Have you ever sat around and came up with a great idea for your own shirt design? Say something for your business, team sport, or school club? I think most people have. A lot of the time we just draw it on a napkin or piece of paper.
However, when you take your art to the local embroidery and/or print shop, they tell you the artwork is not useable for embroidery or screen printing? Before you get mad, I want to explain why they probably told you it was not useable art.
Artwork for embroidery and screen printing utilizes special graphic or digitizing software. The art must be in electronic form so that it can be processed in our systems. For screen printing, we have to make a special film positives of each color. For embroidery, well, it’s very specialized as the embroidery file is what tells the machine where to move and what to do when it gets there. It also tells the machine the depth and width of each stitch.
There are only a few file formats that are suitable for screen printing. For embroidery, there is only one for the machine being used and it’s specialized. The following information is taken from our website at SkylinePrints.com. It provides the details behind our topic.
Is there a difference between artwork for screen print vs embroidery?
Embroidery:
Embroidery disks can be created from vector and raster based objects. Since the creation of these files is specialized and uses special software, we ALWAYS have to recreate the artwork into a file the embroidery machine will understand. This process is called digitizing.
As I mentioned above, it is more than just a picture file. It is an instructional file that tells the machine what to do, where to go, and how to accomplish sewing the design. Embroidery digitizing is an art form and the people who are good digitizers should be recognized true artist. The digitizer not only needs to know how to make the machine function, but he/she must understand the fabric to which the design will be sewn. Each fabric has its own special qualities and adjustments for it must be made.
Another thing to remember is artwork for embroidery is less is more. Embroidery done on a standard hat or left chest is too small to capture great detail. Remember, the thread being used has dimension or thickness. The needles have size also. All this combines to say again less is more. Think about pro ball hats. Are they crammed with detail and lettering? No, they usually have a simple logo or simple text. This makes the hat look good because it allows for a bold statement. Same for left chest designs. Unlike printing on paper, embroidery can not capture the tiny writing seen on letterhead and business cards due to the thread and needle dimensions or sizes. Less is more.
Screen Printing:
Screen print art has to be color separated into separate “color plates” or film positives so a vector file is preferred. Vector files keep each color object separate and will render films with each color on their on film positive.
In screen print, each color in a design has a screen created just to print color. So, if your design has 3 colors, that’s 3 plates or film positives required at a minimum. Dark shirts have to have a white base screen so that a white ink can be put down first then the colors built on top. If we don’t do this step, the colors will not show up on the dark shirts. This requires an additional film positive or “plate”.
The film positives are used to create the screens used in the actual printing of the shirts. This work must be done in a dark room as the screens are coated with a photosynthesized solution and expose/harden in light.
As you can see, a lot goes into the prep work before your shirts are printed or embroidered. This is why good art is critical and can not be rushed. Everything after the art depends on clean useable art files. It’s like the old saying, “Garbage in, Garbage out”.
What type of artwork do you accept?
If you are supplying your own art for screen printing, the artwork must be “camera ready” in order to avoid any additional charges.
CAMERA-READY ART DEFINED:
Camera-ready art is defined as black and white line art that has sharp, clean lines, requires no retouching, and is complete with text and/or graphics. We expect that you have proofread your art and/or copy before sending it to us and that it is correct and ready for immediate processing without having to be manipulated.
- We prefer Corel Draw X3 files but can accept vector eps files. Dropping a .jpg into a .eps file does not make it vector.
- Corel needs to be saved as X3 or prior
- Illustrator files need to be v9 or prior
- Photoshop files must be color separated using CHANNELS. Layers do not separate colors for producing films
- Photoshop files must be provided at sized to final print size and should be 200 dpi or better
- All fonts need to be converted to curves or outlines.
- Artwork should be in actual print size format
Art is not camera-ready if:
- MS Powerpoint (.ppt), MS Publisher, and MS Word (.doc, .docx) are not graphics programs and do not provide camera ready art. These are for publishing documents and presentations.
- Art is supplied in a .jpg, .bmp, or .gif format.
- Photocopied or faxed
- A business card, stationery, or newsprint
- Soiled, smudged, torn, or bent
- We have to add text to a logo
- We have to modify the file in any way.
We prefer to take Corel (.cdr), Illustrator (.ai), or Vector .eps files. Any text in these files needs to be converted to curves or they will not work on our computers since we probably don’t have the same fonts.
We can take .jpg, .bmp. or .tiff files for illustrative reason but in most cases, we have to convert the file to vector in order to separate out the colors for printing. If this is the case, an art setup charge will likely be incurred.
WEB GRAPHICS (.GIF) FILES CAN NOT BE USED FOR PRINTING. These will be redrawn if possible but most likely they will not provide enough detail even to be redrawn.
Can Skyline Prints create art work for you?
You bet! We LOVE to create artwork!! We have several graphic artists that are waiting to create a design just for you. If you want to work directly with an artist outside of our store, let us know. We have several around the country that will be glad to work with you and know the formats we need the art in for printing.
How long does it take to have custom artwork or redraws complete?
Custom artwork can take up to 2 weeks depending on how many revisions.
Redraws or digitizing normally take 2 business days or less. Once it’s complete, we will contact you for proofing.
How do I see a proof of my art?
We will email you a proof for your approval or you are more than welcome to come into our shop to see it first hand.
How do I submit my own artwork?
Simple, you can email it to us or bring it by the shop.
Will my shirt placement and ink colors look exactly like my proof?
Good question! We make every effort to display an accurate color match for your design. However, slight variations may occur due to differences in color calibration between our computer monitors and your computer monitors. The colors you see will depend on your monitor settings and may be different from the actual imprint colors for your product. Also, ink colors are represented on computers but usually have a slight variance once printed. We have no liability as a result of any variances between the appearance of colors displayed on your monitor and on any imprinted product purchased.
In closing, a lot of time is spent on preparing artwork for printing or embroidery. Between the CSR, the artist, the proofing and approvals, there are many hours involved ensuring the final product meets or exceeds the clients expectations. We are here to assist you and answer your questions. We welcome your ideas and will work with you to make sure your art if perfect for printing or embroidery.
Contact us today at SkylinePrints.com about your next printing or embroidery job. We offer an online designer where you can create your perfect design and it will be print ready for us when you check out. What are you waiting for? Get started today!! Online Designer
