SHARPRINT BLOG

Flipping through a pantone color book is a popular way to choose hues for print products. When both the customer and the manufacturer are looking at the same pantone color, both parties know that they're on the same page. Simply saying "light blue" isn't nearly specific enough when it comes to promotional products. 

The modern day apparel industry is forever changing & evolving with new technologies and techniques. Throughout these changes, there has remained a common technique most popular for printing on light garments and vintage apparel. The technique is called soft-hand printing, and it includes a method that uses fashion soft base additives and water-based inks. 

When ordering embroidered clothing it is helpful to understand the process and become familiar with what is available and possible. The following six things to consider will help you to order the right clothing for your needs, fitting your budget, and in the time that you expect. 

Before we get into various fabric types for embroidery, there is a term you should be familiar with - backing. Backing is a specialized piece of fabric used as a foundation for stabilizing embroidery stitches. Fabric, by nature, is very flexible. Backing has a stiffness and gives the stitches something stable to hold on to.

Ever wonder how a company logo or cool design goes from a digital art file to a beautifully embroidered shirt? The process is called digitizing and the artists that do it are called - you guessed it - digitizers. Basically, digitizing is redrawing a logo or design as stitches in a special embroidery software program designed to do just that. We use a program called Punto at Sharprint. Digitizers aren’t just digital artists, though, they have to be experts in the craft of embroidery.

One of the very first steps in the decorating apparel industry is purchasing the goods that need to be screen printed or embroidered on. Decorating companies are more than willing to order the goods for their customers, but promotional product distributors typically supply the garments themselves. This is certainly not a problem and 100% acceptable. However, if the customer does provide their decorator with the blank pieces, there are a few things that they should know and take into consideration.

There are many decisions to be made and details to be communicated when ordering decorated and promotional apparel. If you’ve ordered even once, you are well aware. The number of decisions and details is multiplied by each client you are working with and each item they are having imprinted. Wow. That’s a lot to keep track of.

You’re awesome and have it covered, we know. Regardless, we’ve got your back. The Four Simple Steps is a system for placing orders that helps organize the details and keeps you informed about the progress of your custom screen print, embroidery, and digital print orders. Our goal is to make working with us easy. By pro-actively providing you with status updates, you can continue getting business instead of being bogged down by the orders you already have.

Screen printers love Adobe Illustrator because the graphics are so clean and perfectly scale-able. Certain features of the program were even designed specifically for the print industry. A screen print artist or separator prepares your design file for print production, but there are some steps you should take to prepare your file for the printer.

Plastisol ink is a PVC (polyvinyl chloride) based system that essentially contains no solvent at all. Along with UV ink used in graphic screen printing, it is referred to as a 100% solid ink system. Plastisol is a thermoplastic ink in that it is necessary to heat the printed ink film to a temperature high enough to cause the molecules of PVC resin and plasticizer to cross-link and thereby solidify, or cure. The temperature at which most plastisol for textile printing cures at is in the range of 149 °C to 166 °C (300 °F to 330°F).

Plastisol is the ink of choice for printing of finished goods such as t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, and tote bags.

Staff uniforms are a common feature shared by many of the most successful businesses in the country. Everyone from doctors to fast food workers are expected to wear a specific type of attire. Businesses can use staff uniforms for a variety of beneficial purposes.