I stopped using a white ink underlay for dark paper and the prints look better now

Everyone in the screen printing forums says you absolutely need a white underbase for dark shirts. I tried it on 50 prints for a band gig in Austin and the layers kept feeling thick and cracking after a wash. Last month I ran a test with just a single pass of opaque black ink on navy blue paper and the texture came out way smoother. Has anyone else skipped the underlay and gotten better results with certain inks?

2 comments

2 Comments

schmidt.blake9d ago

Heard a local printer in Austin talking about this exact thing at a shop meetup a few weeks ago. Said most underbases are way too thick for modern waterbased inks and it just builds up plastic on the shirt. Tried the same thing with a high opacity black on dark fabric and the hand feel was night and day better. No cracking after multiple washes either because less layers means less stress on the ink. It really depends on the ink brand though, some cheaper blacks just won't cover without that extra pass.

cameron_craig9d ago

Laughed way too hard at this @schmidt.blake because I've definitely been that guy blaming my tools.