CMYK:

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (key color).
The colors used when printing process color. These are special pigment colors of ink that are very transparent. CMYK is used where a photorealistic look and lots of colors are required.

Fake or Simulated Process Color:

Since CMYK inks are transparent they do not work on dark garments. Generally a dark shirt design is created using specific spot colors that give a process color "photorealistic" look without actually being CMYK colors.

Halftone:

A uniform series of dots that give the appearance of a lighter shade of a solid color. The number of dots-per-inch is called the line count or frequency. The amount of coverage is determined by the percentage of dots.

Spot Color:

A common term where specific colors of ink are printed as either solids or halftones.

Drawing Programs
PC - Corel Draw 5.0 or 6.0
MAC - Aldus Freehand or Adobe Illustrator

Paint Programs
MAC or PC - Adobe Photoshop 3.05

Tracing Programs
MAC or PC - Adobe Streamline
PC - Corel Trace 5.0 or 6.0

MAC or Windows/PC
Types of Scanners
Resolution and quality
Types of output devices
Laser Printers
Inkjet
Imagesetters
CD-ROM
Drawing Tablets
SyQuest Drives

1. When using halftone dots (tints) in designs - always keep in mind that dots will gain as much as 40% when manually printed and 30% or more when printed with an automatic press. When using screen tints think LIGHT. If a 40% tint looks good on screen it will look like a 55% to 60% tint when printed.
2. When printing halftones try to use screen angles that will not produce a moire effect. Generally, 45 degrees is the wrong angle. Angles of 30, 50, 80, 105, etc. will work for most applications.
3. To print targets on multi-color designs some programs require you to specify a page size of "Custom" so the targets will print in the margins.
4. Rather than trying to make one computer file do everything in a design, create multiple files for specific functions. I.E., Have a main overall file, a file for just the colors, a file for just the black that is designed to trap the colors, a file for an underbase.
5. Always create special WORK subdirectories to store files in and remember to always save files to the proper directory.
6. The computer drives generally are:

A: Floppy drive
B: Second floppy drive
C: Hard disk
D. CD-ROM

7. When installing a drawing program do a CUSTOM installation and DO NOT install all of the fonts. The more fonts you install the slower the program will run. Use a program like Font Manager to move fronts in and out of Windows.
8. Corel Draw Specific: The Corel manual states that you cannot print a two color fountain fill as spot colors.
This is incorrect. You can change the CORELPRN.INI file to make them print as spot colors. Open the file called CORELPRN.INI in the Corel50 Config directory.
Change the line:  PSSpotFountainsASProcess=1 to read PSSpotFountainASProcess=0.
9. Creating an underbase for dark shirts by "Choking" an image (making it skinnier). * Choking simple design Create a duplicate file of design for the "white" underbase. Print out a simple design with a 2 to 4 point larger white outline than the regular design. * Choking complicated design for solid underbase Group design and use the Weld command under Arrange. * Choking complicated designs with black knock-out Make a separate file of design for underbase. Group entire design, remove all outlines, change fill to black, give entire group a 2 to 4 point white outline
10. Most drawing programs do not create a trap around a design quite as easy as you would think. There are a number of options to use when trying to overlap color overlays slightly to create a trap:

Simple text based design

Set the outline thickness to at least four points. Click with the right mouse button on the object (hold the button down). This produces the Object Menu. Select Overprint Outline.

* Multiple object designs:
Corel Draw allows for "auto trapping" during printing ONLY if the object has no outline and a solid color fill.
Create a second "color only" file. Print black outline by itself from main file. Open color only file. If design contains trace of scan you will need to delete the black background from the trace.
Group all objects and select no outline from the Pen tool.
Print colors as separations and select 2 to 4 point spread from Autotrapping.

* General Drawing Programs:
Print outline first, then make outline thinner and print color.
11. If a file hangs up in printing you need to clear the Print Que by going to Print Manager (Alt + TAB) and Deleting the file being printed. You also need to either Cancel or turn off the printer to clear the file.
12. If combining a file from Photoshop with a Drawing Program file, create the Photoshop portion first and convert the file to CMYK in Photoshop. Save the file as a TIF file and import the file into the Drawing Program. Add the text and lettering to the file and then print the file from the Drawing Program.
13. Scan Tips: When scanning line art scan that is going to be traced in CorelTRACE or Adobe Streamline, scan at a much higher resolution (800 to 1200 dpi). This will give a much tighter trace that will be sharper when printed.
Always check line art to make sure a shape is closed. In the example, the area above the thumb is not closed and will not fill with color properly when imported into a Drawing Program. It is much easier to fill a closed area by hand prior to scanning than after scanning.
14. The "default" line count (frequency of dots-per-inch) of CorelDraw for most PostScript printers is 60lpi. This is generally too fine for an average design.
For a simple cartoon type design the halftone should be changed to 35lpi. For a more detailed design it should be 45lpi. For a very detailed process type design it should be 55lpi. Generally, the higher the line count the higher the mesh count. and the top colors on a 230 to 305 mesh. Print the top colors with all purpose inks. Flash after the first white. The second white can be left "wet" so it crushes through the other colors. For designs with eyes, etc., you may need to knockout the eyes.
a. If a design needs graphics and text effects, it will need to be exported into a drawing program first and the effect applied. The design can actually be printed directly from the drawing program.
b. An option when working with original grayscale art is to do a line drawing of the art and scan and trace this into a drawing program. Fill the image with the appropriate colors and print them out as if they were spot colors. Scan the grayscale image into Photoshop and create the first and second white as above. Print the spot colors ontop of the two whites using very transparent inks.
c. An option if attempting to print real CMYK on a black shirt is to create the two underbases as above using a little more white. Create normal separations with a Heavy black generation. Print triple strength process colors (boosted in intensity - see your ink company or play with your own colors). Try the design without printing the black. It may be necessary to print the black and to do two or three flash cures.