Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
ok i have a design that i can not cut around, i have to use the whole of the transfer paper. because the designs images are to small. so that measn i get the horrible see through extras that has no colour on it. looks like se through jelly.
Hm, I was having the same probs a while ago. I think you have to learn your software printer preview and make sure you have lined everything correctly.
Maybe more detail of what your problem is would be useful too... is it cutting it offsetted? or is the cutter not going through your paper? etc?
sorry what i mean is, i have an A4 design with lots of small images on it, with space around each image. so i have to put the whole A4 transfer on the t-shirt. so once the peel the paper leaving the print i am left with the unused gel that does not have an image on it. you can see the A4 boarder, making it look tacky and unprofessional. how does one get around this? could an optical vinyl cutter cut round these small and fiddley images???? so the only area that gets printed on the t-shirt is the images themselves....
Yes, people use plotters (cutters) for that purpose too.
Now you would probably need a plotter that uses an adhesive sheet that runs through the plotter (like a printer) and place your A4 sheet onto that adhesive sheet, so it won't move when the blade is at the edge of your A4 sheet. (I'm not familiar with the plotter names though)
I use a plotter with rollers and is difficult to cut close edges with out that adhesive sheet.
More info that may be of use to you. What a plotter does is cut through one layer of a 2 layer sheet, like your tranfer paper, leaving the back layer in tact. Now it can, if you desire, cut through the whole 2 layers, but that's not how it's supposed to work. So plotters have a "sensitivity" button adjuster so that you can tell the blade how hard to press and cut through the first layer.
When you're done cutting the 1st layer, you peel off the pieces that you don't want off the sheet (aka weeding) . So that you can place the rest onto your shirt.
You can do this by hand, but if you have a dozen to do, invest in a plotter. You'll need the software to run the plotter too, some don't come with it, so cocider that.
This is a common "problem" with these types of paper. It doesn't sound like weeding is going to be a benefit to you on this particutar project. Mainly because you would then have to line up each piece of the design.
On a white shirt you won't really see it; on a sand colored shirt you'll see that window but whatever color the shirt, it will wash out.
So...if you're doing a small run for a customer, you can explain to them before hand that this "window" will wash out. Let them know that you are using this method because it is the most cost effective for the job. I always tell my customers "sure, I can silk screen 5 shirts for you BUT, they're going to be the most expensive shirts you've ever bought". I have a couple of sample shirts "before" and "after" washing to show my customers.
If you're doing say 25 or more shirts, and the image does not contain too many colors, consider having plastisol transfers made.
Sounds like you would be better off doing this application using a dtg printer. There is no small border to worry about. I would look into finding someone close to you that has a dtg printer and see what they would charge you for the job and mark the price up to the customer. You don't want to send a finished product out the door that you are not proud of. That could come back to haunt you with a negative referral later down the road. Just my opinion and something for you to consider. Best wishes.
For either type of paper (for lights or opaque) you need a carrier sheet like Magic Mask from Stahls and Beacon. It's a clear sheet of plastic with a sticky side that you place your transfer on.
When using opaques, you don't need to cut using a carrier, but for transfers for lights you do.
The carrier sheet will hold each element of your design in place after you cut it so that they'll line up when you press it.
If you'll notice on the design I did in that thread, each little ring of color is a seperate piece. There's no transfer paper between them. There's also NO black printed on that design. It's all opaque paper and ink.
I used a Graphtec CE5000-60 plotter. A Graphtec CE5000-40 CraftROBO Pro would work, too.
It depends on what type of transfer paper you are using as to whether you need a carrier / masking sheet. There are definitely light transfer papers that are weedable that do not require a carrier sheet. The key is the polymer on the top of the backing of the paper needs to be able to weed from the backing. All distributors by now know which ones of the papers they sell are weedable for an optical reg cutter.
I think what was being described above using a carrier or taping parts of paper to the side of the transfer paper was primarily for maximizing the space on the transfer paper.
I didn't know there were any papers for lights that could be weeded. Do you have an example of one? I'll be using Jet-Pro SofStretch. I haven't tried to weed that yet.
Yes, another advantage of using a carrier sheet is maximizing your area, especially on 8.5 x 11 sheets. If you don't use a carrier for your plotter, you automatically loose a couple of inches on one side of your transfer.
There is a popular paper sold by a lot of companies that has a red grid on the back of it. This is a weedable light transfer paper. I don't know all the companies that sell it and the names it goes under, but one of them is The Paper Ranch and it is called ImageJet Lite II.
The trick to determining whether a paper is weedable is to try and tear slowly the paper. If you are able to tear a 1/2" and start to separate the polymer from the paper backing...then it is weedable. If not, you will need a carrier. Pretty simple test that you can try on a scrap piece of paper.
transfer paper question.... 
