …
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck requires Flash Player 9 or better.
Most Commented