| !Kernel Panic! |
09-13-2008 01:05 AM |
Re: Official PPCGeeks T-Shirt Competition!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by aamon17
(Post 411830)
I agree, the submissions are great. But, I am in the t-shirt business on the side & most of the designs that are being submitted will run into a couple of problems to produce. The options are Screen Printing, Inkjet Heat Transfer, Vinyl heat Transfer, & Dye Sublimation. And each one has it's own set of issues. Forgive me for the length.
Screen Printing - - Many colors = many screens = high prices per shirt
- Low quantities = high prices per shirt
- There's a 4-color process method that will print all of the colors, gradients, & halftones. But, most places want a minimum of 144 pieces to do it.
- Very durable, Easy care
- For cotton, polyester, poly/cotton blends, nylon
Inkjet Heat Transfer - - Economical & no minimums required
- Unlimited colors
- "Okay" for photos, etc.
- Not as durable, needs more care, will fade & breakdown over time
- Leaves a "polymer" outline (shape of the paper)
- For cotton, polyester, & poly/cotton blends
Vinyl Heat Transfer - - Economical & no minimums required
- Limited to 3, MAYBE, 4 colors overlapping
- NOT for photos
- Very durable. Will outlast the shirt it's pressed on. will not fade or break down over time.
- For cotton, polyester, poly/cotton blends, & nylon
Dye Sublimation - - More expensive than inkjet transfers
- No minimums required
- Unlimited colors; bright & vivid
- Excellent for photos, and all images
- Image is DYED into the shirt, not pressed on top of it
- Very durable, CAN iron directly on image
- Needs little care, will NOT fade OR breakdown over time
- DOESN'T leave a "polymer" outline (shape of the paper)
- Best on 100% polyester, no less than 85 poly/cotton blends
With that considered, I would encourage T-SHIRT designers to limit the number of colors in your designs to 4-5 MAX, watch the excessive halftones/gradients, avoid photographs & hi-res images as Saumaun said.
Again, the designs are great. But, most are better suited as site banners, as opposed to being printed on t-shirts. Screen Printing with LOW color count is the best option to reproduce the winning design in quantities over 24. Please take my observations/suggestions in the positive manner that they are intended.
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also to add...the image needs to be large as in at least 2000px x 2000px equal to a 10" x 10" image on shirt. When creating images, start your image at 200-300 DPI. You can always decrease your image and maintain a clean, crisp image. However, you cannot increase the resolution and image size of your image without compromising the image quality. Making your image larger will cause the image to look "dirty". |
