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Special Effects Printing Creates Competitive Advantage
By: Larry Mays
Issue: 2006jul
Go to any retail apparel store in just about any American mall, and you will see special effects inks used on apparel consumers purchase every day. Specifically, these inks can be high-density, gel, particle glitter, sugar glitter, sparkle gel, glow-in-the-dark, crystalline, puff, simulated leather, suede, chino, discharge, burn-out or dozens of special formulations. Designers use these inks to create astonishing effects, attracting consumers who want what looks best instead of what is cheapest. While these ink systems have been used for more than a decade in the retail industry, they have been almost totally ignored by the promotional products industry.
For now, let’s focus on high-density ink, one of the most unique technological developments created for printing textiles. But don’t confuse it with puff ink. A relatively old technology used by printers for 10 to 15 years, puff is an expansion ink system. Thus, it is printed flat and expands in all directions. Puff ink is printed through a coarse mesh using a regular screen, lays flat on the shirt during the printing process and only expands when exposed to heat—making printing fine detail hard to achieve.
High-density ink is much different because it is made with a special chemistry that allows the ink to be printed very thick and still maintain rigid sides and edges. High-density ink is printed through a specially prepared screen using a thick, photo-sensitive coating—or emulsion. The emulsion is actually a sheet of plastic-like film placed on the side of the screen that contacts the t-shirt. Most printers use a capillary film emulsion, available in thicknesses ranging from 100 microns (thin) to 1,000 microns or more (thick). The thicker the emulsion, the thicker the column of ink laid on top of the shirt. Since high-density ink does not expand like puff to achieve height or texture on the shirt, it can be stacked layer upon layer to create a thick, raised effect.
There is a popular misconception that special effects can only be used effectively on high-volume print runs with expensive art, but this simply is not true. In the hands of a talented printer, many special effects ink systems can be used cost effectively for all kinds of designs.
Check out the Panthers Football design in Figure 1. This athletic design was created for a school that wanted to focus attention on the mascot name and slogan for the year while creating something classy but different for their students and fans. The background features three elements created from photographs provided from the previous season. The key was to make the lettering stand out—or pop off—the shirt.
When printing white ink on a black shirt, it is normally necessary to underprint white and overprint white to ensure bright and bold white lettering. In this design, we used high-density ink for the lettering, eliminating the white underprint because high-density ink is thick and heavily pigmented. In Figures 2 and 3, you can see how the lettering is three-dimensional and raised off the surface of the shirt. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to create the same bold look when using conventional inks.
To print the high-density ink, a 400 micron screen using a very coarse mesh and a soft squeegee was used, which caused the high-density ink to have a textured feel in addition to its height. This approach creates a throwback look to the original days of uniform printing when you could actually see the screen mesh lines in the ink. A 400 micron screen is the thickest possible when using high-density ink and only works if used with much coarser mesh than usual.
The advantage of this approach is that nice height to the lettering was achieved while only using one screen, rather than two, to layer the ink to achieve the desired height and dimension. While some edge definition that can be achieved with high-density ink was sacrificed, the benefit to the client was lower cost.
There are some key points to keep in mind when working with high-density inks:
The vast majority of American screen printers are not well-versed in the challenges of using high-density inks, so choose your printer carefully. Repeatability from order to order is difficult for inexperienced printers. Examine sample work before placing your order.
High-density inks are about three times as expensive as regular plastisol inks, and a design can use five to 10 times as much ink. Therefore, ink consumption is based on the size of the design and how much ink is used. While high-density inks will cost more than regular inks, the financial impact can be minimized if the art is designed properly.
PMS color matches are substantially more complicated than with regular inks and should be avoided whenever possible to avoid excessive cost. A good printer will have a substantial assortment of high-density ink colors from which to choose.
The great news is the design shown here only cost the client about 50 cents more per short than a design using regular plastisol inks, and it had bright, bold white lettering with a much stronger impact. By using high-density inks, the distributor knew 90 percent of the competition had been eliminated from the start. The client was very happy with the special effects used in the design and placed a re-order, making the distributor a fair profit without the fear of being undercut by low-priced competition.
Take a careful look at special effects ink systems for your future screen printing orders. You’ll be glad you did!
Larry Mays is president of Erie-Pennsylvania-based supplier Boardwalk Marketing Group (UPIC: boardmg) and teaches on the Decorated For Success Educational Tour. He can be reached at 877-726-9555 or boardwalk.marketing@verizon.net.
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