Datacolor User to User Support Group.

We have licensed some fine art images to a t-shirt company and are 
trying to get a decent match between the art and t-shirt.

They are miles away and it would be nice if we could get a profile 
for each of the conditions under which shirts would be printed. 
That way we could soft proof the result and at least cut down on the 
number of number of press runs it takes to get closer to a match.

They use software to make their separations from the U.S. Screen 
Printing Institute (now know as U.S. Screen Print & Injet Technology).

The software is called is called FastFilms.  Apparently, it can do a 
softproof internally but that is of litte use to us without buying 
the sofware which is about $1,000.

http://screenprinters.net/product.php?pid=fastfilms

My question is about printing targets out on several different colors 
of t-shirts (white, natural, colored) and trying to build a profile 
for each.   That way we could softproof in Photoshop.

Questions?

1.  Does that sound feasible?

2.  What settings should we request be used in FastFilms when targets 
are printed on t-shirts?


We just need to get closer to being in the ballpark to cut down on 
the number of press runs that need to be mailed back and forth.

William, it seems to me that you need to make your profile from a finished
t-shirt.  Fastfilms generates dots for positive film that is used to burn
screens, then the t-shirts are printed on a screen press.  That's a lot of
steps and I can't see any way to profile from a print any other way.  

Using whichever swatch set you prefer, print the separations to film using
fastfilms.  Create screens, and make a t-shirt.  Generate your profile from
the color patches that you end up with on the finished t-shirt.

I'm not sure how close you'll get to a reliable soft-proof, since screens
can be a pretty unreliable variable.  However, it might be 'close enough',
and the more experience in the workflow will identify things (colors,
transitions, etc) to avoid.

The problem with most of these installations come from the fact that screen
printers think in terms of spot colors, not process colors.  Generating CMYK
separations are a bit of a foreign language to most screen printers.

Hope this helps! 
-kris

> -----Original Message-----
> From: colorvision_group@yahoogroups.com 
> [mailto:colorvision_group@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of 
> William Du Bois
> Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 3:26 PM
> To: colorvision_group@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [colorvision_group] Fine Art with T-Shirts
> 
> We have licensed some fine art images to a t-shirt company 
> and are trying to get a decent match between the art and t-shirt.
> 
> They are miles away and it would be nice if we could get a 
> profile for each of the conditions under which shirts would 
> be printed. 
> That way we could soft proof the result and at least cut down 
> on the number of number of press runs it takes to get closer 
> to a match.
> 
> They use software to make their separations from the U.S. 
> Screen Printing Institute (now know as U.S. Screen Print & 
> Injet Technology).
> 
> The software is called is called FastFilms.  Apparently, it 
> can do a softproof internally but that is of litte use to us 
> without buying the sofware which is about $1,000.
> 
> http://screenprinters.net/product.php?pid=fastfilms
> 
> My question is about printing targets out on several 
> different colors of t-shirts (white, natural, colored) and 
> trying to build a profile 
> for each.   That way we could softproof in Photoshop.
> 
> Questions?
> 
> 1.  Does that sound feasible?
> 
> 2.  What settings should we request be used in FastFilms when 
> targets are printed on t-shirts?
> 
> 
> We just need to get closer to being in the ballpark to cut down on 
> the number of press runs that need to be mailed back and forth.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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