Differences in screen printed letter shapes and stem widths on various textile materials

Abstract

In the process of preparing graphic products for printing, it is essential to be familiar with the printing technique which is to be used. In order to achieve maximum printing quality in the printing process, in addition to knowing the printing technique, it is necessary to know how to prepare text and images. Proper font generation process facilitates further usage of text in preparation of printed page. This paper will present the research findings concerning the distortion in shape and stem widths letters undergo when printed with screen printing technique on three kinds of textile material. What is examined first is the quality of the text printed on untreated cotton, used for eco bags manufacturing, then on the cotton commonly used for T-shirts production, and finally, on the polyester material. The aim of this paper is to determine whether there are differences in letter shape and stem widths after they are screen printed on textile, and if there are differences, to quantitatively determine the value of these differences, in order to make certain corrections in the preparation process of the text for printing, or even earlier, in the font generation process. Printed examples on the textile have been scanned and compared with the original .pdf file, and the analyses have been done using the image processing software ImageJ.