Tuesday February 7, 2006

Now Available On Black

I'm a big fan of t-shirts with writing on them, sort of a "bumpersticker on a shirt". These are often printed in white or bright yellow on black or navy. I scan t-shirt sites and catalogues regularly for interesting new choices. But... I'd love to be able to create my own!

There has been a rise in custom-design sites, but most of those produce shirts with black or colored ink on a light-colored (white, yellow...) shirt. I really want dark green, black, or navy for the shirt color. I think the message shows up better (and smudges don't. :-) Back in December 2004, I asked the folks at Zazzle, one of the online custom shops, about dark colors. They wrote back to say:

We use a brand-new and very sophisticated technology to print the apparel products. The inks are actually sublimated into the fibers of the t-shirt, which makes the colors vibrant and keeps the shirts very soft. It also allows us to print thousands of colors (enabling photo-realism) instead of a few, compared to screen printers.

Unfortunately, the technology does not yet support printing on dark colored shirts - like black. One of our R&D teams is currently researching viable technologies that will allow us to print on dark-colored shirts in the near future.

I thought that was promising and have been checking back on occasion. I am now very happy to see that Zazzle has announced the availability of dark colors (in "Beta)". Cool!

For the first time ever, you can now create your one-of-a-kind designs with millions of colors directly on Dark Apparel!
How much does it cost?
You can buy a 1-sided Basic Dark T-Shirt in any of 5 colors for $19.95 [light colors are $14.95]. To have printing on both sides of the shirt, there is a $2.50 additional charge ($22.45). We offer sizes from Youth S - Adult 3XL.

There are NO MINIMUM ORDERS. As part of our volume discount program, when you buy 2 or more Basic Dark T-shirts, you'll save 5% ($18.95 each) and the more you buy, the more you save. For a complete listing of all of the prices, see our Prices & Discounts page.

And, if you publish your shirt in Zazzle's community gallery, you'll save 10% on your purchase - and you'll receive a 10% royalty when anyone buys a shirt with your design.

Now I have to decide what I want to print... :-)

Resources for t-shirts

Pre-printed Designs

Design Your Own

Now Available On Black ( in category Special Interests ) - posted at Tue, 07 Feb, 08:37 Pacific | «e»