I'm going to have a t-shirt printed for a sports team and I'm wondering about the printing process. If I use lighter shades of the same color, will that still count as 1 color for printing or not? Basically I want to know how many colors this design would be to print on a t-shirt. (it's not done, just the idea)
Based on my experience, you're looking at 4 colors on that. (white, dark blue, gray, light blueish purple) As a side note, the foreground hoof has a line thru it.
Yeah I haven't touched up the details yet, just wanted to get it posted. All those colors are the same base colors mixed with white though, there's no way that can be done with 2 colors?
The issue is that each color requires its own actual screen. Unlike "paper" printing, when talk about colors with silk screen, colors are more about the actual number of screens they have to make. That's what effects the price not the cost of "ink". A screen is basically a picture frame with a screen in the middle instead of a picture. that screen is blocked off except the area for the actual image of that color. The ink is put in and squeegeed through the screen. That's why its one color per screen. Now, if you go direct to garment, its more like standard printing processes in regards to color. However, the designs are less vibrant and you'll pay more for printing on a non white t-shirt.
If it was actually silk screen, and it came out exactly like the image on the screen, then go back to that company.
I'm not sure what they did but I think it was what I was describing. It wasn't exact, but close enough for me and I have high standards. I can't go to them unfortunately as they can't meet my deadline
For those who are interested, I got the artwork approval back today. This is the 2 color proof, I accepted it, hopefully it will turn out as it looks.
Here's a picture of how they turned out. Pretty good in my opinion. Only a two color print. I would have gone lighter with the lightest shade, but overall I'm happy.
Photoshop, made it into vectors with the pen tool so I could enlarge it. Took forever. I wish I knew Illustrator better, I can't navigate it very well. Here's the source image. http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs46/f/2009/197/b/5/Goat___2_by_Znuese.png
