Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
What is the best way to make a good photo transfer?
I ordered some from First Street graphics but it looks very pixelated. I called another company, Quick Trans, and they only do ink jet transfers. They can do Lithoquick ones but you need a 250 min.
Is there any good way to get photo transfers for a quantity of 50? I am afraid to use the ink jet transfers due to the longevity of them and also the cracking the ones I have seem to do after the first wash.
The one I got from first street, I sent the actual photo to them. It doesn't look bad as the picture was a race car, but I could see how it would look a little different if it were a person. I just sublimated it on a 100% poly soft Link tee and it looks pretty good ,but then my cost is much higher because of the $5-$6 shirt. I was hoping to keep the cost to the client $8-$10 as it is a fundraiser for autism but the only way I see to do that is to sublimate onto 50/50 T's and lose the quality.
If you have pixilation in the graphic, then you need a higher quality graphic file. Resampling your current file does not fix this. It only changes the pixilation to fuzzy. Rescan your photo at a higher resolution.
We have had good luck with laser transfers for cottons and blends. They work pretty well for limited wear applications. I even have a couple customers retailing them.
The least cost 100% poly shirt I have found is SolarShield ($3.29). They are very similiar to the Jerzees 21M.
Remember you can make a large print smaller but you can not make a small print larger.. If the scan you photo (you did not give size)Then it will ave pixilation. Also what color are the shirts and why are you paying $5.-6 a shirt?
My nephew is a race car driver as well as being on Bloomberg TV and I did shirts for him using Iron all and ash colored shirts.. Total cost of shirts and transfer $3.50 ea. The shirts do not crack. I printed with epson durabrite inks.
__________________ There is a center to everything.. I found mine at.. www.heatpressessentials.com What you need to do the job! www.tbiz101.com (New)Heat Transfer Education
Last edited by Solmu; April 18th, 2007 at 10:02 PM.
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Yes, rusty, those are the shirts I get from Johnson Plastics. Great quality with sublimation so far. Pricey, though. I am starting to do a "put any photo on a shirt while you wait for $20" pitch using sublimation & those T's. We'll see how that goes.
I didn't scan the cars myself, I did but the colors were off a little bit so I paid the extra to have First Street Graphics do it thinking they could scan better. They didn't blow up the graphic at all, I believe it's the exact same size. Maybe pixelated isn't the word I'm looking for, but whatever a small amount of dots per inch would be. I can see all of the individual dots.
You said that the Ironall doesn't crack? Maybe I should purchase them, then. I have been getting some from Johnson plastics and after about 2-3 washes there are noticable cracks in the graphic. Haven't had anything peel yet, though. Ink jet transfers seem to look great for a longer period of time for just text, with minimal graphics. Once you start getting into graphics and a large amoutn of color then the cracks become more noticable. The quality of ink jets is phenominal but durability isn't the greatest. I only recommend ink jet transfers to keep the cost down and for events where you know you won't wear the shirts many times, example: gag gifts.
Making a photo transfer? Help! 
