Printing on Garments and other Textiles
Printing Printing on textiles is an art. Selection of printing method, type of ink to be used is quite a science. Most printing methods can be used on white fabric (or fabric that has not been dyed), but some cannot be used on coloured as then the colour of the fabric will blend with the colour that’s printed on top, hence as an example white print on a black fabric will become grey. Printing involves making an original, adjust all settings, printing, drying, curing, and to clean up afterwards. Originals are normally done one for each colour so if you have 5 different colours you will need up to 5 different originals. Printing can be done by machine or by hand. Machine printing can be made in several different ways using several different methods. These days printing using a digital machine is also an option, like a colour printer used with a computer for printing on paper, but with some differences. Different printing methods gives different end results. A combination of the wrong type of printing method for a given type of fabric can be disastrous – example; if you print with the plastisol method on a 1x1 rib fabric or other elastic fabric the print will crack when stretched as the plastisol print in itself is not elastic and is a print on the top of the fabric hence does not colour the fibres. There are minimum quantities for printing. Even if in some cases one piece of garment also can be printed, we recommend that you ask us about minimum. Remember that normally the bigger quantity you print with the same motive, the cheaper it is. And hence small quantities can be costly or very costly if calculated as a cost per item. If the printing is done on the fabric on rolls or before stitching etc then other conditions apply. And if the fabric is stretchable printing itself is many times a challenge. If it is the fabric itself that moves through the machine the risk is that the print miss the exact place it should be printed on if you have a multi-colour print. If you have a ready graphic Design: • Printing as per the graphic design provided by you. If you have a ready design, you can mail your digital files. Digital art files include those designs created and saved from a professional graphics program or those designs exported from a graphics program at HIGH RESOLUTION. But for simpler print many times also a jpg or pdf can do if it has high resolution. Send us a jpg or pdf and ask and we will tell you. • If you have fonts: Any and all fonts must be included with the exported file unless they are already with us, or all fonts must be turned to paths prior to export. • Not acceptable files are MICROSOFT WORD, POWERPOINT and other such files since these cannot be used for printing. To output properly, any and all attachments and fonts must be included with the native file, or all fonts must be turned to paths. Please note that a pdf-file is not a graphic file (but can be used for some simple single colour printing). If you do not have a graphic Design: Many manufacturers, or trough us, get professional artwork and design services that you can avail. Using professionals to create your design from scratch ensures that the designs will translate perfectly into printed and/or embroidered works. Feel free to discuss your ideas, so that we understand what’s your expectations. You can mail rough sketches or any other images that can be the basis of our work. To get one design right can take several days, i.e. including sending info etc back and forward.
© CrownBird 2019
Printing
Printing on Garments and
other Textiles
Printing Printing on textiles is an art. Selection of printing method, type of ink to be used is quite a science. Most printing methods can be used on white fabric (or fabric that has not been dyed), but some cannot be used on coloured as then the colour of the fabric will blend with the colour that’s printed on top, hence as an example white print on a black fabric will become grey. Printing involves making an original, adjust all settings, printing, drying, curing, and to clean up afterwards. Originals are normally done one for each colour so if you have 5 different colours you will need up to 5 different originals. Printing can be done by machine or by hand. Machine printing can be made in several different ways using several different methods. These days printing using a digital machine is also an option, like a colour printer used with a computer for printing on paper, but with some differences. Different printing methods gives different end results. A combination of the wrong type of printing method for a given type of fabric can be disastrous – example; if you print with the plastisol method on a 1x1 rib fabric or other elastic fabric the print will crack when stretched as the plastisol print in itself is not elastic and is a print on the top of the fabric hence does not colour the fibres. There are minimum quantities for printing. Even if in some cases one piece of garment also can be printed, we recommend that you ask us about minimum. Remember that normally the bigger quantity you print with the same motive, the cheaper it is. And hence small quantities can be costly or very costly if calculated as a cost per item. If the printing is done on the fabric on rolls or before stitching etc then other conditions apply. And if the fabric is stretchable printing itself is many times a challenge. If it is the fabric itself that moves through the machine the risk is that the print miss the exact place it should be printed on if you have a multi-colour print. If you have a ready graphic Design: • Printing as per the graphic design provided by you. If you have a ready design, you can mail your digital files. Digital art files include those designs created and saved from a professional graphics program or those designs exported from a graphics program at HIGH RESOLUTION. But for simpler print many times also a jpg or pdf can do if it has high resolution. Send us a jpg or pdf and ask and we will tell you. • If you have fonts: Any and all fonts must be included with the exported file unless they are already with us, or all fonts must be turned to paths prior to export. • Not acceptable files are MICROSOFT WORD, POWERPOINT and other such files since these cannot be used for printing. To output properly, any and all attachments and fonts must be included with the native file, or all fonts must be turned to paths. Please note that a pdf-file is not a graphic file (but can be used for some simple single colour printing). If you do not have a graphic Design: Many manufacturers, or trough us, get professional artwork and design services that you can avail. Using professionals to create your design from scratch ensures that the designs will translate perfectly into printed and/or embroidered works. Feel free to discuss your ideas, so that we understand what’s your expectations. You can mail rough sketches or any other images that can be the basis of our work. To get one design right can take several days, i.e. including sending info etc back and forward.
© CrownBird 2019
Printing
