White Ink Overview
Printing white ink with an inkjet printer is a very difficult process that we have finally mastered. We have spent over a year trying to develop the proper ink and pre-treatment formulation, and now we hold the key! The problem is that inkjet nozzles print very thin deposits of ink that is like water. It is certainly not the same as a thick traditional screen print plastisol. In fact, it really should not work. White ink tends to settle if not used properly. The only real way to print white is to find a way to keep the pigment setting on top of the garment.
Pretreating Garment
In traditional inkjet printing on textiles (bed sheets, shower curtains, gaming tables, carpet, etc.), a pretreatment is used to make the fabric inkjet ink receptive and to keep the pigment on top. This is the same method we used to create stunning black shirt prints.
Software is part of the magic
Even with the ink and pretreatment, software is needed to tell the printer how much white to print out of what ink cartridge and how to print a grayscale underbase of the image (only a novice prints solid white). A great black shirt print needs a highlight white to boost the white where it needs it.
This is what gives us the edge. Over the years we have become known as black shirt printing and underbase experts. Our FastFILMS™ color separation program for screen printing is used on most black shirts that are screen printed around the world. We were able to transfer these years of knowledge and experience to FastARTIST™ and FastRIP™.
1. Create the image in your favorite graphic program, in FastARTIST™ or use customer supplied art. FastARTIST™ creates an underbase and highlight file. Print directly from FastARTIST™.
2. Spray a light mist of pretreatement on the garment and dry it quickly in a heat transfer press or conveyor dryer. A heat press works better because it mats down the garment fibers.
3. Load a shirt in the printer and print from FastARTIST™. Most prints will need two passes of white ink to get good coverage. Medium colored shirts may only need one pass of white.
4. The last pass is for the colors of CMYK. This pass also prints a highlight white ink that boosts the white ink even more, making it look better than screen printing!
5. Cure the print in a heat transfer press (recommended) or through a conveyor dryer. Dark shirt prints look great and hold up through repeated washings.