Discharge printing is getting more and more popular as a way to produce soft prints on soft shirts. It doesn’t always work. The process is that the discharge agent in the ink combines with water and heat to neutralize the dye in the shirt. The color of the ink then goes into the fabric and there is…
Soft plastisol inks can be a viable alternative to water base inks (and even discharge inks depending on the design, graphic and garment) with respect to visual and tactile characteristics. Soft plastisol inks are also easier to print, especially when printing high resolution halftones through high mesh counts. The key to soft plastisol ink is…
This sign for the Fair Wear Foundation was outside a t-shirt shop selling pretty typical tourist shirts in Heidelberg Germany. I asked the owner about the Fair Trade shirts and whether any consumers there cared about that. She looked at me like I was crazy and said, “yes, of course.” I think that in the…
