Made to optimize artwork for direct to film printing (DTF) printing, STAHLS’ ART AI Assist ensures every design meets the highest standards for clarity, color vibrancy, and professional-quality output, helping decorators consistently achieve production-ready results with ease.

“Whether you’re an experienced print shop owner or running a home-based startup, this tool is about to change how you prepare designs for UltraColor MAX direct-to-film (DTF) transfers,” the company says. “Unlike generic AI tools, this platform was built by DTF art experts who understand the industry’s unique needs. With a single click, the tool evaluates your uploaded artwork and fixes common issues that could delay production or affect the quality of the final product.”

Solves DTF Custom Transfer Design Problems

“STAHLS’ ART AI Assist is the only tool on the market that understands how to prepare difficult artwork,” says Dane Clement, VP executive creative director for GroupeSTAHL. “It’s halftone technology is unlike anything else out there, giving users the ability to generate smooth gradients and photographic effects that are actually printable. We built this to solve the real challenges decorators face.”

Per the company, with one click, STAHLS’ ART AI Assist evaluates your uploaded artwork and automatically fixes issues that can delay production or result in poor quality prints. It is the only in-depth system that can remove backgrounds, enhance resolution, correct transparency and color issues, and apply true-to-print halftones for the most realistic full color finishes possible.

Key Features of STAHLS’ ART AI Assist

• Enhances low-res or pixelated artwork
• Removes background with smart edge detection
• Corrects colors and transparency for precise reproduction
• Generates halftones for smooth fades and photo-quality effects
• Proofs in real-time so users can see instant updates
• Uploads in batches for faster ordering at higher volumes

AI Assist is free for anyone ordering UltraColor MAX DTF transfers from Transfer Express. Configured for use by businesses of all sizes, including seasoned print shops, emerging brands, or side hustles from home, STAHLS’ ART AI Assist gives decorators the confidence and tools to create stunning, heat press-ready artwork in seconds with no design software or graphic experience needed.

For more on the new STAHLS’ ART AI Assist system, visit transferexpress.com. To see a video of STAHLS’ ART AI Assist in action, click here.

The post STAHLS’ Launches ART AI Assist DTF Design Tool appeared first on Impressions.

 Build Decorated Apparel Sales with Collections

Collections like this one offer customers that many more things to buy. The witch image is one the author repurposed from years earlie! Image courtesy of Dane Clement

When it comes to the holidays, whether it’s Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s or any of the many other celebrations taking place this time of year, there are endless opportunities. From dressing up to decorating the house and throwing parties and dinners, there is a plethora of options for apparel, home décor and more. Therefore, with so many decoration methods and products to choose from, why settle with just a single T-shirt design? Taking a single basic design and manipulating it in different ways to create a collection of products is a quick and easy way to conjure those potential sales prospects.

Think about industries like fashion and jewelry, or even party supplies. A jewelry designer will often come out with a new collection, as opposed to a single piece of jewelry. In the collection, you may have a necklace, earrings and bracelet that all match. Same stone, same setting, same design. Instead of buying a single piece then, someone may be tempted to purchase multiple pieces, so everything matches when they wear it.

Similarly, think about a child’s birthday party. The invitations, the paper plates, the cups, the decorations all work together. It’s all part of the same collection. In terms of your own business, think how eye catching it would be to have a store front, a booth at a craft fair or images online with multiple products displaying a cohesive series of images. Some products may include the exact same design in different sizes or locations. Others may feature variations on a design or the same images or elements from the same layout with different type.

Regardless of how exactly you choose to do things, everything works together. You can tell it all comes from the same collection. People will buy more than one item because all the products making up the collection mesh, as it were. If you only have a single T-shirt for sale or even multiple T-shirts, each with a different design, more than likely than not a customer will pick the one they like best and leave it at that. However, what if you had a mug or some socks that match? Now there’s an opportunity for additional sales.

Getting Started Building a T-Shirt Design

When starting your collection think about the direction you want to go in. Do you want to do mostly Christmas apparel—hoodie, leggings, socks, scarves, beanies and the like? Or are you thinking maybe a line of Halloween home décor—pillows, coasters, table runners? As a first step, check out the various blank products available and the best kinds of decorating methods to use when customizing them. Just because you may not do a certain decoration method yourself, or are incapable of producing certain items in house, that doesn’t mean you can’t offer them. Look into contract printers or maybe invest in some new equipment, like a heat press, that will allow you to offer more options, such as heat transfers or dye sublimation.

As you’re looking at products and deciding what kind of collection you want to create, think about the kind of artwork you have in mind and how you plan on putting it on these products. Maybe, you have some stock art or a T-shirt design that you have used in the past. Ponder how you can update or reuse it in new ways. Maybe you can extract an element from a previous layout and create a whole new set of layouts for products other than the T-shirt it originally came from.

AI and a Blank Sheet of Paper

There are many ways to manipulate an existing image for use on other products in order to create a cohesive collection. Take a T-shirt layout, for example, and resize it for a pillow or reduce it for some coasters. Extract such elements as the text or a single object from the original layout and put it in another location on the same shirt, like a sleeve or the back yoke. Maybe use the layout from the sleeve and put in on some shorts or leggings.

What if you’re just starting out and don’t have any stock art or previous designs you want to repurpose? What if you want to create something entirely new? The good news is it’s easier than ever to not only create artwork but do so in a fraction of the time it once took, thanks to the advent of generative artificial intelligence, or AI. In the past it would often take hours to get an initial layout done, which in turn meant you might not have the time to expand on it. Now with AI, you can get more designs done faster than ever, giving you more time to produce all those extra products.

There are many AI applications available today for creating artwork: Midjourney, Ideogram, Leonardo just to name a few. Photoshop has its own AI available, something it calls Generative Fill. The current beta version of the Photoshop AI even includes something called Generate Image, which helps you create full layouts from scratch. Some of these AI applications are free, but with limited downloads. They also may not be private, which means anything you create can be seen by others or have limited licenses preventing you from using designs you create commercially. It’s therefore important to do your homework and check out the specifics of the various apps available to see which one is right for you.

Once you’ve found an AI program you like, it’s time to create! Think about what you want your main image to be. This will be the image you put on larger items, like T-shirts or pillows. It will be the largest design and have the most components. It will also likely include multiple elements that you can then pick apart to use for whatever other layouts and products you have in mind.

If you’re new to AI, you’ll find that while it is a great tool for helping generate new designs, it’s not always perfect. Not only will you rarely get exactly what you want the first time around, but the more specific an idea you have in your head, the harder it will be to generate exactly what you are looking for. Be aware that you will need to do some creative editing to get to the final layout. This is true whether it’s adjusting your prompts, changing the words to try and get better results, or actually putting the generated image into a program like Photoshop and making the changes yourself. Regardless, you will still be able to create a final layout much quicker than if you start from scratch and paint the entire design the old way.

A Christmas Generative AI Design Example

One of the AI applications that I like to use is Ideogram. When using it to create a Christmas design, it took some finagling. The initial prompt used was:

The initial results that came back in response to the author’s initial AI prompts left something to be desired. Image courtesy of Dane Clement

A T-shirt graphic illustration of a fun, festive, Christmas scene with Santa Claus, Ms. Claus, penguins and other wildlife creatures ice skating, done in a cartoon style.

While the results did provide some decent options, there were some quirky things going on, especially with the little critters, and overall, it wasn’t the intended look. The prompt was adjusted by removing “cartoon style,” which yielded better results. After selecting the “Illustration” option and using Ideogram’s new, more detailed “Magic Prompt”, the results were even better. However, the little critters still weren’t cutting it. To combat that, the prompt was edited to focus on the critters:

A delightful and festive Christmas T-shirt graphic illustration featuring charming animal friends ice skating, including penguins, a fox, a rabbit, and a deer. The background is a picturesque winter wonderland, with snow-covered trees shimmering in the twilight, their branches adorned with sparkling lights. The overall mood of this enchanting illustration is playful, heartwarming, and filled with the magic of the season.

The final result of the author’s multistep design process looks great. Image courtesy of Dane Clement

Now the AI generator didn’t have to worry about Santa and Ms. Claus. Instead, it focused on the particular animals listed providing much better illustrations of what we wanted. Using pieces from the different layouts generated, a final layout was then created. From there, additional layouts were arranged for other products and placements to create a whole Christmas collection.

A Halloween Generative AI Design Example

In trying to create a Halloween design, a few AI applications were used, with the same prompts employed in each app – T-shirt graphic of a whimsical Halloween-themed painting featuring Frankenstein, Dracula, the Werewolf and the Mummy grinning and skipping down the street each holding a large bag of candy. Silhouettes of trees in the background lit by the glowing full moon. Jack-o-lanterns flickering in the foreground – the results varied greatly.

One thing they had in common was the fact that by trying to incorporate so many monsters in a single layout, the end result didn’t come out as hoped, similar to the Christmas layout. A number of elements, for example, were either misshapen or distorted. The characters overlapped as well, so you wouldn’t be able to extract them individually.

To create the look he wanted, the author focused on each of the “monsters” individually. Image courtesy of Dane Clement

To remedy the situation, the prompt was adjusted to call out each monster separately, allowing them to be generated individually using the new Generate Image feature available in the beta version of Photoshop. Each monster could then be extracted and combined with one of the images generated using Midjourney for the background to create a new, final layout. Since the little monsters were all done separately, they could also be used to create additional layouts for more products, similar to the Christmas layout making a cohesive collection.

When creating your design, keep in mind your initial plan and the production method (or methods) you plan on using. While using AI to create a design for a T-shirt, try including specific prompts to improve the chances of it working well in that context. The prompt “a T-shirt graphic,” for example, can help generate edges that are more freeform, making them more suitable for T-shirts than a giant square or rectangle. If, on the other hand, you are creating products like pillows or coasters using dye sublimation, this might not be an issue, since you can print all over if the size of your equipment is big enough.

The end result not only looks great, it offers all kinds of possibilities for yet another holiday collection. Image courtesy of Dane Clement

In general, AI software will generate images that are flattened and at a smaller size than may be ideal. Therefore, even if you get a design you like, you will need to do some work to extract it from the background and upscale it. Note: including “isolate on a white background” at the end of your prompt will make it easier for you to separate whatever it is you come up with from the background using image editing software like Photoshop. Most AI apps/websites will allow you upscale your design. However, Ideogram is one that does not. To upscale AI-generated images to a larger size and resolution, Upscayl (upscayl.org) is the free application I prefer. It will enlarge your image, increasing the resolution and sharpen the image as well.

Using AI and thinking beyond a single T-shirt design is a great way to offer more to your customers and increase sales. Not only will you be able to create a layout faster, you can utilize the image you come up with for yet more layouts creating yet more products. Turning just a few designs into full-blown collections will invariably provide you with more options for sale quicker than creating multiple unique designs for printing on T-shirts only. Don’t miss out! Start getting your collections ready now for the holidays!

Dane Clement is president of Great Dane Graphics, as well as vice president of creative for GroupeSTAHL. He has been speaking and writing for the decorated-apparel industry since 1987. He has authored several artwork-training books for various garment-decoration methods. For more information or to comment on this article, greatdanegraphics.com.

The post Maximizing Holiday Custom Apparel Sales with Collections and AI appeared first on Impressions.

With its two equally sized trees, this image doesn’t have a strong sense of focal point.

A layout that contains a variety of elements, all with the same visual weight, can be boring or even confusing. There should be a kind of hierarchy between the elements, so that your eye travels throughout the layout from the main element to its secondary and background elements in order of importance. The main element is the focal point and should attract your eye first.

There are a variety of ways of creating a focal point, including size, color and placement. Size is probably the most obvious way of making something the focal point of a design. When something is larger than everything else, your eye will tend to notice it first. By adjusting the size of the elements in your layout, whether they be an image or text, you can direct the viewer to the most important object first and then other elements down the line. Larger text, like a headline, for example, will be read first, and so on and so forth.

The bright red of the flower in this image establishes focal point.

In the photo of the snowy trees above, the roughly equal size of the two trees provides no real impact: nothing in particular jumps out at you. The photo at the very top of this page with the one large tree has more appeal. The reason is the size of the tree compared to everything else in the photo makes it pop. You immediately notice it when you look at the photo.

Playing with color is another way to direct the eye to the focal point in a layout. In the full-color version of the graveyard photo I took at left, there was nothing in particular that jumped out at you. Everything just kind of blended together, leaving your eye with no sense of direction. However, when the image was changed to grayscale with the roses toward the right of the frame kept a bright red, your eye is immediately drawn to them. Using contrasting colors, making areas monochromatic, saturating or desaturating colors of various objects are all ways of manipulating color in a layout to pull the focus to a certain area or object and make it the focal point.

The large size of the central football player in this design provides plenty of weight.

Where you place an object in a layout can also create a focal point. Isolating an element from the other areas of a design will make that element stand out and pull focus. As an example, you could have a single sunflower popping up above all the other flowers in a photograph to give your eye something to focus on and thereby make the image that much more satisfying and effective.

Of course, these same techniques can be applied when creating illustrated layouts as well. In the football layout at left, your eyes are initially drawn to the largest football player. From there they travel to the slightly smaller players in the lower lefthand corner, which have been further emphasized by the red color of their uniforms.

The bright green of the bookworm helps focus the viewer’s attention.

Similarly, the bookworm at left attracts your attention because of his bright green color. The color isn’t used anywhere else in the layout, and the saturated green makes him pop dramatically from the rest of the illustration. Same thing with the surf wagon in a beach design I did in which I intentionally placed the car in the foreground and made it especially large to attract your attention–drawing you in toward the tree that was also there and finally the beach in the background.

Of course, as you may have already noticed, multiple attributes can be applied all at the same time to an object to reinforce the focal point. In the case of a fishing image I once did, the background was intentionally done in an array of dark blues, so that the bright, contrasting yellow and green color of the fish in combination with its size and placement at the bottom in the foreground would catch your attention, thereby making it a that much more powerful image in general.

Case Study: Establishing a Design’s Focal Point

Now, let’s apply these principles to a real-world example of the kind you might encounter with an actual customer. Let’s say a customer comes to you looking for a design for a classic car show he or she will be participating in, and they want some shirts designed featuring their car. They provide you with a photo of the car (shown at the top of the facing page) and ask you to come up with something. Where do you start?

Using the path tool to trace out the car to be used in the Big Red design.

First get as much background information on the job as you can. What’s the name of the event, what kind of copy does the customer want to include? Are there any other elements that need to be incorporated into the layout? Once you know everything you need to include, you can determine the hierarchy of elements and what needs to be your focal point.

Every year in Biloxi, Mississippi, there is a huge auto show called Cruisin’ the Coast. For our make-believe scenario, let’s say that’s our event. Keep in mind this is not a shirt being offered for sale by the event itself. This is for the customer who wants to show off and promote the car that they call BIG RED. So, what’s going to be your focal point?  The car! With the secondary element being the headline–BIG RED!

Placing the car for the Big Red design.

To begin putting together our design, we’re going to use the path tool to make a selection around the car and extract it from the photo. Next we going to create a new document for our layout and paste the car into the document.

Now you can begin arranging your elements. As the focal point, Big Red will be the largest element. Its color also makes it pop. To push the car even further forward as the focal point, it’s going to be positioned in the foreground of the design with the back half pasted inside a shield shape, with the front coming forward breaking the border.

To paste an object inside another in Photoshop, make sure the layer of the object you are pasting inside of is on top of the layer of the object it will be pasted into. Move your cursor on the line between the two layers in your Layer Panel, hold down the Option/Alt Key and click. The top object will automatically be pasted inside of the bottom one.  You can then click on the layer of the object inside and move, resize, rotate or make any other adjustments required to position the object where you want it.

Adding the words “Big Red” to the design.

Once you have the object positioned, duplicate it and move the duplicate layer outside the shape. Use the lasso tool to select the back area of the car and delete. The goal is to make the car look as if it’s coming out of the shield.

The words BIG RED are going to be the secondary focal point. In other words, after you’ve taken in the car, your eyes should move to the text. To do this in the design in question, a large, bold font was used and colored bright red, same as the car. A texture was then created out of a line of long thin points, colored with a darker shade of red and pasted inside the letters. Outlines and drop shadows were added next to complete the text.

Since the event is known as Cruisin’ the Coast, we added some supporting beach-themed elements in the background. In this case, they were taken from a separate photo of a beach and pasted inside the shield shape behind the car, so it looks like the car is somewhere on the coast as well.

The finished design. No missing that car, or the words “Big Red!”

With the main elements complete, final details like the strokes around the shield and the supporting text can be added. Any additional or remaining text should be done in a smaller type size, a thinner font and with less pronounced colors, so it won’t pull away the focus from the main object.

Regardless of whether you are using photos, creating an illustration from scratch or using stock art as the foundation of your layout, always remember to keep the focal point in mind. What’s the most important thing you are trying to convey or promote in your layout? What do you want the viewer to notice first?

Once you’ve decided what your focal point is going to be, you can utilize image size, color and placement, and arrange the elements in your layout accordingly so the viewer’s eye will travel throughout the layout as you intend. 

Dane Clement is president of Great Dane Graphics, as well as vice president of creative for GroupeSTAHL. He has been speaking and writing for the decorated apparel industry since 1987 and has authored several artwork-training books for various garment-decoration methods. For more information or to comment on this article, email Dane at dane@greatdanegraphics.com.

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“My dad has always had a can-do attitude,” Erik Cartmill says. “This is such a huge part of who we are today.”

This work ethic trickles down to the entire Cornerstone Impressions staff, with employees like in-house artist Brandy Cleveland always striving to deliver unique artistic creations. Recently, she created an out-of-the-box design inspired by Steven Curtis Chapman’s song, “Warrior.”

“It’s a beautiful anthem that lifts you up and makes you feel good,” Cleveland says of the song. “One of the lines says, ‘The Lion of Judah is on our side.’ It’s a beautiful reminder that we are not alone in this world.”

Hoping to create a T-shirt that evokes this message, she designed “Lion of Judah” using a CMYK ink setup. “I played with the colors and blending modes until I found something that was bright and colorful without being so saturated that it would print heavy on a garment,” Cleveland says.

She used black and white for the lion and text, and applied a blending application to allow the colors underneath to seep through for a bohemian feel.

“I wanted the colors of the design to be what drew the eye, but then the surprise of the lion and the wording would make a person viewing the art interested in the design,” Cleveland says. — From the Impressions Archives

The post On Design: Lion-Hearted appeared first on Impressions.

If you’re a “non-artist” like the screen printer in this scenario, the good news is that a significant portion of art requests are “production art” tasks, not “creative art” tasks.

Why does this matter?

First, it’s useful to review the difference between production art and creative art (see Figure 1). Consider the skill set and specific techniques needed to complete each type of artwork. With production artwork, the tasks tend to be more about craft and execution to create a printable image. Image/logo re-creation, duplication and minor design modifications typically are production tasks. Other art processes that fall into the production art category include color separation, film output and creating art approvals.

Creative art tasks tend to require other skills like illustration, logo/graphic redevelopment and detailed concept creation in stages (rough, comp, outline and final render). Additional creative tasks may include helping clients who have no idea what they want and creative typography and stock-art manipulation.

Now that the differences between production and creative art are better defined, you need the confidence to attempt any art task. The talent and practice of artwork is so closely linked that one doesn’t exist without the other. People who display “natural talent” at art almost always practice on a regular basis.

Becoming competent at production artwork or even creative art is more about consistent practice, skill development, learning to “see,” and competency with design fundamentals than any talent that may or may not be a genetic predisposition. However, there’s always a learning curve for any task that requires skills and proficiency.

Production-Art Hacking
The trick to becoming competent rapidly at production artwork is to approach it with a hacking, yet serious mindset. Focus on 20% of the skills and techniques you’ll need for 80% of production tasks that you’ll likely encounter. Some artists will frown on skirting little-used tools or techniques, but this type of accelerated learning is only possible if you focus on the mandatory skills rather than trying to learn everything.

First, sort the artwork that typically comes into your shop. If you track all art tasks performed in a 30-day window, you should be able to categorize and sort tasks into several buckets (see Figure 2).

1. Creative Tasks: These are orders with little or no direction or sources for reference, or they’re original, custom design requests. Allocate these tasks to be outsourced to other artists so you don’t get frustrated and waste a lot of time.

2. Simple Logo and Graphic Recreations: These art tasks include the “Can-you-copy-this-off-of-my-business-card?” variety.

3. Existing Art with Modifications: These tasks come from companies with a new address or slogan that want a slight alteration to their previous work.

4. Quick Text Mockups or Clipart Graphics: If you have a graphic catalog of premade designs or previous designs that were created as templates, this job type is a perfect fit.

Modify your production-art categories to match what’s common in your shop, with the goal of training so that you can handle each category’s tasks the majority of the time.

Production-Art Training
The following is a short list of training items that will make most screen printers and shop owners feel more comfortable with production art tasks:

1. Drawing: You don’t have to be Picasso to trace a logo by hand, then scan it into your graphics software and quickly create a vector that you can edit and separate for printing. So many assertive non-artists spend hours in their graphic-design software slowly creating piece after piece of a complex logo because they don’t try to draw it.

Start simple. You also can “cheat” by using tracing paper, a light table and your phone to create guides (see Figure 3). Make your source material as good as possible prior to trying to draw it.

2. Bitmap-to-Vector Tracing Programs: Your graphic-design software should include another piece of software that will allow you to trace an image and convert it into a vector graphic (Powertrace in CorelDRAW). Getting to know this software is essential for saving time (see Figure 4).

However, you also should know when it’s better to avoid the software and just draw the design. If you’re increasing the size of a small logo from a tiny business card to a full-front print, you’ll likely have to re-create or draw it, then Powertrace it.

3. Font Creation, Matching and Modifications: Since there are millions of fonts and it’s hard to quickly find, match and modify them, you should know which fonts you have, as well as some of the font terms and basics. Consider taking font-tutorial classes and quizzes. Once you know the parts of typography, and how different styles look and are categorized, it’ll be easier to know where to start looking for weird fonts that you’re sure to see on customer-provided designs.

There are a host of free websites that provide fonts you can download, but learning the basic principles of font usage and qualities will make all font tasks go more quickly. Learn a couple of websites — such as whatthefont.com — to help you match fonts. Print a basic group set of fonts in each category to show customers. Customers often will rapidly pick a font from an example sheet, but they may take forever looking at the choices on a screen.

4. Graphic Template Sources and Clipart: You may have a “love-hate” relationship with clipart sources, but all of these types of tools have their place. The right piece of clipart for a rush job literally can save you hours or days of time. As with all art tools, there is good usage of templates and clipart, and then there is overuse and poor design choices.

Learning some basic design fundamentals so you can know which art style works best with a particular typography style can help enormously (see Figure 5). To use graphic resources like templates and clipart, you’ll need at least a working knowledge of your design software and a handful of tutorials to review. Be practical, learn as you complete jobs and keep improving.

5. Find a Mentor or Pay for Training: Once you have a foundation using production-art tools, find an artist you respect and either bring that person to your shop or try to shadow the artist for a week. Even though this can be a more expensive option, it’s often the most valuable because of how fast you can learn exactly what you need to know. You also can look for someone to work with you in a virtual or group program. The main thing is to pick someone to train you in the specific tasks you need to know for your shop.

Becoming comfortable with production artwork if you don’t consider yourself an artist isn’t impossible. Once you shake off any preconceived notions of what it really takes and break down each specific task you need for your shop on a daily basis, you can formulate an action plan. Add to this a couple of hacks to make the whole process easier and you may be surprised at how quickly you’re accused of being an artist after all.

Thomas Trimingham has been helping screen printers for more than 25 years as an industry consultant, artist and high-end separator, and author of over 180 articles. He is currently the director of marketing for M&R Printing Equipment. For more information or to comment on this article, email Thomas at ttrimingham@yahoo.com.

The post Artwork Tips for Non-Artists appeared first on Impressions.

“My attention has always been drawn to religious iconography,” Vu says. “A certain mysticism usually surrounds this type of imagery, whether you’re viewing it in a museum, church, temple, etc.”

Five screens were hand-coated, then exposed in an M&R NuArc MSP 3140 metal-halide UV screen-exposure unit. Vu used five of Union Ink’s Tru-Tone 3X CMYK process inks (Eclipse low-bleed white, hot magenta, 3X yellow, black and Premium Brite cotton white).

Using 100% cotton crew T-shirts as a vehicle, Vu printed the design with the M&R Sportsman EX, a six-color, eight-station automatic screen-printing press. After printing, the garment was cured in an M&R Economax D dryer.

“I created this design from scratch in [Adobe] Photoshop,” Vu says. “Starting with two separate assets — a photo of the veiled woman (shot by English photographer Laura Sheridan) and a photo of the intricate rose window that serves as the background — it took several hours to painstakingly remove the background from the original photo of the veiled woman and to process a few additional color corrections before it was ready to be meshed into the final composition.”

The post On Design: Blind Faith appeared first on Impressions.

One way to circumvent this problem is to upgrade to the latest version of your graphic-design software. Many shop owners and art-department leaders don’t like to rush to upgrade to newer versions, but in the case of CorelDRAW 2021, there are a number of compelling reasons to do this. For starters, shifting to the new interface and tool set is a seamless process. It’s clear that Corel has prioritized a smooth upgrading process for current users without a big adjustment. There isn’t that panicked moment when you open a new version and wonder where everything is; the updates and new features generally are well integrated so that the old tools and menus are easy to find.

Some of the best new things about this version of CorelDRAW are lesser known, but for they can make a big difference for screen-printing artists. For example, you can re-create logos with the new Powertrace program; importing and exporting filter improvements allow for ultra file management; find/replace script refinements make separations easier than ever; and the addition of non-destructive effects makes creating designs with polish even quicker.

Re-creating Logos with Powertrace
Converting a bitmap logo into an easily editable vector image used to be a hit-or-miss effort. Now, with this new version’s integrated AI, the Powertrace program has earned its name. The real power lies in its ability to average and make subtle choices as it traces to have a far higher percentage of successful tracing attempts. When I traced several designs of various degrees of difficulty and resolutions, the software re-created and essentially “guessed” at how to best replicate the pixelated sources into workable vector images (see Figure 1).

Many artists commonly don’t attempt to use the Powertrace program because of past challenges with other tracing software. However, this new version seems to handle a combination of far greater complexity, and can provide consistent, higher-quality results.

Importing & Exporting Filters
Although the process of importing graphic elements, clipart, previous files and text into CorelDRAW isn’t as sexy as creating killer graphics from scratch, the sheer number of times you have to import and export can adversely impact productivity if it isn’t a smooth process.

The improvements that have been made to these filters make dealing with different issues of importing graphics far easier, and the overall effect is that the software now can allow editing capacity with more options, as well as perform faster. In this version of CorelDRAW, you now can pull in many PDF formats and edit them, which can save time as opposed to re-creating these files due to formatting or processing challenges.

Older versions of CorelDRAW also replicate better, and there are fewer issues with the optional font-update filters, as well as better support for spot colors that are in older versions. If you’ve ever had an old file open without fonts or spot colors recognized, you know what I mean. Having many of these issues resolved or easier to navigate makes adjusting to the new features easier.

Find & Replace Refinements
CorelDRAW 2021 finally added extra functionality to its “Find and Replace Script” feature. This means you now can replace more things with fewer steps in one setup. Yes, now you can change fills and outlines at the same time. It’s so much better for doing complex image separations, or even edits of a distressed image with 3,500 pieces containing slightly different colors.

The find-and-replace function is good enough now so that I no longer miss the previous scripts used to accomplish these tasks. All I have to do is use the quick keys (Alt+E+F) and then I can find or replace items. The revised dialog has multiple options to allow for different graphic pieces in the file to be edited simultaneously.

If you have a mad propensity for building multiple layers of nested powerclips, you may occasionally have some issues if you don’t go into them separately. For most everything else, however, this new feature is significant.

The image in Figure 2 needed to be edited so that it would work on Army green, red, gray and royal blue shirts. The main graphic needed to be changed from a white and navy eagle on the royal and red shirts to a black and gray eagle on the gray and Army green shirts. With the find-and-replace function, making all of these adjustments took less than five minutes.

When it was time to separate the image, all I had to do was duplicate the design four times — for the white underbase, navy blue, red and highlight white — on different pages. CorelDRAW 2021 even offers different views so you can look at all of your separations simultaneously if you wish. Once I had the duplicate design in the same location on each page, I rapidly replaced all colors that weren’t on that separation with white, and the sep color was changed to black. Doing it this way allowed me to easily add a thin outline to the white underbase separation page, and the color pages rapidly could be isolated.

Since this design had a distress filter bitmap used as an overlay, it was relatively simple to add a trap. All I had to do was zoom in and use a small Nudge tool command to duplicate and move the distress filter up, down, right and left (see Figure 3). Essentially, this made four additional transparent monochrome bitmaps on top of the original and, together, created a trapped distress. This way, the slightly bigger distress filter wouldn’t have the tendency to show the underbase if there was any screen distortion on the underbase or overprinted colors.

Non-Destructive Styles & Effects
In a lot of ways, CorelDRAW 2021 takes some of the best features of bitmap software, with regard to layer styles, filters and similar effects, and allows you to experiment on your images. There are unlimited possibilities, and one of the more impressive features is how they can work in tandem to deliver rapid effects that previously were only reserved for bitmap programs.

If you have a fairly basic-looking clipart example, you can use some of these art styles to modify the image and create a realistic painted or chalk look that appears to be done by hand (see Figure 4). Some of my favorite filters create post-impressionist looks and can convert images into graphite drawings. When you would like to rapidly adjust them, simply remove or apply a different effect.

The art styles are cool, and although you can’t apply multiple effects to bitmaps or vectors, you can select and apply them differently to unique selections within your images. This means elaborate textures and painted effects no longer require you to leave CorelDRAW to simulate them and you don’t have to permanently edit the image to figure out what you want to try next.

In addition, once you have a popular look with a particular customer, you easily can save and apply these art styles to other images. Just open the object or properties dockers and apply the effect with the art style to the new objects by dragging it to the image.

Combining Shortcuts
The real power of any software upgrade tends to be after the artist has used it long enough to combat the learning curve, and is fully adjusted to the new workflows and options. In the case of CorelDRAW 2021, the learning curve is so low that I really didn’t see a significant delay from it.

The additional features — a better Powertrace; improved importing and exporting; a refined find-and-replace tool; and some exciting new art-style options — make this version of CorelDRAW an extraordinary value for the upgrade cost.

Thomas Trimingham has been helping screen printers for more than 25 years as an industry consultant, artist and high-end separator, and has authored more than 175 articles. He currently is the director of marketing for M&R Printing Equipment. For more information or to comment on this article, email Thomas at ttrimingham@yahoo.com.

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“Bass fishing is popular around here and there are plenty of fishing sayings to go along with it,” says Nicholas Fiorucci, owner of Charm City Screen Print. “This piece was one of our absolute favorites.”

The design was created by one of the company’s freelance illustrators and separated manually in house. Although it’s a company-wide favorite, the design process wasn’t without its challenges.

“Since we were using our new manual [separation] process, I practiced sepping the design multiple times until I felt everything was just right,” Fiorucci says. “We weren’t burning screens each time, but I was doing side-by-side comparisons with my files. Each time, I would pick up on details that weren’t in the previous sep file. It was all part of the learning process.”

To achieve the realistic detail in the fish’s scales, Fiorucci credits the original artist’s precise attention to detail.

“Our goal was to translate that onto a T-shirt as good as possible,” Fiorucci says. “Once the separations were complete, the other part of the equation [was] in the screens. We use high-tension frames from Shur-loc and dual-cure emulsion. This combo definitely allows for high-detailed printing.” — Dustin Shrader

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How do you make a design look fresh and new with stock art that you may have used before? Anyone can simply take a stock-art image and add text to create a layout. Why not think beyond that?

Look at multiple images and see how you can use elements from different layouts and bring them all together in a completely new, unique way. Translation: Create a “mashup.” (see Figure 1)

For this example, three different individual designs (see Figures 2, 3 and 4) that could essentially be used on their own were used to create an entirely new layout. Different elements were taken from each design and mashed up to create a whole new look.

Following are the steps that were taken to create this fun, colorful layout.

The Main Image
To make the surf parrot the design’s focus, it was pasted inside an oval to mask the background area. The Elliptical Marquee tool was used to create an oval shape and then filled with a color. The oval layer was positioned under the parrot artwork layer in the Layers palette.

By hovering the cursor on the line between the two layers, holding down the Option key (Alt key on a PC), then clicking, the parrot was automatically pasted inside the oval. With the parrot layer selected, it then could be moved around and resized within the oval until properly positioned.

To add more intrigue to the layout, the parrot was positioned in a way that certain elements could break through the edge of the oval and look like they were coming out of it. To do this, the Pen tool was used to create a path around the necessary areas at the top of the parrot. A selection was made using the path and inverted so that all the other information could be deleted and only the selected area remained. This layer was positioned on top of the full parrot layer, and voila: He looks like he’s coming out of the oval.

To complete the look, some additional outlines of color were added around the oval. This was done by selecting the original oval, expanding the selection and filling it with a new color on a new layer. This was repeated for each outline color until the desired look was achieved (see Figure 5).

Designing with Halftone Screens
Next, the palm-tree background started with the full-color image of a beach sunset, which was turned into a large, one-color, halftone-dot image for a tone-on-tone look. Halftone screens are a great way to transform images into completely different looks or to create graphic elements that can be incorporated into designs. There are so many different looks that can be achieved by using the various dot shapes at different sizes.

To create the effect, the original full-color design was opened in Adobe Photoshop and changed into a grayscale image by going to Image Menu > Grayscale and discarding the color information when prompted (see Figure 6). Then, it was changed to a bitmap image by going to Image Menu > Bitmap and flattening the layers when prompted.

In the Bitmap window, 300 pixels per inch was entered for the Output option, and “Halftone Screen” was selected for the Use Method. In the Halftone Screen window, the frequency was set to 15 lines per inch; the angle was set to 61 degrees; and “round” was selected for the shape. This is the window where the information you select and enter will affect your halftone screen’s look. The smaller the frequency, the larger the dot (see Figure 7). This is great for creating simple graphic patterns to use as background elements.

Once the halftone screen is created, revert back to a grayscale image by going to Image Menu > Grayscale. In the Grayscale window, “1” should be entered for the Size Ratio.

The image had to be flattened to change it into a bitmap and apply the halftone screen. Now, the image must be extracted from the flattened background. To do this, go to the Channels Palette (Windows Menu > Channels) and hold down the Command key. Click on the Gray channel and the “marching ants” will appear, denoting the image area is selected. Invert the selection by going to Select Menu > Invert.

Create a new layer to apply the selected information. Go to the Layers palette (Windows Menu > Layers) and add a new layer by clicking on the “Create a New Layer” icon at the bottom of the palette. Ensure the new layer is selected, hold down the Option key and hit the Delete key (Backspace key on a PC). The selected area now will be filled with the foreground color showing in the Foreground Color swatch.

To change that color, click on the Foreground Color swatch and choose the desired color from the color-picker window, and refill the selected area. To create the ghosted, tone-on-tone look, it’s important to know what garment color will be used. A color then can be selected that is slightly darker than the shirt color to achieve the desired look.

To copy the screened image into the working file, go to Select Menu > All, then Edit Menu > Copy. Return to the working file and go to Edit Menu > Paste. The screened image now will be added to the working file. Adjust the layer order in your Layers palette by selecting and moving the layers up and down, and then position the screened image in the layout behind the parrot.

Finishing Touches
To finish the layout, the text and floral embellishments taken from one of the original designs was added. Using the Horizontal Type tool, the copy was entered, and the desired font was chosen. Using the “Flag Warp Text” option, the text automatically flowed along a wavy baseline, which was suitable for a surf-themed design.

Layer styles were used to dress up the text. The gradient on the face of the letters was created using a dark blue color and the Inner Glow layer style. A gradient stroke then was added to create the dark blue outline and the radiating white-to-orange outline around the letters. To complete the look, a light-green drop shadow was added.

For the final flourish, the third design was incorporated. Using the Lasso tool, a small selection of hibiscus flowers was copied from the original document and pasted into the working file (see Figure 8). Using the Hue Saturation adjustment, the flowers’ color was changed and brightened to complement the rest of the layout.

The flower layer was duplicated multiple times so that individual clusters could be rotated, flipped and moved around to various positions, creating the final look. While most of the flower layers were positioned behind the text and the parrot oval, a cluster on the left side was positioned between the text and the parrot so that one of the flowers would be in front of the parrot for a special touch.

Last, the location name drop was added to complete the design, which would be perfect for resorts and souvenir shops. Change the name drop and the same design can be used for multiple locations.

Remember not to take designs at face value. Look for hidden gems that can be meshed with other elements from other designs to create your own unique mashup.

Dane Clement is president of Great Dane Graphics, as well as vice president of creative for GroupeSTAHL. He has been speaking and writing for the decorated-apparel industry since 1987. He has authored several artwork-training books for various garment-decoration methods. For more information or to comment on this article, email Dane at dane@greatdanegraphics.com.

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Vu hired a designer from Chile known for ornate logos and monograms to create the artwork for this design. “I didn’t have the designer make this piece with a specific intention in mind,” Vu says. “I just knew he does great work and I wanted him to make a custom piece. I happened to be simultaneously experimenting with process prints when he finished the artwork so I figured I’d use this as an opportunity to improve my skill set, while also potentially creating an amazing print.”

To create Old Smolder, Vu did four-color process printing with a white base, five screens and Diazo emulsion. He wanted to challenge himself by doing the color separations and halftone conversion without automated software.

“While I was trying to figure out how to do this, I was also talking to someone who I now look up to as a mentor, John Magee,” Vu says. “John is an applications specialist from Avient Specialty Inks and has been working in the industry for over three decades. He’s been gracious enough to answer all of my questions that I ask him throughout the day and [was] a huge part in helping me to figure out the separations.”

Vu was overjoyed with the outcome. “It’s one thing to see it digitally on the computer, but to bring it to life onto a shirt or poster is perhaps what makes it so jaw-dropping.”  — Dustin Shrader

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