Printing Garments FAQ
4 color process? CMYK? Line work? Halftone? Dot gain? - Tradewinds demystifies print terms here.
Methods of print |
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| 4 Colour Process Printing Process printing (see also 'halftone printing' below) uses dots of 4 inks; Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black to create continuous tone images of any colour mix.  Use this method for re-creating colour photographs. |
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| Solid Colour Often referred to as 'line printing' this method uses individual inks to create solid areas of colour. Use this method for logos, simple type messages etc. |
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'Muddy Prints' and Dot Gain |
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| What it is, why and when it happens. Halftone Printing Halftone printing, as opposed to solid (line) printing uses a series of dots arranged to give the appearance of continuous tone. Halftone printing is used for the re-creation of photos, illustrations etc. Dot Gain - What Is It & How To Avoid It Simply put, dot gain is enlargement of the halftone screen dots when they're transferred via ink under pressure to the fabric. An increase in 50% - 60% is referred to as 10% dot gain. Excessive dot gain can be caused by a multitude of factors including naive colour separation, too much ink pressure, badly set-up equipment and a general misunderstanding of the printing process. |
 Excessive Dot Gain Results in muddy images & loss of detail.  Minimal Dot Gain Clear, bright, sharp images every time. |
| All this results in loss of detail, grey appearance, incorrect colour balance, and overall image muddiness. Dot gain is inherent in all halftone printing processes - the trick is having the experience, the equipment and the know-how to keep it to a minimum. Tradewinds have the experience - lots of it, and the equipment - state of the art machinery. The know how, well that goes without saying. |
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Jargon Buster!
- Garment Printing - 4 color process? CMYK? Line work? Halftone? Dot gain? - Tradewinds demystifies print terms here
- Handy FAQ on the various terms used in connection with garments
'We have used Tradewinds to promote the release of new products on a number of occasions. We have found them to be most helpful with their suggestions and regular updates on the projects status.
The quality of the items were outstanding and we received many requests from our sales teams for additional quantities which Tradewinds has supplied in record time. We will be using Tradewinds for many years to come, to support our current products and to promote our new product releases.'
Panasonic
