I’m trying to print screen printing exposure films using a Canon imagePROGRAF TC-20 with the newest Affinity Designer.

I’ve tried CMYK (0,0,0,100), and I have also gone into the Canon printer settings and increased the quality to high, but the black still is not printing solid enough.

I’m using pigment ink and transparency/exposure film. The film looks black, but its not solid I can still see my finger behind it.

Things I have tried:

• CMYK 0-0-0-100 in Affinity
• Highest print quality settings in Canon driver

Questions:

• Should Affinity be set to RGB or CMYK for this workflow?
• Is there a specific ICC profile/media setting that works best with the TC-20?
• Is there a way to force a denser black using the TC-20?

So I have been playing around with dithertone ps plug in and I really like some of the dithering algorithms and modulation that you can get from it. But I have a dumb/rookie question, is dithering and modulation screen print ready, in the sense that half tones are? Or would I have to do something to my image to make it screen printable?

TLDR: Is this type of effect ready for screen printing like a half tone?

Front print feels horrible when worn.

Just bought these 2 screens. Botton print is 200 mesh. Top print is 180 mesh.
1. What type of ink is safe to use on these screens so I can use them for a long time.
2. After done with the printing on shirts how would I wash away the leftover ink on the screen, with just water? Or?

Would anyone be interested in getting large formatted screen positives. I have a printer that has capabilities of printing 50" wide and pretty much how ever long needed. I am based out of NY and will print your guys designs. let me know!!!

Hey there. I'm still semi new to screenprinting, and I want to do the "rancid effect" to a photo in photoshop, that is turning it to complete black and white(or 2 tones of any color). No halftones. Anyone know the easiest way to achieve this?

So I’m trying to screen print on stretchy jersey fabric (46% cotton, 46% bamboo, 8% elastane). I just found out that regular water-based ink will not perform well as the ink will crack when stretched. I learnt that I can add a stretch additive to water-based ink to prevent cracking however there aren’t many affordable options where I live. The best I can find is Amex Texprint Additive E - stretch additive for waterbased inks. The website only seems to mention mixing it with other Amex products/water-based inks but I’ve already purchased the ones seen in the picture above. Would anyone more experienced be able to tell me if I can mix the Amex stretch additive with the water-based inks I already have? Thanks in advance! :)

I like tri-blend shirts.

Been buying them off of sites like RedBubble and Amazon, but they both ended up throwing it at a third party.

Pretty much all of them were printing out 72dpi .jpegs on my sht, and with this awful thick plastic like print job. Idk what to call it, but it's sucks and shouldn't even be a thing imo. Who wants to wear a shirt with a thick unfoldable graphic?

For no reason, I got lucky with one of them. The print was of high dpi, quality and it actually printed directly into the fibers of the shirt.

Basically, where the hell do I find this specific combination:

Triblend, print is hq, not uploaded by idiots, bleeds into and becomes fabric

Is it illegal to wash squeegees in a sink with ink degradent and wash it down the drain? Asking for a friend.

I inherited a BWM Hopkins International D-5200 and I've been struggling with the off contact. I know how to set the vertical but I don't know how to set the tilt. I'm assuming it's these two bolts behind the vertical off contact bolts in the picture but I can't find any manuals online. I'm trying to loosen them to see but they're really stuck.

Can anyone confirm if it's these two bolts? If they are I might have to go out and get an impact driver to loosen them.

Does anyone have a software that clients can go on, look at options, upload artwork and build their own quote with artwork and everything included? Would like a software where all I have to do is approve the quote to turn it into an order.

Hi everyone,

My name is Will and I'm new to screen printing. I picked up some Ecotex® Beginner Screen Printing Emulsion and a Dorhui 60W LED Exposure Unit for Screen Printing, For some reason I cannot burn my screen. I have a 160 mesh screen and set my exposure unit for 12 seconds (Googe recommended this time). I also added an exposure calculator and that didn't burn either. If anyone has any tips I'd greatly appreciate it. I really want to learn and figure this out.

P.S. I'm doing everything out of my apartment and don't have whole lot of space. I'm also allowing my screen to dry in my laundry room and when I try to burn the screen I'm doing it in my bathroom with no lights on (besides my cell phone). I also use some foam under the screen and a piece of glass in top.

Thank you so much!

UPDATE: exposed at 20 seconds per recommendation and was able to get some of the design elements to come out but inconsistently and with a LOT of pressure from the water. Ive added two more photos, one not held up to the light so you can see how thick I’ve coated in the comments section

Hi all. Working on my first screen and have had to redo it twice now.

Here’s my process:

Degrease screen and let dry.

Coat both sides in emulsion and let dry horizontally in a lightless room

Expose with uv lamp (specs in photo) 12 inches above. First pass I did 3 minutes. Second attempt after reclaiming screen I did 6.

When washing out using my shower head I can see the design but the emulsion doesn’t cleanly wash away.

What am I doing wrong here

attendees printed these on site, they didn't have a heat press so I had to cure with my flash dryer. otherwise was a success

I mostly been doing small business jobs for residential construction, and plastisol comes in real nice
BUT

I want to get into learning Water-base inks!
I need help choosing the right mixing kit/brand
Would like to have a brand that their formulas for pantone colors are right on.

I have an infrared flash dryer and a vastex little red conveyer
A forced air one is out of my budget at the moment but I’ve seen many people print water based ink without needing a forced air dryer

Just wondering if Athletic Knit is really the one place/go to for Hockey Jerseys in Canada?

When I was a printer at a place with an auto (no manual at home) the auto we had as horrible and screen printing plastisol on the AK Jerseys was always hit or miss. I wish I had a pictures but basically instead of the print being pretty uniform (say the logo was mainly within a big circle) and smooth but the ink would cloth the weave/knit of Jersey (for lack of a better way to describe it) or it would print almost perfectly not filling in the weave/knit of the garmet but then some posts would be smooth. It wouldn't ever be all one or the other and each jersey would print and come out different than the other.

Though this auto was also like 30 years old at the time and that was a decade ago. So I am also nervous to print them manually and have big discrepancy in how the end up looking.

Hi everyone,

We’re currently setting up our screen printing workshop and we’re looking for smart storage ideas to keep everything organized. What are your best tips and setups for screen printing equipment and supplies?

We’re especially interested in solutions for inks, films, garments, and all the small accessories that tend to pile up.

What storage systems have made your workflow easier? Wall racks, shelves, drawers, custom DIY solutions, labeling systems — we’d love to see what works for you!

Thanks in advance for sharing your tips ~~

There’s tiny (what I suspect to be trapped ink) on my mesh. Idk if maybe the half tone was too small for the 60T mesh or if my ink dried up during printing but do you know if this would block ink going through?

Hi everyone,

We recently picked up an Epson Stylus Photo 1400, and we're trying to figure out the best way to convert it to an all-black setup for printing screen printing film !

I've been doing some research, but I'm still a bit confused. I've seen people talk about using refillable cartridges and simply filling all six channels with black ink. I've also seen others say you can just buy six cartridges and fill each one with black. On top of that, I've read that you should use rip software to properly manage the printer and make use of all six channels, but I'm not sure if that's actually required or just recommended...

Could someone explain how this is usually done and what the best approach is? I'd really appreciate any advice from people who have already converted a 1400 :)

Many thanks!

Can pick up this old exposure unit for cheap. The unit is a 3-phase vacuum exposure unit. And I'm assuming the 3-phase requirement is because of the metal halide UV lamp ballast?

Would need to convert it to 230V to make use of it. Anyone knows if it's possible or if it just isn't worth it.

So I recently printed my first few batches of shirts using plastisol for the first time (I used FN white on black shirts). The first shirt I kept for myself went through the wash fine and still looked new afterward. I just washed another shirt with a different design and a lot of the ink came off. The first shirt was printed on a new shirt and this one I printed on an old used shirt just for myself. Could that be a factor, or is it that the ink wasn't cured enough? I'm freaking out a little because I just sold a bunch of shirts over the weekend and now I'm worried that the ink won't hold up when people wash them.

Hi to everyone! I wanted to ask you guys about this “new method” these guys developed. It looks like they’re screen printing the whole thing backwards. they put a liquid on the jacket and then apply the design with the jacket and the light. How does this work?! Does somebody perhaps know ? It looks very cool I might try

Curious to see what continual changes people have been adding to their shops / processes to make a small but noticeable long term improvements?

We're always looking to push to make things better / easier / faster for ourselves and our customers.

A handful of things we've done, like build internal colour matching charts for pantone to DTF to Isacord (obviously not exact - but close enough it's not a surprise to customers) just makes some stuff so much easier and faster.

We have built out a whole SOP list and tracker. MOST processes should be there to refer to if greybeard isn't in the shop.

We also have a few tools to assist in sales calls, sales decks, sports team orders, to automate a fair chunk of it.

Artwork processes, management processes, sales processes, ai projects. What did you put some effort into to give your team a small bump?

Just ordered this shirt and noticed the graphic seems to be a bit loose. Is there any way to salvage it? I asked for a refund and i was told to keep it.