I got a request last week to help someone figure out why their ink cracked. They thought it was the shirts. I have never seen a shirt that would cause the ink to crack all by itself. There is always an ink solution for cracking. WHAT CAUSES INK TO CRACK? Primarily the cause of the ink cracking…
I was asked to look at some shirts today that supposedly had “ghosting” issues. Ghosting we have covered before (see a prior ink kitchen.com article), it basically is a bleaching process when certain inks give off a gas when they are hot and stacked and a lighter “ghost” image appears on the shirt placed on top…
Hirsch is now distributing Brother DTG machines, coast to coast. They already sell Kornit DTG machines, so they become the go-to place for high end fast pace DTG printing. There is no press release yet and the details will be coming in the coming weeks including if you stop by the HIrsch booth at Long…
Yesterday I posted about a technique called Japanese woodblock printing. Here is a video that shows more on how the printing was done. It will make you appreciate how easy it is to screenprint. Here is a video about the printing with the woodblocks. And here is a video on how the carving of the…
The Cubs and Indians are in the World Series! Who would have thunk it? Besides my thinking that if the Cubs win the next round that Theo Epstein becomes a candidate for the Baseball Hall of Fame, I have a couple of other thoughts as a t-shirt printer. Clearly most of the t-shirt world is…
When a customer says that a sample is approved but they want the print location to go up 1/4 inch, just say no. In fact, say “hell no!” There is a school of thought to say yes and they won’t notice, but I don’t agree. I tell customers that we load carefully and we load…
MHM has a new machine and it sure to turn some heads at the SGIA show in Las Vegas this week. It prints digital images at speeds that can exceed 1000 pieces per hour. This is the thing that so many people have been looking for, a viable hybrid of screenprinting and digital printing. This…
Hanes and Champion have a new site at hanesink.com for ordering a shirt, focused on all high schools and colleges. I guess it might cut into the businesses of a few people, but mostly it seems like it might lead to less aggravation and more business for most of us. If somebody wants a single shirt for…
“Pirate Printers” Raubdruckerin literally take to the streets in their home Berlin but also in Lisbon, Amsterdam, Paris and around the world and print shirts using objects on the streets. So cool. Some photos and then a more or less translation down below about what they are about. Raubdruckerin uses existing surfaces such as grids,…
Question: Our printing doesn’t seem to be getting better, what are the best ways to go about improving our printing abilities? Answer: My two cents? Stop being penny wise and pound foolish. Saving twenty dollars and buying a gallon of inexpensive but inferior emulsion is a terrible idea. Inferior emulsions don’t have the resolution…
