Ink and Tees

Ink & Tees  |  The Process  | Art Guidelines

At Fireman Up we offer you choices. We have many shirt suppliers we work with and we offer a variety of Inks.

Main Ink Choices

This is the traditional style of printing. Inks are thicker and sits on top of the tee. Can be used on a wider range of materials.

The Discharge process bleaches the dye out of the shirt, leaving its natural color showing through. With discharge printing the results can be dictated by the natural material of the shirt. Some shirt colors will not discharge well. This process is best used with 100% Cotton, but we have gotten some great effects with 50/50 cotton/polyester tees like the picture above. The process is not complete (soft logo feel) until the shirt is washed for the first time. Color can be added into the Discharge process.

 

Water-based is normally used for white or light color shirts to obtain a "soft Logo" feel. The inks are dyed into the fabric. When used on dark color fabrics it gives a strong faded/vintage look. Like the Discharge process, water-based inks must be washed for that soft logo feel.


Simulated Process printing is our preferred method for printing detailed, color intensive images with a lot of blending and gradients. This works great with the detailed color logos that Darrell draws. This print style can be used on either light or dark shirts. Ink color counts can be as low as 2, but most often fall in the 6-10 color range.