Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
There's not really a specific rule on trimming. It will really depend on your design. On opaque transfers, using a CAD cutter and "carrier" tape might help.
For light transfers you don't need to trim all the way to the edge of the design. Within about 1/8" from the edge should be fine, and you can leave the letters connected.
I think they may be asking if you had, for example, a line of text a few inches SEPERATE from a picture on a shirt? Assuming this is the question -
We leave seperated pieces like this connected by a thin line of transfer paper, maybe 1/4" thick or so. This keeps the spacing correct, let's us line it up more easily, and really isn't very noticeable on white or ash.
However, on white or ash t-shirts, it is barely noticeable at all with any good transfer paper. If you need to do darker shirts, you should probably be looking at another method such as plastisol transfers or vinyl.
Why is it that when I watch tutorials on YouTube, they apply image without trimming? YouTube example tshirtriches. It comes out looking like u can not see the unprinted portion of the transfer paper.