DecoNetwork – makers of the best online design and website site software – offer Webinars for the industry featuring timely topics and presenters like Scott Fresener. Here is a recent webinar done by Scott titled Creating High-End Separations with T-Seps. This is one hour and jam packed. If you want to know how the pros create high-end color separations – grab some popcorn and watch this presentation.

The shirt that started it all has been re-released!

Wow, has this industry changed. For those newbies and even some who think they are old timers, how many of you can remember the shirt on the left? Yes, I own an original Farrah Fawcett shirt circa 1976. In fact, back in 2002 Impressions Magazine was doing a 25th Anniversary issue and I can remember editor, Marcia Derryberry, calling me in a panic saying she had looked hi and low for a Farrah Fawcett shirt until someone said “Fresener has one.” This shirt appeared in that issue. I made her sign in blood that she would return the shirt.

The history lesson is this was “the shirt” that started things really cooking. Impressions Magazine was launched in 1977 (Bill Windsor where are you?), and between Impressions, the Farrah Fawcett shirt, and some very smart entrepreneurs, a real industry was born. In fact licensed products were a brand new novelty back then. I think the Farrah shirt taught corporate America there was gold in T-Shirts and merchandise.

UPDATE: Fast forward to today. Farrah Fawcett’s iconic one-piece red bathing suit pose is being re-issued onto a men’s T-shirt, with part of the proceeds going to the late icon’s Farrah Fawcett Foundation.

“Our mission is to carry out Farrah’s wishes by helping to fund cutting-edge research as well as to help people who are struggling with this disease [cancer] today,” says Farrah Fawcett Foundation President and close friend Alana Stewart.  The T-shirt, which retails for $24, is available at all Urban Outfitters stores and also for purchase online at www.urbanoutfitters.com.

History of the Shirt
The image on the original shirt was called a “Litho” or litho heat transfer. (The new shirt is screen printed). These were the first real photorealistic shirt images. If you wanted KISS or any rock band of the day on a shirt, you had a heavy, rubbery litho transfer.  No, screen printing photorealism on black shirts had not been “invented” then.  I would LOVE to see comments on this and pictures of your old litho shirts.  Chances are you have very little image left and a white solid block of plastisol on the shirt.

These were printed on heat transfer paper using standard offset/lithography printing methods with special cmyk inks.  The image was then backed in white plastisol and the image was applied with a heat press.  There were millions of these made where the image would wash off after the first wash cycle (not good).  In fact, the heat transfer business killed itself around 1980 from bad transfers.

It is interesting that over the years litho transfers have come and gone.  They were big again a few years ago when vintage/classic images were kicking in. They have now lost favor again beaten out by all-over prints.

But hey…. they will be back!

How are we really doing?

I wanted to write a short comment on my observations of the state of the garment decorating industry. This is not scientific but just a seat of the pants feeling. I now do a LOT of color separations and deal with hundreds and hundreds of printers worldwide. And, we have thousands of customers and users of T-Seps, T-RIP and of course our older programs like FastFilms and FastRIP. My day is spent doing seps and talking to my software customers so my observations are based on feedback from them.

What I keep hearing is how busy printers are. Yes, this could be regional and as with everything, I talk to printers because they need my services. This means I don’t talk to those who are sitting around with no business – but then again – if that is the case why are they sitting around?  Different topic. Different article.

In general, our customers are large and small. I will go from doing high-end seps for people who print for Disney, Harley, and others, and people who print for country western stars like Eric Church, to people who are printing Bob Marley shirts for the new movie, Avenger movie shirts – all the way down to smaller printers doing local events, festivals, rod runs and more. The are all saying things are good. And, in many cases they need either my products so they can do their own seps and output films or they need my separation services – yesterday! They need things right now to help them fill orders.

This is not very scientific but my observations are also based on my own trade show travels seeing how the booths are busier and exhibitors smiling because people are spending money. I have also done a number of separations for political candidates and I suspect the political business will help out this year.

It also probably doesn’t hurt that the weather has been unseasonably warmer and of course there are always shirts needed for natural disasters and we know there has been a lot of those.

My other gut feel is regardless of what the GOP says – unemployment is declining (slowly) and the economy is giving good signals. I think this trickles down to confidence so when people are trying to promote events, products, corporate ID, etc., they probably buy more than they use to.

What I also see is a lot more GREAT artwork and colorful designs. I think we have weathered the storm of “skulls, wings, and monochrome image” that have been the norm the last few years.

That said the “distress look” is NOT dead. I have never seen as much artwork with distressed images. It is just part of the landscape of this industry. If you don’t know how to do it there are a couple of good articles on this website about it and you can download free distressed overlays from my Free Downloads page.

What is also hot – as you know if you are in the trenches – are safety green, pink and orange shirts. Wow. Just like the old days.  For a long time the standard shirt color for separations was black and white. Now, it seems every other job is for orange, green, light blue and pastel colors. Refreshing!

I also talk to a lot of printers who are now stepping their foot into Simulated Process, Index and real CMYK jobs. I hear a LOT “I have not done this before but customers are asking for multi-color on different shirt colors.” Time to step up and learn how to do high-end work to get more business.

Long live the T-Shirt and T-Shirt printers. It is a fun business and I think there will be great rewards in 2012.

Scott Fresener

The FBI announced that millions of computer users could lose service on July 8.  International hackers ran online ads that when responded to took control of million of computers and changed how they looked up the DNS (domain name) of sites and re-directed users to bogus similar sites when they clicked on links. Malicious software called a DNS changer was installed on unsuspecting users computers.  The hackers made millions on the ads and offers on these phony sites.

Where is all this heading? Once the FBI arrested the hackers they realized that the unsuspecting computer users would lose service if the FBI simply pulled the plug on the hackers computers. They decided to set up their own computers instead and that the prudent approach was to tell the world of computer users to check to see if they were infected. This has been widely written about in daily and national newspapers and computer magazines.  This is no joke.

What do you do? The FBI has setup a site that with one mouse click you can check to see if your computer has had a DNS changer malicious software installed. It took us one minute to check the computers in the T-Biz Network office to see if we were infected.

The problem is once the FBI shuts down their server ON JULY 8 – if you are infected – when you click on a link it will take you to a dead website and you will not be able to access real websites.

Read more about this in PCMag.com here

The FBI’s site that tells you if you are infected and how to correct it is dcwg.org.

Back in the mid ’90s Images Magazine in the UK had a great guy named Peter Rose doing their website.  Peter was also a screen print supplier.  He had his own site named Zodd’s Law for Intergalactic Screenprinters.  It was/is out of this world with typical Monty Python humor with a screen print edge.  And, there are some “R” rates articles and audio clips.

We had not talked to Peter in years and when we first made this re-release post of Fist Full of Squeegees. Peter contacted me to catch up and said he had left the industry. BUT…. his website Zodd’s Law for Intergalactic Screenprinters is still LIVE! Yes, it is still up.  Some links have been removed and the site has not been touched in years but if you want a HOOT, check out www.Cyberscreen.com.

Mike “Maliaki” Fresener and Peter schemed and worked on a couple of projects.  One of them was called Fist Full of Squeegees.  It is VERY FUNNY!

Here is an mp3 file for your enjoyment.  Keep in mind that Mike Fresener did some voices, his daughter, Cinammon, did “little Jimmy” and she was seven years old then! Peter Rose did all the effects and other voices.

This is circa 1996.  For your enjoyment and listening pleasure we now present…. “Fist Full of Squeegees.” Print long and prosper!

We would love to hear your comments and life in screen print land in 1996.

Click to listen to this outlandish old fashion radio broadcast. It is just under 15 minutes in length.

We are pleased to report that we love the new look, feel and function of Photoshop CS6 – AND T-Seps works great in CS6! See the short section on Quirks at the bottom of this page.

Adobe has changed a couple of folders where we would normally install T-Seps and we will be updating the T-Seps installer prior to the release of CS6.

For now follow these simple steps to install T-Seps in CS6.

Click image to see larger view.

1. If you have not installed T-Seps and are just going to try it, you need to download and install the Beta of CS6 and then run the T-Seps Installer. If you already have T-Seps installed – install Photoshop CS6 and then proceed with these steps.

2. In Photoshop on a PC go to Edit/Preferences. On a Mac go to the Photoshop logo (upper left) and then Preferences.

3. Click on Plug-ins.

4. Check Additional Plug-Ins Folder.

5. Drill around to your C: drive (PC) or your Mac Hard Disk and find a folder called TSEPS. Select the Actions folder.

6. Say OK to this window.

7. Say OK to the Preferences window.

8. Re-start Photoshop.

Click image to see larger view.

9. Go to File/Automate and make sure you see T-Seps and T-Seps Custom Index.

10. If this is your first T-Seps installation make sure to watch the short Installation video at www.T-Seps.com. You have to make Color Settings changes and you still have to load the T-Seps Action in the Actions palette. This is covered in the T-Seps manual and in the Installation video.

CS6 and T-Seps quirks
We have found a couple of quirks with CS6 and T-Seps.

1. CS6 seems to forget the Color Settings changes you make to display the separations with dot gain applied. It is not consistent but when you are testing in CS6 make sure when you open it a second time that you go to Edit/Color Settings and make sure under Working Spaces that Spot and Gray are set to 30%.

2. Adobe has a new default color palette called Pantone Solid+Coated. This palette is not available in older versions of Photoshop. If you create a set of separations using T-Seps in CS6 and want to bring the file into an earlier version of Photoshop you will get a “missing color palette” error. You will need to change the assigned color for each channel in your CS6 T-Seps separations to Pantone Solid Coated and then save the file.

To learn more about Photoshop CS6 and watch some short sneak peek videos CLICK HERE.

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 go away or just not up to speed on what it means.

The new law called the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act may be very hard on manufacturers of products designated for children. The law is design to limit the lead exposure to children – and while that is a good thing – this one might drive smaller companies out of business.

The good news is the law and reporting requirements seem to rule out basic cotton T-Shirts (follow the links below), but does not rule out coatings/inks like plastisol, heat transfers and other items that might be applied to T-Shirts. And, if the garment has zippers, buttons or other embelishments then these will fall into the “testing” category.

Keep in mind that I am NOT a lawyer and am just presenting the data. It is really tough to find hard facts about how this will effect garment decorators. But, the key point is the CPSC (Consumer Products Safety Commission) made a final ruling on their definition of “children’s products” and it went into effect October 19, 2011.

What is very disturbing is that if you go on almost any industry website and try to find out if their products are in compliance – you can’t find it! If you do have links to industry sites with more information please comment on this article.

It is hard to keep abreast of what all this means and it seems the industry trade association, SGIA, and Magazine like Printwear and Impressions are now running articles about this and are trying to give advice and direction to the industry.

Here is a good article by Impressions Magazine published in March of 2012:
The CPSIA Effect: A Screen Printer’s Perspective

Printwear Magazine is doing a great job of following this with these articles:
CPSIA Breakdown – February 2012
Play It Safe – CPSIA on Teamwear – February 2012
CPSIA Solutions – April 2012

SGIA – Specialty Graphics Imaging Association is also tracking this. You can read about the law for free even if you are not a member and for $39.95 per quarter you can get access to their webinars and webinar archives. SGIA also has a CPSC FAQ online HERE.

There are a number of excellent non-industry articles and websites – including FAQs right from the CPSC site. You should read all of these and then determine your next move. My guess if you are a screen printer is to talk to your ink company or supplier. Don’t be surprised if you get a blank look. You might also continue to monitor the SGIA website and articles in industry trade magazines.

CPSC Small Business  Ombudsman

Wall Street Journal Article – December 2009

This article was promoted by yet another call from a new T-Seps user (large company) faced with the same old “we can’t print that” comment from the screen and production departments. Over the years I have had this call and conversation THOUSANDS of times. True. It comes from the fact that in the every day world of garment screen printing, many shops NEVER do high-end work and rarely have to expose a halftone dot. And, if they do have to burn halftones it is probably something simple that still works if they don’t hold anything lower than a 20% dot. Plus, a lot of printers print white ink through a 110 mesh and are convinced they can’t get white to go through anything higher – let alone a 230 (90cm) mesh!

If you plan to do any high-end printing on light or dark shirts – regardless of who’s color separation program you use – you need to read this article and force your screen makers and production people to read it. And, when they tell you it is BS you need to tell them to “just do it.”  I have often used stronger words over the years. Yes, there are certainly variables and each job seems to have a life of it’s own. But, for most jobs you can take the following information as “the word.”

Quick Tips for Successful High-End Printing
Printing Simulated Process Color, CMYK and Index Color on light and dark shirts can be very rewarding and also very frustrating. If you have never done this type of printing you might be shocked at the high mesh counts and type of ink used. If you normally print spot color and heavy athletic printing this will be MUCH DIFFERENT. In order to have great results with T-Seps/FastFilms or color separations provided by us you may need to change your thinking on how you print and make screens. It is important to try to follow these guidelines.

The first reaction screen makers and printers have when presented with their first high-end job is “we can’t do this.” The truth is if you go to www.T-Seps.com and look at the handful of sample images, they are ALL done using the following techniques. Hundreds of thousands of shirt jobs have been printed using these methods. This is NOT the same as general logo/spot color printing and it requires an open mind. The truth is that printers and screen makers just need to buy into how the world of high-end printing is done and be open to new ideas that on the surface appear impossible.

Color Separations
You can pay to have an experience color separator do the seps or you can use a program like T-Seps or FastFilms. These programs have been used for over 10 years by most of the world’s largest printers. The following directions are the same exact specifications found in the Manual for those programs.

If you own T-Seps or FastFilms why would you need to use an experience separator? The truth is I do separations all day long for large and small companies. Large companies doing work for NASCAR, Disney, Harley and others often have a season rush and get behind. I do their overflow. Most printers who do this type of work use FastFilms or T-Seps. Smaller printers with these programs often get complex jobs where they want to really shine. And, some printers don’t do enough high-end work so they are not always as familiar with the tweaks needs for critical jobs. For a flat fee of $50 it is sometimes easier to have the seps done outside to save the hassle.

Film Output
When trying to expose very fine halftone dots you must have a film positive that is dense black in the image areas. That means vellum many not be the best choice for critical work. Many printers still use a laser printer with vellum and if that is all you have then you will just have to work hard to hold the small halftone dots.

You can get excellent and dense black film output from imagesetters or from inexpensive inkjet printers using a software RIP like T-RIP (raster image processor) that tells the inkjet printer to lay down more ink. One of the secrets to printing photorealistic images is HOLD THE DOTS on the film and on the screen. If you lose halftone dots then the image on the shirt will not look like the image on the computer. Halftone dots on vellum or laser acetate are not very dense and the exposure light burns through the fine dots.

The proper halftone screen angle is also important and may seem unorthodox to the untrained printer. For Simulated Process Color (not CMYK), use 25 degrees, elliptical dots for ALL COLORS. Trust me.

For real CMYK prints use the angles of C 15, M 45, Y and K 75. Again, trust me.

For most general high-end jobs use a line count/frequency of 55lpi. If you run automatic presses and have critical jobs you can go to 65lpi and even 75 lpi. If you are using vellum or laser acetate then drop down to 45lpi.

If the job is Index Color (no halftone) the art department MUST have the job at the final print size and around 200dpi resolution before they separate it. The resolution will be the size of the small square pixels/dots and these will be VERY SMALL on the films and a typical screen maker comment is “we can’t burn that.” Read the following….

Screen Making
All screens should be properly tensioned. At best, use retensionable or rigid aluminum screens that have a tension of 25 – 30 Newtons. If you have wood frames, use the tightest ones you have. Yes, these images will work with wood, but you will lose some detail and may not have as good an Underbase. Don’t let your lack of the best frames stop you. Just work to use tight screens that are on stable frames.

The proper mesh count is critical. For most photorealistic jobs use a 230 mesh (90cm) for the underbase (go lower if the design has a lot of solid bright colors), and a 305 mesh (120cm) for the top colors. The first reaction is “I can’t get my white ink through a 230 mesh.” Not true. If you use a small amount of curable reducer and reduce the viscosity of the white so it is creamy it will work. You are NOT trying to lay down a rock solid white layer of thick plastisol for an underbase. The highlight white (last color down) will make the white pop where you need the pop.

When ordering screens try to get the 230 mesh screen for white ink with a thicker thread diameter. This will help make the stencil thicker and give you a better deposit of white.

Proper stencil preparation is critical and goes along with HOLD THOSE DOTS. If you have never exposed high mesh screens you need to forget what you know about exposure. Your exposure times for 305 mesh will be 20% of that for your 156 mesh. You MUST use direct emulsion. You must use thin coats of emulsion (1 coat on outside/bottom, 1 coat on inside). If necessary come back after you dry the screen and give it another coat on the outside. And, use the sharp edge of the scoop coater.

The best emulsion to use is a dual-cure (two part) emulsion. It has more latitude and is more forgiving that one part photopolymer emulsions which have a very fast exposure time.

The way to tell if you can hold the small 5% dots is to do test screens. Have the art department create a test film with squares filled with 2%, 5%, 10%, 20%, etc., halftone dots. That way you are not guessing at what size a dot is. Coat and expose the screen. Work hard to expose the 5% dot. Yes, it can be done. You will probably not be able to hold the 2% dot. That means if there are very subtle design changes these might be in the 2% to 5% area. Great screen makers do it all the time. The secret is keep reducing your exposure times. If you are using a pure photopolymer emulsion (one part), you might find times as low as 10 seconds!

For most non-critical cartoon or freeform graphic images it may not really matter if you don’t hold anything below a 10% dot.
If the job is Index Color then all the dots on the films are the same size. If you can burn one of them you can burn them all.

Inks
Simulated Process jobs are normally printed with a good high-opacity white for the underbase and highlight whte, and standard off-the-shelf plastisols for the top colors. Most colors are fairly creamy in the container but the white can often be very stiff. To get the white to print better simply add a small amount of curable reducer to the ink. Many brands recommend “soft hand” and this can work but a liquid reducer is better. It may seem counter intuitive to reduce white ink to get better opacity but the truth is when it is very thick it requires much more pressure on the squeegee which drives the ink into the shirt. By reducing the ink it clears out of the screen easier and lays ontop of the shirt.

If the job is Process Color CMYK, you must use special inks. You need the colors of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. These inks are very thin and transparent. They work well on light shirts but tend to mute down if printed on a base of white. That is why they are rarely used on black shirts. Some companies offer “triple strength” process plastisol with a heavier pigment load. If you must print CMYK on an underbase on dark shirts, consider using triple strength.

Printing Technique
Use medium-hard squeegees that are sharp. Triple durometers are better (70/90/70).

For the underbase try to do one good stroke. If necessary a second stroke may help coverage. You may need to slow down the stroke to get the ink to clear. Try to hold the fine detail in the image. You ARE NOT really looking for the white to jump off the shirt. This is the job of the Highlight white! Flash cure after the Underbase. This is the most critical print. If the underbase looks good as a black and white image then everything else should look good.

If the job has a lot of solid spot colors you may have to print the underbase through a lower mesh count and in some extreme cases print the base, flash cure, print the base again, flash and then print the colors. This more important when doing athletic type photorealistic images where the final feel/hand of the print is not important.

Since the underbase is through a high mesh, it will flash cure very quickly. You can place the flash cure unit 1 to 2 inches above the print and often get a skin cure in five to ten seconds.

The colors are printed wet-on-wet ontop of the underbase white. If they are smooth and creamy on a high mesh you should be able to do one clean stroke. Some jobs with a lot of colors may need an additional flash part way through the print order.

DO NOT PANIC until the last color is printed. Often, it is the Highlight that brings it all together. It brightens areas and lightens other colors. If printing a second white last in the sequence seems totally wrong, just give it a chance. This is often the magic that makes the print pop off the shirt.

For CMYK Process jobs, you must use a very consistent squeegee stroke. If you do too many strokes or “mash” the ink through the mesh, you dots will gain too much and the print will be muddy.

General Suggestions
If a design does not look like the original art, modify an ink color and try different color sequences. This is normal when printing on dark shirts. It generally takes more than one shirt for an image to settle in and print correctly. There are many variables that affect the final print, from screen tension to quality of the printing press, and technique of the printer or machine. Adjustments at the screen press are commonly performed by high-end printers.

Print on a good shirt. DO NOT use a test square – other than for lining up the screens. The print needs to have the absorbency of the shirt AND the tighter the knit the better. 100% cotton is obviously better than a 50/50 Cotton/Polyester blend because of the dye migration from the shirt.

If you are printing on fleece or a polo shirt with a rough texture you will need to lower your line count and accept the fact that the print will not be as clean as on a T-Shirt.

Be Positive
Having done thousands of separations and sold thousands of copies of T-Seps and FastFilms, I know that some customers will simply not agree with the proper techniques and will use low mesh counts (110 is all we had), poor film output, and bad printing technique (this is not athletic printing). At the end of the day, the bad print quality is blamed on bad separations. Once you have had success with these techniques you will go out of your way to tell customers to “bring it on.” You won’t turn down any jobs or be afraid of photo realistic images.

This is good news and bad news. It could be great news if Adobe does not screw things up. Many of us have stayed on earlier versions of Photoshop just because they seemed more stable. And, when Adobe removed the “Screen” button in CS5, it meant having to spend more time with RIP settings for the halftone frequency, dot shape and angle. I have been lobbying Adobe to re-introduce the button and there is a good thread on the Adobe Family Forums.

In fact, if you want to reply to this thread, here is a link. Go for it! Let Adobe know that they have totally ignored our small little industry and that their silly workarounds are not acceptable.

With Photoshop CS6 expected to be released this spring, Adobe’s started posting weekly sneak peeks of Photoshop CS6′s new features.

UPDATE: Adobe is having a Creative Suite CS6 Launch Event on Monday, April 23 at 10:00am PT. Read more HERE. If you miss this event you can watch the replay on Adobe TV.

On March 22, Adobe released a Beta version of CS6! You can download it HERE. The GOOD news…. T-Seps is compatible with CS6. If you want to try out T-Seps with CS6 CLICK HERE for installation details.

Check out the videos embedded below to catch a glimpse of what Photoshop will be like in the future. We’ll be adding more sneak peek videos to this page as they become available, so remember to check back.

Watch Photoshop CS6 sneak peek video #6

Here’s a peek from Photoshop Product Manager Stephen Nielsen of a tool that will add blur to any image without masks, layers or depth maps.

Watch Photoshop CS6 sneak peek video #5

Stephen Nielson, Photoshop Product Manager, shows us the improvements Adobe has been working on, including migrating presets to some of the JDIs (Just Do Its) that have been most requested by the Photoshop community – think brush improvements and better printer settings.

Watch Photoshop CS6 sneak peek video #4

See more advanced features of Photoshop Content-Aware technology. Straight from Photoshop Senior Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes. In this video he shows how to seamlessly move or remove an object from an image.

Watch Photoshop CS6 sneak peek video #3

Product Manager, Zorana Gee, gives a hint at what’s to come – creating dashed and dotted lines with just one click in Photoshop. A top-requested feature brought to life!

Watch Photoshop CS6 sneak peek video #2

Get an early look at a popular Facebook fan request – background save and the most powerful liquify tool ever, from Photoshop Product Manager, Zorana Gee.

Watch Photoshop CS6 sneak peek video #1

In this video taken straight from the laptop of Adobe’s Senior Product Manager, Bryan O’Neil Hughes, get an early look at some of the things the Photoshop team is working on for Camera Raw.

You can submit your feedback via the Photoshop feedback page. Tell them your thoughts on the missing Screen button. Be bold. Let them know the screen print community wants the Screen button back.

Here is a list we found called a JDI (Just Do It!). This is what Photoshop is supposedly working on. It does not mean this is everything nor does it mean they will do all of these. We kept hoping to see “Restored Screen button” in this list. No go.

• Contact Sheet II has been restored as an Automate option
• PDF Presentation has been restored as an Automate option.
• HUD brush resize and hardness can now change opacity (CTRL-OPTION up/down)
• Increase brush size to 5000px
• User option per tip for color dynamics
• Brush tip cursor reflects brush pose and jitter for round and captured tips
• Brightness/Contrast slider for textures when painting
• Brush projection for static tips
• Add ability to record brush strokes in actions with “Allow Tool Recording” option
• Enable Split Channels for documents with layers
• Select Hex field by default and allow clip-board past with # in contents (i.e. #ffffff)
• She the sample size for pop-ups for the various eyedropper tools (block point, white point, etc.)
• Add ignore adjustment layers options bar item for the eyedropper
• New mode for eyedropper to select layers current and below
• Read common stereo image pair formats (JPS, PNS)
• Allow for more bit depths in TIFF files
• Read BIGTIFF format
• Give the user the choices regarding how they want transparency treated in Open
• EXR on file open
• Increased GPU stability by prequalifying GPUs on the fly before use
• Grammar policed throughout app
• Use consistent grammar style in the title of dialog windows (no commands such as “Choose a color:”)
• Auto select the best re-sample method based on type of resize
• Import images from devices provides Image
• Kit scanning and camera acquisition support
• Add a contextual menu item that deletes a layer effect not just disables it
• Add dither options to Layer Styles for Gradient Overlay and Gradient Stroke
• Allow 00 or Shift 00 to work when setting layer/fill opacity when free transforming layers
• Allow changing of blend modes for multiple layers at once
• Allow locking of multiple layers
• CMD+J to duplicate selected layers and layer groups (in addition to layers)
• Allow changing color labels to multiple layers at once
• Layer tootips to include layer name (If defined)
• Opt-click to toggle arrows (groups and effects) in layers panel should close all targets
• Show blend if/blending effect badge on layer
• Show correct opacity and blend mode values for hidden layers
• Tab goes to next layer on inline layer rename, SHIFT+TAB goes to previous
• When creating a shape layer, the layer name should not be like ‘Shape 1″ but instead reflect the tool names such as “Rectangle 1″
• New command to raster layer effects into layer, merging the selected layers into themselves
• Reorder effects in the layers palette to match the Z-Order style/blend mode (bottom most effects in terms of blending order, drop shadow is below the other effects)
• Resize Liquify brush with shortcuts
• Increase maximum Liquify brush size
• Add options to load last mesh
• Enable Invert and Threshold adjustments for mask in 32-bit
• Hold SHIFT during startup to disable 3rd party plugins
• Add new Gradient Map presets for toning and split toning
• Add new documents presets for common devices (e.g iPhone, iPad, etc.)
• Sticky reorganization of tools presets (changes persist after relaunch)
• Add “Edit” button for the description field in the print dialog
• Hide color profiles that are inappropriate for currently selected printer when using “Photoshop Manages Color”
• Allow user to change the “preview well” background color in print dialog
• Allow print dialog and print preview to be resized
• Allow users to manually position the printed area on the page
• Reintroduce “Print selected area”, allow user to modify selection in print dialog
• Add warning message that 16 bit images cannot display their file size in the Save as JPEG dialog
• Add ability to access tool name associated with tool preset name via scripting
• Add the ability to return an array of guides in a document from the scripting SDK
• Make the marquee, lasso, and mask panel feather values support decimal places like the feather dialog
• Remember feather radius when showing dialog for selection from a path
• Don’t hide smart object icon when transforming a layer
• Rotate 90 with even x odd pixel dimension to be smooth (bjango.com)
• Improved dragging of vector curves
• Undo or disable auto-rotate on open
• Add command to insert “lorem ipsum” for type
• Remove the app bar and reduce the drag/app bar of 30% (Windows)
• New/Open document to context click on a document tab (has always been on MAC, now on Windows too)
• Add “Don’t show again” checkbox to purge warnings

OK, so you couldn’t make it to Fespa Barcelona. Too bad because it is a great city. FESPA had another big show February 21 – 24 and Scott Fresener was there doing lots of seminars and videos. Check out Scott’s daily show reports, interviews and much more right here on this page – or on the right of the home page of this site.

All-in-all the show was great. While the main theme of Fespa is the digital wide-format side with exhibitors like HP, EFI, Fuji, Mimaki, Mutoh and others – the FespaFabric section (while much smaller) was very well attended and the exhibitors were really busy. There wasn’t much screen printing going on other than at “Charlies Corner” (Charlie Taublieb), but the direct-to-garment guys were out in force and they were pretty much slammed all four days. A good sign!

Brother had their new “one pass” printer there, Kornit was showing their new discharge ink feature (see video interview), Anajet (see video interview) had their M series, DTG was there, Aeeon was there with renewed energy showing their high speed printer (see video interview), and more. Plus, there were a LOT of guys showing heat transfers. Transfer are still huge! The booths were very busy all four days and it seems everyone had a smile on their face! Good job – again – Fespa!

Read more about FespaFabric HERE. Take a look at the Textile Talk seminar program HERE.

Scott Fresener Interviews Kornit Digital and talks about their new discharge ink feature.

Day Three Show Report

Day One Show Report

Scott Interview with Peter Choi and Eric Huber at the Aeoon Booth

Scott Day Two Show Report

Scott Interview with Brian Walker – Viper Pretreat Machine

Scott Interview with Charlie Taublieb

Scott Interview with Anajet

It is often hard to keep up with technology and companies like Apple and Adobe don’t make it easy for small software developers like us. T-Seps has been working great on 64-bit Windows computers for a long time. We just released the upgrade for T-Seps to now work on 64-bit Mac. That means if you have CS5 or higher and Lion OS on your Mac you can now take advantage of the extra RAM and speed you get with 64-bit. Due to programming changes and security issues the T-Seps Free Trial only works in 32-bit on Mac. Once you purchase the program (or upgrade from FastFilms), we will send you the 64-bit version.

If you tried the T-Seps Free Trial before and decided to wait for the 64-bit version, you can give the Free Trial another shot. Simply send us the unlocking code and tell us you want a few more days to test it out.

This is a FREE upgrade to licensed owners of T-Seps. Simply send email to support@tbiznetwork.com to request your upgrade.

Learn more about T-Seps at www.T-Seps.com. If you have any questions simply email scott@tbiznetwork.com or call 480-212-1078 or 1/888-801-

On November 9, Adobe (you know…. the guys who make Photoshop and Illustrator), announced a new – and very unpopular – upgrade policy. As any Photoshop or Illustrator user knows, you could be back a couple of versions in the past and still get a discounted price on an upgrade to the latest and greatest version.

Well folks….. the party is over. Adobe has gone full circle and become a little too arrogant. First, starting in version CS5, they removed the beloved “Screen” button that thousands of us used every day to set the halftone frequency, angle and dot shape. It has force a LOT of users to stay on CS4 just so we have this feature. Adobe’s response…. “people should not print that type of stuff from Photoshop – they should use Illustrator.” Duh! A LOT of us do Simulated Process and CMYK separations IN Photoshop and we want to press the “Print” button and walk away.

Now, they just announced that they would no longer let you be a few versions down to upgrade. If you want to upgrade to their “soon-to-be-released” version CS6.0 in early 2012, you MUST have already upgraded to CS5 or CS5.5 to get an upgrade price. If not, you will pay the full $699! Holy “magic wand tool” Batman! For a company that just walked away from Flash and is laying off 750 workers to “realign” things it sure seems like the wrong time to piss off hundreds of thousands of users. Read their recent layoff news at Reuters here.

All you have to do is type a search of “Adobe Pricing” and you will find all the message boards ablaze with unhappy users who think Adobe has gone too far. But hey, they grossed just over $1 billion last year. What the heck. The ARE the 1000 pound gorilla.

Click here to read the Adobe Featured Blogs post from November 9 that started all of this.

Here are the paragraphs from the post that sums it up:

“We are excited to announce that membership to the Adobe Creative Cloud will be available in the first half of 2012 at a price of $49.99 per month for individuals and $69.99 per month per seat for workgroups, both for an annual plan. Our move to this membership model allows us to keep our customers up to date with the latest Adobe innovations in our tools and related services. Creative Cloud will provide maximum flexibility, offer lower cost of entry, and add cutting-edge innovation on an on-going basis to keep our customers ahead of the changing technology and device landscape.

For customers who prefer to remain on the current licensing model, we will continue to offer our individual point products and Adobe Creative Suite editions as perpetual licenses. With regards to upgrades, we are changing our policy for perpetual license customers. In order to qualify for upgrade pricing when CS6 releases, customers will need to be on the latest version of our software (either CS5 or CS5.5 editions). If our customers are not yet on those versions, we’re offering a 20% discount through December 31, 2011 which will qualify them for upgrade pricing when we release CS6.”

In other words – get your checkbooks out and upgrade by December 31 or pay the full price afterwards.

An Open Letter to Adobe
A guy who has made a great living off of Adobe is Scott Kelby. He is the editor-in-chief of Photoshop User Magazine, the president of NAPP – National Association of Photoshop Professionals and owner of Kelby Training.

He also has a blog at www.ScottKelby.com and wrote an EXCELLENT and LONG “Open Letter to Adobe” that you must read. He pleads “our” cause and has some good advice for Adobe. I doubt they will listen but who knows.

Read Scott’s letter by clicking on the graphic below.

By Scott Fresener. Fespa is on the move again and in early 2012 they will once again have their huge Fespa Digital show along with a smaller show-within-a-show called Fespa Fabric in Barcelona Spain, February 21 – 24, 2012! Wow. Tapas on Las Ramblas. Nothing finer!

They have again asked me to present a seminar program called Textile Talk and to do a few video interviews from the show floor. As with past shows I am offering a variety of speakers covering both screen printing and direct-to-garment topics like I have done at Fespa Hamburg, Fespa Mexico City and Fespa Munich.

Read more about Textile Talk here.

On November 9, President Obama signed what might be called the “Anti-Trinkets and Trash Bill” as part of a bill to cut government wasteful spending. Wow. Regardless of your political leanings, this one hits home at our industry. No one can argue that the governments wastes billions of dollars but when you single out promotional products including items like printed T-Shirts – that is like a stab to the heart.

Here is an excerpt from the WhiteHouse.gov website:
WASHINGTON, DC – This morning, President Obama will sign an Executive Order that will cut waste and promote more efficient spending across the federal government.  With this Order, the President is directing agencies to reduce spending on travel; limit the number of information technology devices (e.g. cell phones, smartphones, tablets, laptops) that can be issued to individual employees; stop unnecessarily printing documents that can be posted online; shrink the executive fleet of the federal government; and stop using taxpayer dollars to buy swag — the plaques, clothing, and other unnecessary promotional items that agencies purchase. Overall spending in the areas covered by the Executive Order will be reduced by 20 percent, saving billions.

Of course there was a huge outcry from the Advertising Specialty Institute.

Read their Industry Response here on Tim Andrews Blog.

Also, there is a great response titled Obama Attacks Fed Promo Product Spend - with action items at Tim’s Blog here.

Here is an excerpt:
We’re calling on everyone to reach out to their senators and congressmen – they need to hear from each of us, collectively and individually. I am sending a letter directly to President Obama. Below are talking points you might consider in a letter to the editor of your local paper and to your senator or your representative.

• The promo products industry helps create jobs. The industry employs nearly 500,000 people throughout North America and includes thousands of small and women- and minority-owned businesses.
• Promotional products, which cost just half a penny per impression, beat out prime-time TV, radio and print advertising as the most cost-effective advertising medium available, meaning even smaller companies can pack the advertising punch of multimillion-dollar companies. ASI studies show 83% of ad specialty recipients in the U.S. say they can identify the advertiser on a promotional item they own.
• As more companies shift to lower-cost advertising like promo products, it’s helping the industry bounce back. A recent ASI Q3 industry survey found sales rose for the 7th straight quarter.
• Promo products save taxpayers money. The U.S. government used promotional items as reminders to mail back the U.S. census – instead of sending government representatives door-to-door – a move that may have saved taxpayers up to $85 million. The ensuing response rate surpassed that of the 2000 census.
• Obama himself knows promo products work – he relied heavily on them to get elected in 2008, and his reelection website today offers everything from logoed T-shirts to leather bracelets, bumper stickers, buttons and beyond.

We will follow this story as it unfolds.

A huge congratulations to industry member, Tom Rauen, of EnvisionTees.com in Dubuque, Iowa for beating the Guinness Book of World Records for the most T-Shirts worn. Tom did this amazing feat at the Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque, on November 11 by wearing 247 shirts!

With an official Guinness Book of World Records judge present Rauen beat the world record by two t-shirts. The current record was set last year by Croatian. Rauen’s supporters say he was wearing just about every shirt size possible.

While this seems like a “simple” feat, according to Rauen it takes practice on how to put that many shirts on and the largest size they used was a 20 X.  My question is….. where do you get a 20X shirt?

Tom got a ton of publicity around the country on this feat. Great job!  But, how do you get all those shirts off AND it would appear from the videos and pictures that you could strangle yourself doing this. The other question is how much do all these shirts weigh? Tom is not a huge guy.

All $5,000 dollars raised during the event will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Here are some videos that ran on local and national news.