Why Bold art works best in Screen Printing
One of the biggest problems we see in screen printing when receiving art from a designer that has spent most of his career in the paper print side of the business is too much detail. When we say too much detail what we are really talking about is the detail is too fine. In magazine and web design the image is being viewed from 14 to 24 inches on average. But when printing t-shirts the average viewing distance is about six feet away. So what happens is the detail closes in and/or gets lost and the image looks flat or dull. Also when printing on t-shirts the image is printed in a much lower resolution than paper so fine detail is much harder to reproduce.
So in order to create eye popping designs it is best to make lines bolder and edges with more contrast. Here are examples of a design with an emphasis on bold lines and a design with very detailed lines. You can easily see the difference.
So when talking to your designer about your projects and the impact it will have on the shirt always remember that Bold Is Best!