DISQUS

PopCultureTees: How to take your T-Shirt Artwork from Good to Great

  • Derek · 1 year ago
    I like how the 40oz bottles of beer are a different twist to regular crossbones. Great idea!
  • Jake · 1 year ago
    One other thing to note are point sizes for type. I ran into this problem on our latest batch of shirts. I'm sure the type on this demo is fine, but anything around 6-8 pt or smaller can pose a printing problem for most vendors. A couple factors play a role in this.

    One would be the typeface used within the design. For example, a 6 pt. geometric lineale will print better than an 8 pt. old face with detailed serifs, as the geometrics lack the small details and stroke modulation of old face serifs and the old faces were originally designed to be pressed into paper as to enhance the serif.

    Two has to do with the mesh count of the screen or the threads per inch (tpi). Generally speaking, lower count=less detail because the open areas that the lower mesh counts form cover more surface area. Think of them as tiny squares like pixels.
  • liz · 1 year ago
    Jake: awesome points, and very true.

    One trick we used where I used to work when you HAD to do small text is to actually run small text on a separate screen than the rest of the elements of the same color.

    This obviously isn't a great solution if your tiny text is a bunch of different colors, but it works well if you have one particular color that has big blocky areas (that require the large mesh) and small detail areas.
  • Blake · 1 year ago
    I would definitely agree with both of those solutions. We often have to run additional screens because of the mesh size...especially when doing half-tones.
  • Jake · 1 year ago
    What is the best way to blend colors using half-tone patterns that will translate well to screen-printing? Any common mistakes or things designers should be aware of?
  • liz · 1 year ago
    Jake, check out this article, which should answer some of your questions ;)