Pressroom Technical Guides

The Prepress Journal.

Practical, production-tested prepress guides on spot color separation, white underbase choking, vector reconstruction, and plotter dielines for American print shops.

Color Separation Oct 23, 2026

Simulated Process vs. Index Separation: How to Print Photorealistic Artwork on Dark Apparel

Struggling with muddy photorealistic prints on black t-shirts? Compare Simulated Process vs Index color separation, learn screen mesh and LPI angle selection to prevent Moiré, and discover how...

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Embroidery Prepress Oct 23, 2026

Embroidery Vector File Prep: Line Weight Rules, Push-Pull Compensation & Why Thread Isn’t Ink

Stop breaking needles and producing illegible small text on caps and polos. Learn the essential vector file preparation rules for commercial embroidery digitizing, including minimum column widths, push-pull...

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Color Separation Oct 21, 2026

DTF Transfer Artwork Prep: How to Eliminate White Halos, Fringing & Stiff Transfers on Dark Shirts

Stop wasting heat press runs on fuzzy white outlines and stiff, plastic-heavy DTF transfers. Learn why DTF RIP software creates white halos on dark shirts, how to implement...

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Plotter & Cutlines Oct 21, 2026

Setting Up 100% Magenta CutContour Lines for Roland, Graphtec & Summa Plotters

Why do Roland VersaWorks and Graphtec plotters ignore cutlines? Master the exact prepress rules for 100% Magenta CutContour spot swatches, bleed margins, and sub-150 bezier anchor node limits.

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Color Separation Oct 21, 2026

Spot Pantone PMS vs. CMYK 4-Color Process: Which One Should Your Print Shop Use?

Should you mix custom spot Pantone inks or run 4-color process? Learn why CMYK fails on dark cotton garments, when Simulated Process wins, and how to save 45...

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Color Separation Oct 21, 2026

The Screen Printer’s Guide to White Underbase: Why 0.75pt Choking Prevents Registration Leaks

A white outline peeking out from under red or blue ink on black t-shirts will ruin a job. Learn the exact prepress math behind underbase choking, mesh count...

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Screen Printing Prepress Oct 21, 2026

Why 72 DPI Canva Artwork Halts Screen Printing Presses (And How Prepress Techs Fix It)

When a customer submits a 72 DPI Canva PNG at 4:30 PM, your press operators face a dilemma: halt production to redraw it or burn blurry screens. Here...

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Zero Press Downtime

Have a Low-Res Customer File Halting Production?

Upload your customer's messy Canva design, phone photo, or blurry JPEG before 5:00 PM EST. Our senior prepress team will hand-trace and separate it by 8:00 AM tomorrow morning. Fixed flat rate from $29 flat.

Upload Artwork to Overnight Queue →