Discuss the various aspects of direct to garment printing. DTG printers include Brother, T-Jet, Flexi-Jet, DTG Kiosk, Kornit, Mimaki, Tex-Jet and others! Discuss and learn about this up and coming printing technology.
I've read a couple of forum posts concerning the attempt to hack an epson printer into a DTG printer...While I find this most intriguing....( I do love a good hack.) I have a question that goes down a different line of thinking... The most obvious problem is that you have to fabricate a tractor mechanism to move either the shirt or the printer.
My question is....can you use sublimation heat transfer paper instead?
Could you just print the stock epson pigment ink onto the sublimation transfer paper, and transfer to a cotton shirt.? And if so, could you print a seperate white one for the undercoat for black shirts?
Could you just print the stock epson pigment ink onto the sublimation transfer paper, and transfer to a cotton shirt.?
I may not be understanding your question correctly, but isn't this what regular inkjet transfer printing is? Printing using an epson, onto transfer paper, and then pressing it on a cotton t-shirt?
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And if so, could you print a seperate white one for the undercoat for black shirts?
I didn't think it was possible for the printers to print white ink?
Well, my understanding of ink jet paper is that there is a wax-like layer that melts ontop of the ink and fibers. Whereas, sublimation paper just releases the ink into a gaseous state into the fibers.
I'm looking for a way to print the ink to one substrate then transfer (just the ink) to the shirt. without the wax coating.
Well, my understanding of ink jet paper is that there is a wax-like layer that melts ontop of the ink and fibers. Whereas, sublimation paper just releases the ink into a gaseous state into the fibers.
I'm looking for a way to print the ink to one substrate then transfer (just the ink) to the shirt. without the wax coating.
From how Lou has described the ironall/miracool transfer paper, it seems to act as you've described. No waxy coating, and just the design left on the shirt. Of course it only works for whites and lights though.
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also, you can purchase the white pigment ink from several DTG companies...
Can that white ink be used on any epson printer, or would you need a hacked epson to get the white ink to print?
Yea, I read most of those also. The thing I found really interesting was that one of the members cut a piece of cotton and glued it to paper and ran it through a epson printer. and the stock pigment ink was heat set and permenant. I'm guessing because the ink is plastic based. But it got me to thinking maybe were all making this too hard... If the stock epson ink is working this well without additional polymers. then the problem would only be to get the ink to the shirt and heatset!...just my 2cents.
Yea, it is interesting. I wonder if you could buy that ink in bulk.
Also, I think you'd have similar problems that most DTG machines on the market face. White ink. A standard Epson printer doesn't print white correct?
You can get the white ink here
and i'm sure with a little looking you could find other manufacturers. But my idea was to pick up a cheap c88 and fill all bottles with the white ink and print my art first in greyscale...then print my regular art on top....just working out the registration bugs.
You can get the white ink here
and i'm sure with a little looking you could find other manufacturers. But my idea was to pick up a cheap c88 and fill all bottles with the white ink and print my art first in greyscale...then print my regular art on top....just working out the registration bugs.
But I guess if you just replaced the regular cyan/black/etc inks with all white inks, it might trick the printer into thinking you're printing with the right colors.
Sounds like an interesting test
I don't know if the inks are compatible with the c88 though. From the chart they listed, it doesn't look like it is.
I have been experimenting with just the ideas you described. First there is a transfer paper that will transfer sublimation ink to cotton it comes from the company Forever. Secondly, I have been researching the idea of coming up with a precoat solution using titanium dioxide to pretreat the black cotton T-shirt. Now it looks like that solution is available from the DTG folks. As for laying down the white base coat I figured that I could use my screen printing knowledge and create a screen from the image to apply the white basecoat, heat cure and then using the normal white only transfer paper I would lay the heat transfer image on top of the pre screened white mask. I also thought about the idea of using the printer filled with white ink only I would need to purchase a bulk ink kit to test my theory and I have not figured which printer I could use to maximise my investment. I also thought about using the normal white only transfer paper because it leaves a soft hand and see if I could get iti to come together with my pretreatment coating. I think it would be a safe investment to purchase an epson printer that is used in the DTG printers and buy the ink that the DTG printer uses and fit it with the bulk ink system. This way I would know that the ink would be compatable with the print head in the DTG printer because it's identical. This would in affect give you exactly all the capabilities that you would be spending $17000.00 for but without the large price tag. What do you think? I know you are going to say I need to purchase the RIP software from one of the DTG companies but I am not sure about that right now. At any rate these are a few options to work around the large investment in a DTG printer.
Lenny, have you actually tried this yet or is it still an idea?
The problem I see with this is that it would be very difficult to line up the white underbase from a screen with the transfer paper, and even if you could, the white ink resolution from the screen wouldn't match the color ink resolution from the printer. If you're able to overcome some of these problems, the best you might be able to print is vector type of artwork.
If you're able to, watch a DTG printer print the white underbase of an image, it's very subtle in certain parts. I just don't see this being reproduced very well by hand.
lenny I am not sure how the chemistry of the DuPont white would react with the standard epson ink and you will need at the very least three channels of white to limit the number of white passes you have to do.
DTG Hack? 
