15 color spot job, converted to 5 color sim process.

When looking at this job, it is calling out to be printed in solid spot colors. This art has as many as 15 different isolated colors. Most of us don’t have that capability on their press, but lets say you still want to do this order. You have a couple options. Print it in house, using simulate process or, to send it out for DTG printing or DTF. The balance of color count, image detail and quality and the quantity of the order all fall into play. Especially when a job like this has a quantity of only 100 units. At a low quantity, you need to decide if this would be best done with a DTG or if you were to do it yourself in house using the press you have, and some know how.

DTG is a great option for many prints and it’s the best choice for many prints with a lot of colors...and low quantity. Having said that, there are some prints that just don’t look as good or FEEL as good. Such is the case with large open areas of solid color. It takes a lot of DTG ink to make a print look great...but the result of the feel, is very lacking in these cases of solid coverage.

Here, in our case, we seem to be pretty consistent with the separations and knowing our inks and print capabilities to pull this off with limited color and a good feel on the shirt. A simulated process print of this nature, does have a few drawbacks as apposed to printing all 10-15 colors as solid spot colors. The look of 10-15 solid spot colors with a few using some halftones would end up looking the best. It’s true. More actual colors look better, but does it work for the order you have? Every part of an order aids to the decision of how you will print an order.

This one for us, - and more in the past, have come out with excellent results in limited color, no matter the design type. This enables you to keep more jobs in house, Keep cost down for the customer and gaining you even more jobs, at the same time as improving your skills. This also enables you to teach other new printers in your shop how to grow and become a better problem solver and not just a button pusher. This requires you to think about color, and the types of inks, and what these do, how they react as a result of changing one variable at a time, such as stroke speed, angle, pressure, off contact, flood amount etc.

Keep watching towards the middle at the comparison. Notice how the right color being used, makes a huge impact on the outcome. Change up a few different colors and even brands or in this case, the same brand, yet a different source such as regular cure vrs low cure and chemical makeup in the color can even be different. These two inks are supposed to be the same, but when you see them in the bucket, one Pantone process blue is more “blue", while the other is more “Green/Blue”. This can be the difference you are looking for in your particular print as was the case on this job. Each design is treated differently.