All Entries in the "Articles" Category
Six Common Screen Printing Mistakes
By Scott Fresener.
Over the years I have given thousands of classes and been in hundreds and hundreds of shops doing consulting. I use to joke to my wife than in a lot of cases I could have “phoned it in.” That means that in many cases I encountered the same problems over and over and [...]
DTG Machine Maintenance – a Must Read if you own DTG
A Little DTG Direct-to-Garment Background
In 2004 when I first developed the T-Jet printer I was convinced it would be easy for the garment decorating industry to add this process to their bag of tricks. After all, other than the large Kornit printer (at that time), most machines were simply an Epson base inkjet paper [...]
A Day In The Life Of Screen Making
This article is like a broken record and the reason I write about basic screen making is I am constantly reminded how confusing it can be to a newcomer AND a seasoned professional – and it never stops amazing me how much bad information is given out by industry suppliers.
I do color separations all day [...]
The Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act and You by Scott Fresener
This one has been bouncing around for a few years and was stayed a year ago pending review and defining the guidelines better. On October 19, 2011 this was law finally went into effect and frankly it seems that the garment decorating community (printers – not magazines) have either been ignoring it hoping it would [...]
All About QR Codes
Get your QR Code on. They are fun, cool, and cutting edge. By Scott Fresener.
You’ve probably seen those little box “maze” graphics in ads but maybe didn’t know what they were for. Or you might have heard the term QR Code (sometimes called a QR Tag) but again, what the heck is that? If you [...]
Choking, Trapping & Cleaning up Type in Photoshop – by Scott Fresener
A Little Background First
Choking and Trapping are two very common printing terms that relate to creating artwork that prints easy at the press. Computer graphics programs can create outstanding graphics but when you output the films for the separations all the colors butt up against each other. In a perfect world this is great. But, [...]
Jacket Printing in 12 Steps by Scott Fresener
This is a short article about printing on jackets. You know, those tricky little guys that can’t even be used to wipe down a screen if you mess one up. The problem with printing on jackets is one of perception. It looks hard, it seems hard and if you screw up it is real hard [...]
Moving Up to an Automatic Press by Scott Fresener
Over the years I fielded hundreds of calls from customers and students asking if I think it’s time for them to get an automatic press. After all, “they are just so busy that they can’t keep up with all the orders - and of course they are making pretty good money now and with an [...]
Class Name Shirts in Corel Draw by Scott Fresener
Some things never change. Regardless of what shirts are in style, there is still a market for putting a list of students in a class inside a word or the graduation year. This is an old technique that never goes out of style. This article shows how to create this effect in any version of [...]
Four Rules of Management for Each Department
Sometimes in the heat of battle, we forget there is a customer involved in this process. If every department has the attitude of pleasing the customer, your business will prosper, guaranteed.
Dealing With Contract Printers
By Scott Fresener
Do you deal with outside contract screen printers? Are you confused by all the talk of underbasing, flash curing, screen charges, separation costs and more? Do you know the correct questions to ask when sourcing for a competent screener? This short article will help you with some of the common screen printing terms [...]
Using Foil for Great Effects!
By Scott Fresener
In the early to mid 90’s, foil on shirts was HUGE! We use to teach it in our classes and the students really ate it up. About 1996, we stopped showing it because no on cared. Guess what? Like so many other things in this industry, foil made a giant [...]
Halftone Dots Made Easy
Learn everything you ever wanted to know about halftone dots for screen printing and how to create them, expose them and print them in this article by Scott Fresener.
Creating an Underbase in Corel Draw by Scott Fresener
When printing on a black or dark background, you need to print either sold or halftoned underbase of white ink. This short article will
detail how to create screen print friendly underbases in any version of Corel. Note: this article was written in Corel 11.0 but these techniques work in version 7.0 or higher all the [...]
Blur Text – No, It’s Not Your Eyes – by Scott Fresener
I find it very funny that we strive to do high end photo realistic images on light and dark shirts, and there is a whole other market for simple graphic prints that are very popular. Since everything in this industry comes around more than once (foil was huge in the early 90’s), I thought it [...]
