Deluxe_Design

One Color on White
One Color on Yellow
Two Colors on Yellow
Three Colors on Yellow
One Color on Black(+)
One Color on Black(-)
Underbase
Without Underbase
White Underbase
Color on Underbase

Sometimes We Need to Print White

Deluxe Design produces images on substrates ranging from colored and black t-shirts to shiny gold-colored metals. Images that print well on a white shirt, for instance, require additional preparation to print correctly on a dark or colored shirt.

Shown below is an image of Woody with a boy on three different background colors. Let's say the job is to print this image on white, yellow and black shirts in "black & white".

One Color on white

Printing on white poses little problem. The grayscale image is converted to a half-tone of black and the results are reasonable for a one-color print.

We could add a gray to this shirt to increase tonal range, just as we have for the yellow and black shirts below.

This Design Requires
One film positive
One screen
One ink

One Color on yellow

For a "black and white" print the white part is usually provided by the substrate, however in this case the substrate is yellow.

We can still print the black half-tone image on the yellow shirt and it would look like the image at the far right. This is acceptable for some designs and customers.

This Design Requires
One film positive
One screen
One ink

Two Colors on Yellow

If we want the normally white areas to be actually white on a yellow shirt, we'll have to print the white that was lost when we switched to a yellow shirt. And, of course, we still have to print the black.

This Design Requires
Two film positives
Two screens
Two inks

Three Colors on Yellow

While gray can be simulated with a half-tone of black as shown directly above, better tonal-range can be achieved by printing a third color, gray, to make up the mid-tones of the image.

This Design Requires
Three film positives
Three screens
Three inks

One Color on Black(+)

To print this image on black using only one color of ink the first idea might be to simply take the black screen from the first white shirt above and use white ink instead. Trying this will produce a negative image as shown here.

This Design Requires
One film positive
One screen
One ink

One color on Black(-)

The solution is to make a film negative and print white instead of black ink.

This Design Requires
One film positive
One screen
One ink

Retaining Detail

Once again, adding a gray improves the tonal range. Also, for some artwork it might be necessary to print a black as well to retain detail.

This Design Requires
One film negative
One film positive
Two screens
Two inks

Underbase

On brightly colored and dark shirts an underbase is often required. Color inks are not completely opaque and colors can shift and darken if printed directly on a non-white shirt. Red ink will shift darker and toward purple if printed on a royal blue shirt, for instance.

An underbase is simply a bright color, usually white, printed first. The rest of the colors go on top of the underbase

Without Underbase

Color inks are not fully opaque, even when printed as a solid block of color the black shirt will darken colors significantly.

This Design Requires
Four film positives
Four screens
Four inks

White Underbase

In addition to providing the 100% white highlights, the underbase also sits under the colors to make them brighter and truer to the intended color.

There's more white in a white underbase than there is in a white that is only representing the highlights and mid-tones.

This Design Requires
One film underbase
One screen
One ink

Color on Underbase

Here is the same image as above with a white underbase.

This Design Requires
One film underbase
Four film positives
Five screens
Five inks