Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
I am wanting to purchase a heat press and a cutter and want to know if I have to buy certain software, also can I do transfers with my hp5610 all in one with transfer paper?
Heat Press: go with a name brand such as Geo Knight, Hix, etc. I have the Geo Knight JP14...a small press (and I would not adivse going any smaller than that one). It's a swing away (as opposed to clam shell). I like the swing away for a couple of reasons: the heat is not in your face when it's open, and you have more room to work when laying out the transfer onto the shirt (no burned fingers).
Cutter: Look at threads on this board. You will find a wealth of information regarding specific cutters.
Printer: I use HP printers with their Vivera inks myself. The downside is that the tri color cartridges are not pigment inks; the black cartridges are though. Be sure to print your transfers at Normal setting so the the printer renders 300dpi ink...printing a Best quality renders 600dpi ink, and that's too much for a heat transfer.
Do I hace to purchase a certain program I have been seeing coral draw and other names here in the forum? I have been doing lots of embroiderying, but there is a great demand for heat transfer.
I will take any advice I can get.
The type of software depends on the work you want to do. I bought Corel X3 when I started. It is used a lot in screen printing, wide format inkjet signs and plotters and easier to learn than Adobe Illustrator from what I here. Corel also offers some embrodery plug-ins. I also choose it because there are many others on this forum who are familiar with it. I am still learning Corel but purchased a training CD from Advanced Artist.
I also started with a Mighty Press 15 x 15 press and an Epson printer using Durabrite inks. The Durabrite is a pigmented ink that will stand up to washing a lot better than dye (HP) inks. HP has a new ink product called Vivera that is being tested by some forum members. For inkjet transfers (light color tee's) I use Jet Pro Sofstretch paper. You can get the press and paper from Coastal Business who is a sponsor forum and a reputable company. I am buying a OKI C3400n laser printer from them this week so I can get into laser printing transfers. Image Clip paper and Dura cotton papers are supposed to be good laser papers. I have ordered Image Clip from Coastal to ship with the laser printer.
Do I hace to purchase a certain program I have been seeing coral draw and other names here in the forum? I have been doing lots of embroiderying, but there is a great demand for heat transfer.
I will take any advice I can get.
It really does have to do with what you are wanting to offer. Corel x3 is a good program. It's what I use and find it very useful. Am I correct in assuming your asking if you need to purchase design software or are you asking if you need to purchase another kind of software to begin? Just trying to clarify
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I'm a newbie...I purchased my first press on ebay...its 15x15 press called "the green machine" its supposed to use less energy, for me I didn't expect to win the bid, slipped in at the last few seconds at a good price...after some exhaustive research I bought the heat transfer sample pack from coastal so I could test out different transfers on light and dark T's...I think the jetpro stretch paper will be the stock I use primarily...I make a few dollars and invest to get a little here and a little there, so now I'm focused on getting a dye sub printer and a continuous ink system after that I'll look at a vinyl cutter.
Heat press 
