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When printing, you want your finished product’s image to
look like what you created on the screen. However, if that merchandise happens
to be a dark t-shirt, you may incur a hiccup or two.
If you print on a dark shirt without a white underbase, the
final color will be dulled. The vibrancy you once had will disappear and the
design itself may be hardly recognizable. This can be extremely frustrating,
especially if you have already printed onto a t-shirt and are confused by how
it turned out.
A white underbase is all you need. The phrase itself can be
intimidating if you haven’t run into it before and can even seem like it will
take a lot of work to accomplish. It won’t. The creation of an underbase is
simple and will save you so much extra work and frustration in the long-haul.
If you are printing a black design on a dark colored shirt, i.e.
a black logo on a maroon shirt, then it should be noted that no underbase is
needed. Black never requires an underbase, and, in fact, one may subdue the black,
eliminating its rich color.
First things first, if you are using Illustrator, check that
the colors you are using are being typed as spot colors. You will know when you
are doing this because the symbol (a white triangle in the right hand corner
with a black dot in its center) will be visible around the square. As you progress
forward, continually save your colors this way.
Just like when you are printing separate colors, you will be
printing a separate film for your underbase. This will require an actual
color being used for your underbase.
Crisper images are guaranteed with an underbase.
Note: do not use the regular white swatch. It signifies a
lack of color, not the color white.
With that said, to create your underbase you need to select
all areas where color other than black will be present (use the shift key to
select more than one area). While selected, fill in the space with the intended
color.
Once you have colored your design as you see fit, copy and
paste it. You want two layers of this so that one can become the underbase,
which simply put is just an extra layer of ink between the design and the shirt.
With the bottom layer selected, choose your underbase color. Being placed under
your color, it will not be visible to the naked eye, but if you remove the
design color at any point you will be able to see it is placed correctly. You
will also want to select any “white” space you may want, such as an eyehole.
Afterwards, you will want to turn on your Attributes. From
there, select Overprint Fill. Again, you won’t see a huge difference except
maybe a tiny line around your picture. To make sure your image stays tight
against the shirt, create a stroke of the intended color around the design and
then select Overprint Stroke. It will be past your underbase, guaranteeing the
proper blend is on top of the shirt.
When you are ready to print, most white inks will work for
the underbase, though a particularly useful ink for this task would be International
Coatings Blocker Gray. It works well to help prevent dye migration.
If you have any questions or concerns, Texsource has a great
staff accessible anytime during business hours (Monday through Friday 8:30-5:30).
Monthly screen printing classes are also available and encouraged to those
eager to learn how to screen print.
#screenprinting #screenprintingsupplies #silkscreen