HOW TO PRINT ON THE LEFT CHEST
One of the most popular imprint areas on a shirt is a left chest print. In the industry, a left chest print always refers to “left chest as worn” on a shirt. This means that the imprint will appear on the left side of the shirt when an individual is wearing the shirt. Sometimes the left chest print will be the only print on the shirt. Other times the back of the shirt will also be printed. If you are printing the front and back of the shirt, it does not matter which side of the shirt you print first. You should be able to print the left chest print faster since it is smaller in size, requires less ink and effort to print.
The first thing is to place the shirt on the platen as usual. Then take the film positive and place it in the left chest area. On many images, the print will often appear straighter when the shirt is worn if you rotate the image counterclockwise slightly when setting it up. Rotating the image compensates for the droop in the shoulders when the shirt is worn. Depending on the size of image and the style of garment, you may want to adjust the image placement accordingly.
It is always a good idea to try on a shirt or place it on a body form make sure the print is straight and positioned properly before beginning a full run.
These left chest printing instructions are applicable to any garments where you would print a left chest image: t-shirt, golf shirt, sweatshirt, jacket, etc.
When printing a left chest print, it is recommended that you use a smaller squeegee that is sized for the imprint. A 5" or 6" squeegee usually works well for the standard left chest print. By using a smaller squeegee you will produce a better print result and use less energy when printing. In addition, when printing a left chest print on a golf shirt, you will not run your squeegee over the buttons in the shirt.
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!
