Sunday, January 23, 2011
Hi-Density Printing and the Emulsion that makes it possible
Hi-Density printing, or thick as a brick ink has always been problematic to me because of the screen making process required to have a thick enough stencil to on the screen that would allow a super thick build-up of ink when printing. I stopped at one booth at the ISS tradeshow that had a good strong hi-density screen as an example, can't remember the name of the company right now, but I was impressed with the crisp edges and durable feeling of the emulsion was. I plan to purchase a gallon of the stuff and give it a try, oh, but the good thing was that my previous experiments with the hi-density emulsion failed as I had to coat the screens many times to try and build up the thickness of the stencil. The process for this emulsion was explained as not having to dry in between coats. The way I tried high density emulsions in the past was by drying in between thick coats and it just got sloppy, messy and too difficult to expose the thickly coated screen.
Still more information about t-shirt printing and now laser versus dye sublimation
Always the last on board, I am not surprised that my devotion to laser printing is finally in question. I stalked the ISS Imprinted Sportswear t-shirt printing tradeshow in Long Beach for the Magic Touch transfer paper booth. Ideally this rather expensive paper would allow me to make multi-color t-shirt designs on dark garments, 100% cotton t-shirts, and eliminate the need for detailed trimming and weeding of the print design. This is a transfer technique, which I am also reluctant to endorse, but there are situations when transfers are appropriate, and I had a quest. The quest was strong enough that I got up before 10a.m. and got a Wellness Smoothie before driving for the last day of the show to find the Holy Grail of transfer technology.
I could not find the Magic Touch transfer demonstration at the show, so it must not exist, but I did have several conversations regarding dye sublimation and I now have a better understanding of the process. I have been reluctant to use dye sublimation because when it is used on t-shirts it requires the use of 50/50 cotton-poly t-shirts, or materials that are coated with a special chemical to capture the dye in the sublimation. As I understand it now the ink is printed on paper and then applied with heat to a garment or coated object. The heat then gasses at a high temperature in a heat press and saturates into the coating / polyester and resolidifies it's structure upon cooling.
The most interesting part of this equation is the coating, which has been described as resin of sorts, which simply means a poly resin. Hmmmm. Therefore the dye sublimation inks in gas form bond with polyester, which allows these inks to bond to the many types of plastic items that are used with the dye sublimation process. The claim is that the solidified dye sublimation inks are durable, like a polyester resin. I have not confirmed if these inks have any natural uv resistence or if they require additional coatings, like polyester resin products, to product them from degradation due to us exposure.
Laser prints are typically done with pigments ground finely to be used in toner cartridges and are printed with the printer by an evenly distributed electrostatic charge the bonds the colors to the paper until they are fused by heat. The pigments themselves have a natural resistence to uv as they are particles and the transfer papers seem to be carriers with the pigments embeded in a thin gelatin coating. I have always thought the dry, non-gassing process, was superior to the gassing dye sublimation process. However, if the gasses solidify into a resin form, like the coated material that they are bonding to, then they may structurally superior, minus the uv protection to the laser prints. The laser printed pigments are held together with the gelatin or coated material and therefore once that gelatin breaksdown the image is vulnerable.
For basic transfers and t-shirts or indoor items most of the durability questions are not relevant, but when you get into imitating fired items like ceramic cups and exterior tiles the durability is relevant. Also the gassing of the die sublimation is similar to the concept of the photo-fresco process that I have been working with, only it is the process through polyester resins versus the gypsum based materials that I have been working with. This does explain why some of the results I get when combining materials work better when I have used polyester resins and epoxy as the base material and ending up with the dye sublimation might be a natural progression. I always end up in the areas that I have tried to avoid the most, so this is no different.
I could not find the Magic Touch transfer demonstration at the show, so it must not exist, but I did have several conversations regarding dye sublimation and I now have a better understanding of the process. I have been reluctant to use dye sublimation because when it is used on t-shirts it requires the use of 50/50 cotton-poly t-shirts, or materials that are coated with a special chemical to capture the dye in the sublimation. As I understand it now the ink is printed on paper and then applied with heat to a garment or coated object. The heat then gasses at a high temperature in a heat press and saturates into the coating / polyester and resolidifies it's structure upon cooling.
The most interesting part of this equation is the coating, which has been described as resin of sorts, which simply means a poly resin. Hmmmm. Therefore the dye sublimation inks in gas form bond with polyester, which allows these inks to bond to the many types of plastic items that are used with the dye sublimation process. The claim is that the solidified dye sublimation inks are durable, like a polyester resin. I have not confirmed if these inks have any natural uv resistence or if they require additional coatings, like polyester resin products, to product them from degradation due to us exposure.
Laser prints are typically done with pigments ground finely to be used in toner cartridges and are printed with the printer by an evenly distributed electrostatic charge the bonds the colors to the paper until they are fused by heat. The pigments themselves have a natural resistence to uv as they are particles and the transfer papers seem to be carriers with the pigments embeded in a thin gelatin coating. I have always thought the dry, non-gassing process, was superior to the gassing dye sublimation process. However, if the gasses solidify into a resin form, like the coated material that they are bonding to, then they may structurally superior, minus the uv protection to the laser prints. The laser printed pigments are held together with the gelatin or coated material and therefore once that gelatin breaksdown the image is vulnerable.
For basic transfers and t-shirts or indoor items most of the durability questions are not relevant, but when you get into imitating fired items like ceramic cups and exterior tiles the durability is relevant. Also the gassing of the die sublimation is similar to the concept of the photo-fresco process that I have been working with, only it is the process through polyester resins versus the gypsum based materials that I have been working with. This does explain why some of the results I get when combining materials work better when I have used polyester resins and epoxy as the base material and ending up with the dye sublimation might be a natural progression. I always end up in the areas that I have tried to avoid the most, so this is no different.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
No Sleep Til' LONG BEACH - T-shirt Printing Tradeshow
I am always overwhelmed by how much information I can find at tradeshows and the Imprinted Sportswear tradeshow has not been a let down. First off I must warn you, I don't care that much about the latest trendy cut of t-shirts, there is always something there, but in the end my customers stay within a range of available goods and when they ask for it I get it. So I can find anything and I simply add a bunch of new companies product catalogs to my product line, but not very much of it performs over the long run. However, technical details with "experts" is my way of entertaining myself and finding out how little I have been doing to expand my t-shirt printing universe.
I focused on mesh adhesion and emulsions with my questioning of the Ulano and Sefert and IT sales people. I have found out that mesh is pourous, which means it will absorb chemicals that it is submerged, or embedded in, such as photosensitive emulsions for screen printing. I also found out that there is a clear, although not optically clear, emulsion and it may be possible to add pigment (liquid) to the emulsion in a variety of colors.
My other interesting exchanges were about discharge inks and Wilflex has a discharge ink that does not emit an odor or sulfur smell and does not require the final garment to be washed before it is sold. This ink has been popular in Europe, but is just being released in the United States and I'm all in. I've done some discharge through contractors, but have avoided using it directly as the smell and toxicity of the garments remains a problem if the shirts aren't washed before they are sold. Next step is to make samples of some new designs.
I focused on mesh adhesion and emulsions with my questioning of the Ulano and Sefert and IT sales people. I have found out that mesh is pourous, which means it will absorb chemicals that it is submerged, or embedded in, such as photosensitive emulsions for screen printing. I also found out that there is a clear, although not optically clear, emulsion and it may be possible to add pigment (liquid) to the emulsion in a variety of colors.
My other interesting exchanges were about discharge inks and Wilflex has a discharge ink that does not emit an odor or sulfur smell and does not require the final garment to be washed before it is sold. This ink has been popular in Europe, but is just being released in the United States and I'm all in. I've done some discharge through contractors, but have avoided using it directly as the smell and toxicity of the garments remains a problem if the shirts aren't washed before they are sold. Next step is to make samples of some new designs.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Eventually I will stop referencing my work on subdomain / web blog management here, but
Eventually I will stop referencing my work on subdomain / web blog management here, but since everything started here, this is where I need to wrap up the discussion. I have been tirelessly setting up my subdomains for a specific set of websites under SeatbeltBuckles.com with each model of car having it's own subdomain, like: viper.seatbeltbuckles.com and chevrolet.seatbeltbuckles.com and so on. The goal here is to be able to manage the content of my website through blogspot.com and not have to use a web design software outside of logging into blogspot and therefore I can manage multiple websites and their content with one login. So far, so good. Also I am setting up a Wordpress folder for each category of content under the domain name and testing some of the features of Wordpress directly against BlogSpot. So far the potential for one management location for the websites is a huge plus for blogspot, once I finish setting up the blogs. Time will tell.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Great it worked, subdomain management of blogs through blogspot
Great, I can consolidate my blogs and use them from my domains so that there is a self-organized way to update post and keep the blogs separate. The first such project was to assign a subdomain to free-speech.org and link it to a current blog, Something Big. The following is a link to the successful setup: http://wherestheblog.free-speech.org What else can I say, Mission Accomplished?
The next step is to see if features and templates can be merged with WordPress themes.
The next step is to see if features and templates can be merged with WordPress themes.
Where's The Blog? Section 3 - Copying web content and pasting in blog
No, copying web text and images did not work completely. It partially worked as it allowed me to paste the text, but none of the html or images pasted with this trick. I will spend some time now setting up wherestheblog.free-speech.org using an underused domain name to point to one of my underused blogs. Text on how to do this is once again pasted here from a Google Help page:
How do I use a custom domain name on my blog?Share
Twitter Gmail Blogger Buzz Orkut Google Reader Bookmarks » More
Comment Print Note: The setup process for newly-purchased domains may take up to 24 hours.
Publishing on Blog*Spot is the fastest and easiest way to use all of Blogger's great features. (And for free, no less!) If you don't care to have blogspot.com in your blog's address, though, you can get a domain of your own. We'll continue to host all your content as before, but it will be displayed at your new address. (Unlike FTP publishing, which requires you to buy both a domain name and a hosting service.)
Choose and Register Your Domain
The first thing you'll need to do is to choose a domain name, like example.com and register it. You can register domain names from any of a number of different registrars, and you can use .com, .org, .net or any other valid addresses. Remember: you only need to get the domain name; you don't have to pay extra for hosting service. The easiest way to register a domain is to buy your domain directly through Blogger. If you go this route, we'll automatically configure all of your relevant DNS settings and attach your new domain to your existing blog immediately.
Update the DNS Settings
DNS stands for Domain Name System, and a DNS server determines what site a given address takes you to. So far, you have a domain name but none of the servers on the internet know what to do with it yet. To take care of this, you need to do two things:
•Create a CNAME record for your blog's address, which should be a subdomain of the form www.example.com.To create a CNAME record for your domain with the DNS, associating your domain with:
ghs.google.com.
The exact procedure for doing this varies depending on your domain registrar, but you can find instructions for many common registrars here. If yours isn't listed, or if you run into other difficulties, you can contact your registrar directly and they'll be able to help you out.
•Create 'A' NAME records for your naked domain (blog.com)
Note: The following information applies to naked domains only!! If you're setting up a subdomain then this does NOT apply to you! :-)
Creating A records for your naked domain is important as it allows Google to redirect people who use in your naked domain name (blog.com) to your blog page (www.example.com). If you do not do this, visitors who leave off the www will see an error page.
There are four separate A records you will create, and can be done from the same control panel you accessed your CNAME records. Simply point your naked domain (example.com, without the 'www') to each of the following IP addresses:
216.239.32.21
216.239.34.21
216.239.36.21
216.239.38.21
Your DNS setup is now complete!
How do I use a custom domain name on my blog?Share
Twitter Gmail Blogger Buzz Orkut Google Reader Bookmarks » More
Comment Print Note: The setup process for newly-purchased domains may take up to 24 hours.
Publishing on Blog*Spot is the fastest and easiest way to use all of Blogger's great features. (And for free, no less!) If you don't care to have blogspot.com in your blog's address, though, you can get a domain of your own. We'll continue to host all your content as before, but it will be displayed at your new address. (Unlike FTP publishing, which requires you to buy both a domain name and a hosting service.)
Choose and Register Your Domain
The first thing you'll need to do is to choose a domain name, like example.com and register it. You can register domain names from any of a number of different registrars, and you can use .com, .org, .net or any other valid addresses. Remember: you only need to get the domain name; you don't have to pay extra for hosting service. The easiest way to register a domain is to buy your domain directly through Blogger. If you go this route, we'll automatically configure all of your relevant DNS settings and attach your new domain to your existing blog immediately.
Update the DNS Settings
DNS stands for Domain Name System, and a DNS server determines what site a given address takes you to. So far, you have a domain name but none of the servers on the internet know what to do with it yet. To take care of this, you need to do two things:
•Create a CNAME record for your blog's address, which should be a subdomain of the form www.example.com.To create a CNAME record for your domain with the DNS, associating your domain with:
ghs.google.com.
The exact procedure for doing this varies depending on your domain registrar, but you can find instructions for many common registrars here. If yours isn't listed, or if you run into other difficulties, you can contact your registrar directly and they'll be able to help you out.
•Create 'A' NAME records for your naked domain (blog.com)
Note: The following information applies to naked domains only!! If you're setting up a subdomain then this does NOT apply to you! :-)
Creating A records for your naked domain is important as it allows Google to redirect people who use in your naked domain name (blog.com) to your blog page (www.example.com). If you do not do this, visitors who leave off the www will see an error page.
There are four separate A records you will create, and can be done from the same control panel you accessed your CNAME records. Simply point your naked domain (example.com, without the 'www') to each of the following IP addresses:
216.239.32.21
216.239.34.21
216.239.36.21
216.239.38.21
Your DNS setup is now complete!
Updated Where's the Blog? blog optimization and consolidation effort
I changed the skin for the front page and see that there are more options than I have been using on Blogspot.com. I looked at the gadgets and found that Amazon dominates the product gadgets and there isn't really any gadgets to link products to the blog. Here is a replublished version of this blog: http://t-shirts.org/wherestheblog.htm ,however, there seems to be some formatting issues that may simply be related to applying the new template to this blog. I do like the Dashboard for managing different blogs, but now I need to look and see if there is a way to directly feed these pages into my main websites without having to republish the blog page itself, or are all post required to sit on the blogspot.com servers? Hmmmm.
Now I'm getting somewhere. I seems I can allow Google to host my domain name for an account and then direct all of my blogs to that account, or set up separate routing for a subdomain and allow that the be my publishing for the blog. Either or both may work. I am not sure I can have multiple blogs, each with a separtate routing to a subdomain. Must check.
Ok, I see a light now at the end of the first tunnel. I can setup a subdomain on any of my specific websites and then publish that blog under that domain name but setting up the DNS to route to Google for each particular blog account. This should work to keep me from having to deal with a new software, although I really like the options available in Word Press. My daughter discovered that you can simply copy and paste from a browser into the WordPress editor and the images and html code simply show up and work. How amazing is that? I haven't tried it because I don't have much set up on Word Press yet, but I do need to test that on this blog editor.
Here Goes:
How do I use a custom domain name on my blog?Share
Twitter Gmail Blogger Buzz Orkut Google Reader Bookmarks » More
Comment Print Note: The setup process for newly-purchased domains may take up to 24 hours.
Publishing on Blog*Spot is the fastest and easiest way to use all of Blogger's great features. (And for free, no less!) If you don't care to have blogspot.com in your blog's address, though, you can get a domain of your own. We'll continue to host all your content as before, but it will be displayed at your new address. (Unlike FTP publishing, which requires you to buy both a domain name and a hosting service.)
Choose and Register Your Domain
The first thing you'll need to do is to choose a domain name, like example.com and register it. You can register domain names from any of a number of different registrars, and you can use .com, .org, .net or any other valid addresses. Remember: you only need to get the domain name; you don't have to pay extra for hosting service. The easiest way to register a domain is to buy your domain directly through Blogger. If you go this route, we'll automatically configure all of your relevant DNS settings and attach your new domain to your existing blog immediately.
Update the DNS Settings
DNS stands for Domain Name System, and a DNS server determines what site a given address takes you to. So far, you have a domain name but none of the servers on the internet know what to do with it yet. To take care of this, you need to do two things:
•Create a CNAME record for your blog's address, which should be a subdomain of the form www.example.com.To create a CNAME record for your domain with the DNS, associating your domain with:
ghs.google.com.
The exact procedure for doing this varies depending on your domain registrar, but you can find instructions for many common registrars here. If yours isn't listed, or if you run into other difficulties, you can contact your registrar directly and they'll be able to help you out.
•Create 'A' NAME records for your naked domain (blog.com)
Note: The following information applies to naked domains only!! If you're setting up a subdomain then this does NOT apply to you! :-)
Creating A records for your naked domain is important as it allows Google to redirect people who use in your naked domain name (blog.com) to your blog page (www.example.com). If you do not do this, visitors who leave off the www will see an error page.
There are four separate A records you will create, and can be done from the same control panel you accessed your CNAME records. Simply point your naked domain (example.com, without the 'www') to each of the following IP addresses:
216.239.32.21
216.239.34.21
216.239.36.21
216.239.38.21
Your DNS setup is now complete!
Now I'm getting somewhere. I seems I can allow Google to host my domain name for an account and then direct all of my blogs to that account, or set up separate routing for a subdomain and allow that the be my publishing for the blog. Either or both may work. I am not sure I can have multiple blogs, each with a separtate routing to a subdomain. Must check.
Ok, I see a light now at the end of the first tunnel. I can setup a subdomain on any of my specific websites and then publish that blog under that domain name but setting up the DNS to route to Google for each particular blog account. This should work to keep me from having to deal with a new software, although I really like the options available in Word Press. My daughter discovered that you can simply copy and paste from a browser into the WordPress editor and the images and html code simply show up and work. How amazing is that? I haven't tried it because I don't have much set up on Word Press yet, but I do need to test that on this blog editor.
Here Goes:
How do I use a custom domain name on my blog?Share
Twitter Gmail Blogger Buzz Orkut Google Reader Bookmarks » More
Comment Print Note: The setup process for newly-purchased domains may take up to 24 hours.
Publishing on Blog*Spot is the fastest and easiest way to use all of Blogger's great features. (And for free, no less!) If you don't care to have blogspot.com in your blog's address, though, you can get a domain of your own. We'll continue to host all your content as before, but it will be displayed at your new address. (Unlike FTP publishing, which requires you to buy both a domain name and a hosting service.)
Choose and Register Your Domain
The first thing you'll need to do is to choose a domain name, like example.com and register it. You can register domain names from any of a number of different registrars, and you can use .com, .org, .net or any other valid addresses. Remember: you only need to get the domain name; you don't have to pay extra for hosting service. The easiest way to register a domain is to buy your domain directly through Blogger. If you go this route, we'll automatically configure all of your relevant DNS settings and attach your new domain to your existing blog immediately.
Update the DNS Settings
DNS stands for Domain Name System, and a DNS server determines what site a given address takes you to. So far, you have a domain name but none of the servers on the internet know what to do with it yet. To take care of this, you need to do two things:
•Create a CNAME record for your blog's address, which should be a subdomain of the form www.example.com.To create a CNAME record for your domain with the DNS, associating your domain with:
ghs.google.com.
The exact procedure for doing this varies depending on your domain registrar, but you can find instructions for many common registrars here. If yours isn't listed, or if you run into other difficulties, you can contact your registrar directly and they'll be able to help you out.
•Create 'A' NAME records for your naked domain (blog.com)
Note: The following information applies to naked domains only!! If you're setting up a subdomain then this does NOT apply to you! :-)
Creating A records for your naked domain is important as it allows Google to redirect people who use in your naked domain name (blog.com) to your blog page (www.example.com). If you do not do this, visitors who leave off the www will see an error page.
There are four separate A records you will create, and can be done from the same control panel you accessed your CNAME records. Simply point your naked domain (example.com, without the 'www') to each of the following IP addresses:
216.239.32.21
216.239.34.21
216.239.36.21
216.239.38.21
Your DNS setup is now complete!
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