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Community Forums: Home CafePress Community Forums Designer Lounge General Graphics Help Questiona about Fonts and Shapes and FX? Topic Closed|
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For the most part, I will only be doing t-shirt designs.
I couldn't find a question about this in the forums, so I hope I'm not posting this question again, if it has already been answered. My questions is: Is it okay to add special effects like glitter, texture, bevel, gradients and stroke to fonts and shapes that you are using in your design. Or is this something, that we really shouldn't do? Any help appreciated. TY and Hugs, Lois This message has been edited. Last edited by: SunshinyScrapper, ---------- Life is Boring Without Color ----------------------------------------- |
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Lois,
Not only is it okay, but it's highly recommended. Within reason, of course. If you go tooooooo crazy with fx, you can end up with an unreadable font.  Using only fx and standard drawing tools, you can create an impressive amount of original art. It doesn't always take the place of hand-drawing either on paper or directly into the computer, but it can often be very useful. Welcome to the Forums, Karin KLC Lewis T's Me NOW! Irreverent Imprints For Individuals www.cafepress.com/tmen www.KLCLewisStudios.com |
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Thank you for your feedback.
HMMM? Maybe this will make for a good design discussion. I'm really interested in hearing what everyone has to say. Thank you for responding and welcoming me. Hugs ---------- Life is Boring Without Color ----------------------------------------- |
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Elisha, I would have to counter that some gradients do not work well on t's, while others do. Back when I was doing silkscreen printing on shirts, we got gradients by doing "blends" with multiple ink colors on the screen. The blend effects I get doing gradients here are at least that good, if not better. Properly-sized photos can reproduce reasonably well on fabric substrates, and when you get right down to it a photo is really nothing more than a collection of gradients.
KLC Lewis T's Me NOW! Irreverent Imprints For Individuals www.cafepress.com/tmen www.KLCLewisStudios.com |
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KLC, I checked out your shop, nice designs  I noticed you use a lot of bevel etc. Have you had any complaints about any finished products, where you did use special effects? ---------- Life is Boring Without Color ----------------------------------------- |
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KLC, do you have any product examples that I could see? I would love it if I could start using gradients. The one that I tested out just didn't look as good as I would feel comfortable selling.
DESIGN EXAMPLE ACTUAL SHIRT I felt like it just looked so much more dull on the fabric. I've also seen other SK's comment on the poor quality on gradients. They look GREAT on cards! |
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I've never had a complaint that I'm aware of. None to me directly, anyway, and I don't notice that I get more returns than usual. Very few, actually. Looking around to see if I have any printed garments I can photograph and upload. I think it's important, though, to make bevel and gradient effects rather pronounced, with strong variations, in order to make them really stand out on fabric. Light to moderate gradients tend to get lost. Highlights and outlines can help make them "pop."
I use drop shadows quite a bit, but I'm always aware of the possibility of their being lost on darks, so I compensate for that as much as possible in the designs. I also like to use double outlines in both dark and light to compensate for losing some colors on light garments, others on dark. There's no question, though, that printing on hard substrates gives a much more vibrant effect. KLC Lewis T's Me NOW! Irreverent Imprints For Individuals www.cafepress.com/tmen www.KLCLewisStudios.com |
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Thank you so much for your tips, I really appreciate it. I've designed lots of things, but designs for t-shirts etc. I am just now learning, and I want to make sure my design will look good on most products, that customers will be happy with. ---------- Life is Boring Without Color ----------------------------------------- |
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I see what you mean, I can still tell that you used a gradient effect, of course, the material changes it up quite a bit. Hmmm, I wonder if different fabrics make a difference? ---------- Life is Boring Without Color ----------------------------------------- |
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Also, can I ask you two, which design program you use? Photoshop etc?
---------- Life is Boring Without Color ----------------------------------------- |
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Different fabrics do make a big difference. Gradients and other colors retain most of their original appearance when printed on very white and very smooth substrates, except when printing on dark with an appropriate .png source. The transparency of the inks used for printing on light colors can greatly alter the appearance of a design, and I frequently remove the light green t-shirt because of that. Also the yellow t's, from time to time. And, of course, any white area printed on light colors becomes totally transparent and therefore the substrate color -- this can really throw-off the look of a design.
KLC Lewis T's Me NOW! Irreverent Imprints For Individuals www.cafepress.com/tmen www.KLCLewisStudios.com |
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You are very helpful! Thank you so much. I'm learning a great deal from you, and I truly appreciate that. Hugs ---------- Life is Boring Without Color ----------------------------------------- |
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Topic Closed Community Forums: Home CafePress Community Forums Designer Lounge General Graphics Help Questiona about Fonts and Shapes and FX?