CherokeeDesign

I would say to go by the ink manufacturer's directions as far as temperature (I think the inks I have say they cure at 325*F) and time (again I think mine say 20 seconds). There are 2 ways I have read to do it: 1. put the printed shirt up on your press, and bring the platen down to 1/2" or so from the shirt, and hold it in place for the 20-30 seconds (not touching the ink or shirt). I have a couple small wood blocks that are about 1/2" high, and I just bring the heat platen down so they touch, that way it's the same every time. 2. use a heat gun to flash dry the ink, then actually bring the platen down, and close the press like you would in heat transfer. You can use either the teflon sheet, or I have tried using a piece of the backing paper from regular sign vinyl. That makes it *really* smooth, more so than I like, but it's another method you can experiment with.

Ran this through whatthefont.com, and all the fonts installed on my computer with no luck. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

The only 2 reasons I've had similar problems is if it's 1) too damn cold out, or 2) I didn't shake the application fluid well. I forgot to shake it well one time, and had the exact same results. Never had that problem again as long as I remember to shake the bottle before using it.

That's amazing. I've considered getting into screen printing in the past, but the cost always kept me from doing it. I love making stuff like that, and I even have welding gear (if the steel arms are a better idea). One of my friends has a complete screen printing setup, but I'd love to have my own equipment. I might try this myself. Thanks for the post!

I heard once that the front chest logo should be "over the heart". Starting out, I used to always get too far to the side. What I started doing was taking measurements from shirts that I already had, if I liked where the logo was placed (not ones I had printed). I would measure both down from the collar, and from the centerline. Measurements vary, a taller design will be higher than a shorter one, and if you're doing a series of same size logos on different size shirts, it will vary too. One example, I have a shirt design that I've been selling on ebay, where the front logo is about 4.5" wide by maybe 2.5" tall. I come down 4" from the collar to top of design, and I measure about 6.5" from the center to the far edge on large and XL shirts. I'll come down another 1/2" or so for 2X/3X, and go up 1/2" or so on smaller sizes. I'm happy with how they turn out. Long day and I'm probably not making much sense, short answer, I think I downloaded this from here a while back. Direct2Shirt-Image-Placement-Cheat-Sheet.pdf Direct2Shirt-Image-Placement-Cheat-Sheet.pdf

It gets easier with time. One of those see-through acrylic rulers like CyberSultan mentioned would be good. Folding and pre-pressing would be a good idea also. Starting out, you can measure and find the center of your design, then align that with the center of the shirt. You can double check by measuring the edges of the design on each side, to the edge of the shirt or sleeve seam. If you think you had it centered, and it's 5" from one edge, and 7" from the other, try again. Be careful not to stretch the fabric when measuring, don't pull the fabric any more than what you need to pull out a wrinkle/fold etc. Just get it all laid flat. Making sure it's straight, what I do is hold it up at arms length. The stickiness of the film is usually enough to hold it in place if you don't move too fast. I hold by the very outer corners of the shoulders as straight as I can. Take your time and don't rush. Your eye is actually very accurate. It will come in time. If there is text in your design, imagine a straight line under the bottom of the letters of the *longest* line, and keep an eye on that when checking level. If there's no text, try to decide what part of the design your eye is most naturally drawn to, when a person is looking at the shirt, and align that.

I'll bid, if you're still looking: For 1 color white on navy blue, I'll do the t-shirts for $10/ea on Gildan Ultra cotton (6.1 oz, pre-shrunk 100% cotton): 9 shirts @ $10 = $90 Gildan Ultra cotton hooded @ $25/ea (9.5 oz, 80/20 cotton/polyester): 2 @ $25 = $50 or, Gildan Heavyweight blend (7.75 oz, 50/50, not as thick/heavy as Ultra...I recommend Ultra) @ $20/ea: $40 $10 shipping, $150 to your door, although I agree with the others that posted about buying a heat press. It's a great service to offer. I can deliver in about 1 week from the time you place the order. Send me an email/IM if interested, I haven't been on the forums as much lately.

I've never used the "Easyweed", so don't have much advice. Just wanted to say the shirts look great, very well done. I hope you get it figured out. Have you checked your heat press with an infrared thermometer to make sure it's at the proper heat setting (seeing if the setting is the same as the actual temperature of the platen)?

He has returned to the US from his overseas military deployment. Welcome Home, and thanks for your service.

Check out some templates, you can go to sites like freewebsitetemplates.com or freewebtemplates.com. They have a bunch of them you can download free and experiment. As others posted, check out other sites, especially ones for similar businesses and see what you like and don't like.

awesome, that is PERFECT, thank you so much!

When I try to export this as an .eps from SignBlazer Elements, I click the "OK" and nothing happens. Is that because it's the "elements" version, or am I doing something wrong? I can recreate a logo that I need perfectly in SBE with the text/font effects, and I'm not able to duplicate it in Photoshop, Inkscape, etc (unless I just don't know all the features). Here's what I need, I just need this as an .eps or maybe even a high res .jpg to create a certificate to be printed (which I'm using Photoshop for). It's just red text in "Handel" font, with an arc, with white/red/white outlines (2 objects in file). Thanks for any possible help or advice. MFS.SBD MFS.SBD

Very good, 2 colors and everything for the first one!

looks like Georgia bold to me.