: 4 color separation on black shirts I have art set up for a 4 color process print, but it on going on black shirts. The art itself is a picture of a nebula so it has a lot of subtle details

@Berryessa866

Having been in the screenprinting and embroidery business for 27 years, I can definitely answer any of your questions. Four color process printing on garments is intended for white shirts only. The reason for this is because 4/color process plastisol inks are extremely transparent. This printing process depends on the transparency of the 4 ink colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, black), that when those four ink colors are printed, they blend together and create secondary and tertiary colors. In other words, for example, printing the yellow ink on top of the cyan ink will produce shades of green. Being that those four color process inks are transparent, any garment color other than white, will completely render your final screen print as unacceptable. Even trying to add a white underlay and then four color process printed on top of that white underlay will not produce the results you're looking for

To achieve photo realistic screen prints on black or colored garments, you have only two options. Simulated process printing or Stochastic (also known as index) using regular nontransparent plastisol inks. Both of these printing methods can achieve awesome results if done correctly. There are some big drawbacks to both of these processes such as: sometimes it takes six, seven, eight, nine, or more screens to produce an acceptable screen print.

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@Si6392903

It is hard to gess what is "What you expect".

But in general terms.

If you are printing a color image on a black shirt you will have dull colors. Normally on a color separation (CMYK) you need a white base, becouse you are printing with a "substract" method. So you need to have a 5 ink print. White and your colors. (Sometimes it is necessary to have two layers of white)

If you are not using a color separation (CMYK) but another color combination try to use an "error difussion" or "dither" pattern instead of a normal screen. But depending on the colors and ink types you could need the white base too.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dither

but the sample shirts


That is why you have sample shirts. But the point is that you analize what is the exact problem you have, not a subjective opinion like "didn't come out like I expect" ;o)

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