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fashion420 · February 13th, 2006

My friend and I are starting up a t-shirt business. There are a lot of mixed reviews with heat transfer vs. screenprinting. I have tons of screen printing shirts at home and yes they are great quality but starting a business off screen printing is alot of $$$ and I don't want 1000 shirts laying around my house waiting to be sold. I would really like to see what the quality is of a heat pressed shirt to make a decision on the type of printing I want to do. I will pay for the shirt but again I just want a sample to see the quality on a heat pressed shirt compared to a screen printed shirt. Thanks

JoshEllsworth · February 13th, 2006

I'll send you one if you email me your address. Keep in mind that heat applied transfer papers & transfer vinyl give you different types of results. Are you aiming for photo quality/color gradients or very few colors, text and basic logos?

fashion420 · February 13th, 2006

I was thinking about transfer paper and I heard that the transjet papers is good. I am not what the best quality is out there but I want the best there is to get the best quality shirt. I am looking at doing test and pics not photos on my shirts. Thanks and let me know you email address and I can send you my physical address.

JoshEllsworth · February 13th, 2006

Not sure if I'm allowed to post my email address, but you can click on my user name in this post and select the send email option.

Rodney · February 13th, 2006

You can also get samples of heat press shirts by buying just about any t-shirt at cafepress. Most are printed using a heat press (although probably a more industrial version than you would use at home).

Mr.4ColorProcess · February 15th, 2006

Hiya fashion420, I'll throw in my hat here, too. Email me or send me a private message through this site if you want me to send you some samples. You'll like what you see, that's for sure...

--Mr.4colorprocess

mbevon · February 15th, 2006

Mr.4colorprocess

Can you share with us the type of equipment you use including type of transfer paper?

Thankyou

Mr.4ColorProcess · February 15th, 2006

Three Sakurai presses ... 25" x 38" paper

StitchShoppe · December 16th, 2006

There are a lot of different heat press processes.
1) Plastisol Transfer- As close as your going to get to direct screen print
2) DTG- wait a few years for quality to go up and printer price down
3) Inkjet Transfer-Good for light shirts, Opaticity Isuues on colors, will leave a carrier sheet hand
4) Inkjet Transfer for darks- Cracking, fading, "hand" issues
5) Digital Transfer-opaticity issues on dark shirts, clogging issues with white ink, better hand than Inkjet, less cost per carrier sheet.
6) Inkjet Dye Sub- exspensive ink, less hand than standard inkjet.
7) Cutter and vinyl, Cutter costs, time consuming "weeding" not good for multiple colors
I don't really think you are going to be able to make an informed decision from a single sample. I try to stick to plastisol transfer, whenever quantity dictates. Vinyl is great for 1 or 2 color simple art. Small detail means extra weeding time. Be prepared to buy specific special inks for the rest. All these methods have there place in regard to the types of designs you are doing and the quality/shirt price you are trying to achieve.