When owners and managers of screen printing firms have a job opening in their art department, they often have difficulty finding qualified applicants. Entry level graphic artists typically do not have the specific graphics art training that is required for screen printing. Moreover, most experienced graphic artists have the creative talent for artwork design but lack the specific knowledge and/or training to produce and prepare art for production in a screen printing shop.

To fill this need, American Screen Printing Association has developed the Certified Graphic Artist—Screen Printing (CGA-SP) certification program. It is modeled after ASPA's successful Certified Screen Printer (CSP) program.

In addition to providing screen printing employers with qualified job applicants, ASPA's Certified Graphic Artist—Screen Printing (CGA-SP) certification program can provide additional employment possibilities for graphic artists who would like to work in the screen printing industry. It also provides recognition to graphic artists; demonstrating knowledge and competence in their craft.

Take the CGA-SP exam… | Learn more about Certified Graphic Artist-Screen Printing (CGA-SP) program

To convert an image like this into a camera ready film positive is very easy.

Simply convert the image into a black and white or grayscale bitmap and “invert” it using a bitmap editor. This resultant image will be what you will use to make your film positive—a black on white “wrong reading” image.  See the example.

A more complicated inversion process will be required when a customer supplies you with a black on white image and wants that image printed with white ink (or other color) on a black shirt. The simple inversion process will not work here. What you will end up having is an image that will produce a print result with the “x-ray” effect.

Preparing art like this is somewhat more complicated. See below for an example.

To convert the artwork so you will have a “correctly inverted” film positive, you will need to create an “underbase” of black for the image and then position the art on top of the black underbase and finally invert that composited image.

Converting black and white art to make it print ready for black shirts can sometimes be confusing and difficult. Take your time and check it over thoroughly as mistakes can easily be made. After you have done a few of these conversions it will become much easier.

The content of this article is an excerpt from the ASPA training course The Secrets of Printing T-Shirts and How to Make Big Money!

Adobe Illustrator, the most popular software for creating vector art has an excellent feature to turn raster bitmaps into vector art. Live Trace is an easy and flexible feature to convert bitmaps to vectors.

I use Adobe Illustrator to make vector designs for logos, screen printing jobs, advertising, etc.

Some designers may know that "Live Trace" is similar to "Corel Trace" in Corel Draw.

This tutorial is quite basic showing how to use the Live Trace feature.

To use Live Trace, you should start with a high resolution image (raster) because it will give you a much better result when you convert it to vector art.

1. Choose the original photo File > Place (This should be a high quality raster image like jpeg, tiff or png.)

2. Your original graphic will be displayed.

3. Look for the small drop down arrow between the Live Trace and Mask square buttons, then choose Tracing Options (shown at the bottom of the menu option).

4. There are many options. Test the result by clicking the checkbox "Preview" then choose OK or change them until you are satisfied with the results.

5. To confirm your result, Choose Expand or Live Paint. (You can use either)

6. The result shown is a black and white traced vector image, perfect for screen printing or logo work. You can also use Live Trace in the color mode for advertising or multi-color work as well.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/visual-art-articles/how-to-use-live-trace-in-adobe-illustrator-2921286.html

What’s the best media for screen printers to use for creating film positives?  It comes down to a matter of cost, time, and availability.  There are a few other issues worth noting and we’ll discuss them here as well.

In this article, we going to limit our discussion to vellum paper and inkjet film as they are the two most common types of media used for creating film positives by screen printers.

Let’s start with vellum paper… Vellum paper is a translucent type of paper.  It comes in two types: laser printer ready and inkjet printer ready.  The laser printer vellum is far more common and much easier to find than the inkjet version.  

The advantages of laser ready vellum paper is low cost, runs quickly through your laser printer, and is available in a variety sizes.  It is sold by most screen printing supply vendors and can be ordered from specialty print supply companies as well.  

If you are printing line art and medium sized text (14 pt. or higher), it works reasonably well.  It is less than ideal for making screens with images that contain halftones, fine lines, or small type.  Consider it a workhorse for making screens with run of the mill, simple artwork.  

Another disadvantage is vellum paper will shrink slightly when running through a laser printer and this will cause registration problems for creating film positives for multi-color screen printing.  

A tip for creating a nice, dark film positive that is easier to expose when burning a screen is to use a special spray on chemical that you apply to the printed image. Commercial toner darkener spray (available at your screen printing supplier) and (believe it or not) some brands of hair spray will make the black image on your film positive much darker–making so much easier to expose and wash out the image on the screen.  

There are several manufacturers of laser ready vellum paper and our experience is that they all seem to work with similar results.

Now let’s talk about inkjet film… If it were not for the cost and the increased time it takes to output the image through your printer and its cost, inkjet film would be a complete no-brainer.  It produces film positives with completely opaque images that are easy to burn; and for creating film positives containing halftone images, it is the ideal medium.

 On the downside, the time it takes to output the film is of course dependent on your printer but certainly not as fast as you could output with a laser printer. For creating film positives for multi-color jobs, inkjet film is ideal, as there is no shrinkage.

The major disadvantage of inkjet film is cost.  It is much more costly than laser vellum paper.  Inkjet film comes in both rolls and sheet versions, depending on the type of printer you have.  

There are several manufacturers of inkjet film for making film positives for screen printing. Our experience is that all brands do not work equally well. We recommend that you obtain samples of different brands and test them out before making a large quantity purchase.

So what is the bottom-line recommendation?  We recommend using both types of media.  Laser vellum for non-critical, “run of the mill” single color print jobs and inkjet film for print jobs that have small type, tiny lines, halftones, or multi-colors.

The vector drawing program Inkscape is a totally free graphics program that can be used for creating great t-shirt art.  In case you’re not familiar with it, Inkscape is an open source, graphics design program. It is similar to CorelDraw and Adobe Illustrator, however it is completely free and you’ll never have to spend a nickel for any updates!  Being a vector drawing program, Inkscape is loaded with tools that lets you create images that are smooth and scalable. Vector art is the ideal type of art for screen printers and Inkscape is made just for that purpose.

The artwork that you need to create a film positive for screen printing has to be crisp, black and white line art.  More often then not, a customer will supply you with unuseable grayscale or a full color bitmap art that will not work.  In this article, we’re going to focus on creating a single color black and white vector image (we added some green text to better show the difference in the supplied art and the new traced black and white vector image).

The first step in creating a sharp, black and white vector image is to import your bitmap file in Inkscape. Go to File>Import, and import your color or grayscale bitmap image. If your image is in color, convert is to grayscale, choose Extensions > Color> Grayscale. (Remember to select the image and when you do, little black two ended arrows will be around the edge of the image.

Next, select  Path>Trace Bitmap. A message box will appear on the screen. The box has two tabs, mode and the other options. Select the “mode” tab and choose the settings shown in screen shot shown.  When you have image “vectorized” the way you want, click OK.  You may need to experiment with the settings to get an ideal result with your particular image, so be sure to play around with the settings.

Once you have  your desired traced image, simply delete the original bitmap  image that is underneath it and add your desired text  to your design and resize the image to the final print size that you want for screen printing.  That’s it!

As you can see, Inkscape is a terrific tool.  It is ideal for screen printers for creating line art images and it has the features you need to do just that.

For  even more info on creating a  traced image with Inkscape, visit this page:

http://inkscape.org/doc/tracing/tutorial-tracing.html

For detailed  information  on using Inkscape, check out the user guide:

http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/

In case you’ve never heard of it, Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a raster image graphics editing software program.  A long and fancy description for a program that is great for manipulating photographic images (including turning them into halftone images). The “Gimp” name is pretty lame, but the program is powerful and loaded with great features.

The best part is that the program is totally free in cost!  In addition to detailed image retouching and free-form drawing, GIMP can do image editing like resizing, editing and cropping photos and converting between different image formats. GIMP is widely considered by many to be THE free software equivalent of Adobe Photoshop, with a similar set of features and user interface. 

Last time I checked, the latest full version of Photoshop was selling for around $700 (and upgrades at $200), so it’s not exactly cheap. So it’s easy to see what a great deal Gimp really is. In this tutorial, we going to a take a full color photo, convert it to grayscale and make it screen print ready by converting it into a single color halftone image using Gimp.  We’ve included photos to show the steps. 

It’s important to point out that this is not the best way possible for creating a halftone photo image for screen printing.  Using an expensive 3rd party color separation plug-in application running through Adobe Photoshop would be a better solution if cost is not an issue. The method that we’re using here is a “quick and cheap” way to produce a usable halftone image for printing on t-shirts or other apparel. 

Having said that to please the purists and experts, let’s proceed with the tutorial…

First, load your color image into Gimp,  Choose File > Open (open an image file).  We recommend that you use images that are at least 200-300 dpi., lower resolution images will produce a poorer result.  If your image needs corrections, e.g. too light, too dark, etc., choose Colors > Curves and lighten or darken as necessary.  Be aware that once your image is converted to grayscale and then into a halftone, darker images tend to screen print darker (as a result of dot gain), so you are better off to a produce a slightly lighter image as your final grayscale image.  If your photo needs any further image corrections, e.g. unsharp masking, etc., make them now.

Next, convert the image to grayscale: Image > Mode> Grayscale.

The next step is converting the image to a halftone.  First, flatten the image: Image > Flatten Image.  Next, choose Filters > Distorts > Newsprint.  “Newsprint” is the  filter that will create your actual halftone. 

We’re going to assume for this article that you do not have ideal light exposure unit available (to make your stencil) so we’re going to create a halftone image with a fairly large“dot” that will be easy to expose when making your stencil. 

Keep in mind that you can make the “dots” smaller or larger, depending on your equipment and printing requirements.  To create our halftone image with an easy to burn halftone dot (45 lines per inch), use the following settings: Input SPI: 72 Output LPI: 45 Cell size: 12  (this is the most important function which controls the halftone dot size) Screen angle: 56 degrees Spot function: (round) halftone dot shape Anti-aliasing (over sample):  1 (off)

The above settings will produce an easy to reproduce halftone dot that is easy to expose and print.  Experiment with the “cell size” to produce a larger or smaller sized dot.  Don’t be alarmed by the poor image displayed on the screen, the actual printed image will look better.  Run a few test prints through your printer on regular paper to get the exact halftone result you want. The key is–experiment.   If you need to add some black text to your new halftone artwork, do it now. 

Now, the only thing left to do is printing out your finished image. Printing out your image is easy, because we now have a simple 1 color, black and white bitmap image.  We recommend that you adjust your inkjet or laser printer output settings to print at the darkest level possible when printing your film positive.  Moreover, you will achieve a better result if you are able to print with an inkjet printer using inkjet film designed for creating film positives. 

Most screen print supply vendors sell this type of inkjet film and it works great.  If you use vellum paper designed for laser printers, it would be a good idea to spray your printed film positive with a toner darkener spray to make the “dots” as dark as possible.  This type of spray (and laser vellum paper) are also available at most screen print supply vendors.

For best results for screen printing the halftone images created using this tutorial would be to use mesh counts of 195 to 230, coated with a pure photopolymer emulsion of just 1 light coat per side.  An exposure unit with a metal halide lamp or other similar high UV light source would be best for exposing your screens. Because the dots can be made as large as necessary, lower mesh counts and a lower quality light source (halogen or fluorescent) lights could also be used. Have fun with Gimp and halftones!

Below we'll show how to find everything you need and at a cost anyone can afford—free!

Here's a description of some free graphics programs (and links to their websites):

DrawPlus A powerful vector graphics program from Serif complete with clipart and is totally free.

Paint.net A highly rated photo and bitmap editing program that works great and is absolutely free.

PhotoPlus A great free bitmap and photo editing program from Serif.

Gimp A top rated photo and bitmap editing program that works great and is absolutely free. It is also a good idea to have programs that can read Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat, and Microsoft Powerpoint files.   Many of your customers are office workers and these are the type of programs that they use. 

We also understand that you may not have the funds to purchase these programs at the start of business so here’s where to get a great freebie–Open Office! FREE OFFICE SUITE PROGRAM

It is an almost certain that you will receive Microsoft Word files.  To be able to view them, you will need a program to do so.  Open Office is a terrific program that does almost everything Microsoft Word will do—but with the perfect price tag—free! In addition to Word files, you will also be to open and view PowerPoint files (a popular format with the military.)

Here's where to get it: http://www.openoffice.org/

ASPA Art Division has created a series of easy to customize Art Templates that can be used by T-shirt printers, sign makers, ad specialty firms, and more.

If you have ever used custom art templates, you know that there are only a certain number of starting design layouts and themes. We created our templates with that idea in mind.

ASPA has created a series of (10) categories of design layouts that utilize all of the essential layout designs possible including: Arched, Circular, Horizontal, Square, Triangles, Vertical/Horizontal, Paw Prints, Tails, Property of…, and “Lotsa Text.”

Unlike competitive products, ASPA Art Template Package include everything you need:  the templates, fonts, AND the vector drawing software program that you need to create and modify art templates. There are no expensive 3rd party software programs or "plug-ins" that you must buy. ASPA templates have been created with the leading open source vector drawing program — Inkscape.  

Inkscape is easy to learn and use and has the features you need to create great vector artwork. Using open source software (like Inkscape) has several important benefits including: No need for you to buy or ever pay for an upgrade of the software– it's FREE. A support network from the open source community that works–and is FREE.

Most importantly, with artwork that you create with ASPA Art Templates, you can display your art online or anywhere else without  restrictive copyright issues (assuming that you use public domain or other non-restrictive use clip art in your designs).

The designs that you create with ASPA Art Templates are your own–we do not restrict the use or display of artwork that you create with our templates.   Most competitive art template products do not offer that important feature as they legally restrict the use and display of any artwork that you create with their templates and software.

Order and Download. (You will receive your download key within 12 hours of purchase.)  — ONLY $29.99!

The site is allgraphicdesign.com. The All Graphic Design website is a directory containing articles, free downloads and more for the graphic artist. The site contains an overwhelming amount of information and links and may take you a little while to find exactly what you are looking due to the sheer volume of information that is there. On the site you will find training and tutorials for Adobe Photoshop, CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator and much more.

There are links for free fonts, software downloads, and numerous "how-to" articles. In addition, you will find numerous templates, clipart, photos and images and plenty of stuff that could be used as good "idea starters." If you have a spare half hour to burn, take a look at allgraphicdesign.com, you're sure to find something of interest if you are in the computer graphic arts field.

Would you like to know how to print halftone images without the need for a postscript printer or a RIP processor?

Well, we've come across a "freebie" that we found on the web that will do just that. In case you are unfamiliar with halftone printing, to be able to screen print photographic or grayscale images, an image must be converted into what is known as "halftones." 

A halftone image consists of many small dots that make up the grayscale portion of that image. The conventional way for printing halftone dots requires the use of a Postscript printer or a RIP processor.

The Wilflex easy art website offers a free download for printing halftones through any laser or ink jet printer using a set of "actions" that you would load into Adobe Photoshop. You must have Adobe Photoshop to be able to use this utility. While you are on the site, check out the free "registration mark" download–another useful printing utility that you can use in Adobe Photoshop.

The Wilflex Easy Art website also contains other useful information and tutorials for screen printing halftones and index prints. http://www.wilflexeasyart.com/