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Prepress
Underbase 101 for DTF & DTG
The white underbase is a full-strength white plate that sits below your color print. Without it, colors sink into dark garments and look muted. Get it right and prints feel like they float on top of the fabric.
When you need an underbase
• Any dark-shirt print (charcoal, navy, black)
• Any color that has to survive a busy background
• Prints that need to hold detail after wash
The three underbase mistakes we see most
1. Full-strength everywhere. Kills the hand feel. Choke your underbase to 90-95% and let it breathe.
2. No choke. Colors halo around the edges because the underbase is a hair wider than the print. Furnace does the choke automatically.
3. One-size-fits-all opacity. For gradients, use a dot pattern in the underbase too so the fade doesn’t look chunky.
Furnace default underbase settings
• Choke: 1 px at 300 DPI (adjustable in Halftone Studio)
• Fabric: dark auto-enables underbase
• Style: matches your top halftone by default so colors align
Rule of thumb: if the underbase looks slightly smaller than the color layer when you preview, you nailed it.
Ready to try it?
Open the Halftone Studio and put this into practice — 3 free exports this month.
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