Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
Hi all... really new here and appreciating all the great people and information.
I'm involved now in making tshirts at home (for about 3 weeks) to try to raise money for a church trip (we need a lot of $$)... anyway; I designed about 10 designs and have been printing using my HP injet on store bought paper with and iron.... sales are good and I'm thinking about going further... I'd like to make a better shirt for people....
i'm thinking about a heat press... now, if i got some of that ironall paper can I keep using my HP printer? you all seem to talk about epsons? and special inks... i guess I'm asking.... with a heat press, good paper and my printer will I be able to offer a good transfered shirt? or
If I got the heat press, there are places that make custom transfers right? I can save my designs as jpegs.... so do I need to be thinking about getting coreldraw or something to have transfers made. This is quite a business, it's fun, but a lot of information to digest. Glad you are here!
I'm thinking about a heat press... now, if i got some of that iron all paper can I keep using my HP printer? you all seem to talk about epsons? and special inks... i guess I'm asking.... with a heat press, good paper and my printer will I be able to offer a good transfered shirt? or
Hi Widget. yes you can make transfers with your HP but it depends on the HP. The reason for the Epson is not because it is a better printer but for the main reason. it uses pigment ink. Pigment ink is really a plastic ink, not a dye. So when heated it stays where you print. Dye ink (HP) will bleed, fade and not look good after washing. A lot of the people here recommend Coral draw, I use both photoshop and Illustrator. If you going to send your designs out to be made into plastisol transfers then you will need vector art (coral draw, Illustrator) If your going to do your own then photoshop is good. There are a lot of places that make custom transfers and ready made transfers. If I can help let me know. Lou
__________________ There is a center to everything.. I found mine at.. www.heatpressessentials.com TEE SQUARE IT, LOGO IT! TEE PAD IT!www.tbiz101.com (New)Heat Transfer Education
i guess I'm asking.... with a heat press, good paper and my printer will I be able to offer a good transfered shirt?
Like Lou said, it depends on the HP printer. But with the right printer a decent heat press and good paper, you could offer a good heat transferred shirt.
You may also want to look into custom plastisol transfers: Plastisol Transfers
A good way to test any inks is to take the shirt with the image transferred to it, lay it in a bath tub, soak it and fold the image over onto the blank part of the shirt. Press it down with your hands, let it sit for about 30 minutes, then hold it up and see if the inks have bled onto the blank part of the shirt. If they have, they will do the same thing in the wash.
God Bless You
Don
But still.. you still have an HP printer. I have never had a problem with Epson pigment ink in the wash. For 80 bucks you can get a c88 epson printer. Right now Epson is introducing their C88+ printer which is slightly faster model. Epson store on line is offering a rebate which makes it even cheaper. By the way I found a great ink source for cartridges for my cx7800 printer (same ink as C88) and I am paying less than half the price of epson inks. I have now used 5 cartridges of each color and the color holds up as good as any epson inks.And I have done numerous test. It is a pigment ink. it is called Premium Imaging Products and I get it from inkquik out of Oregon
__________________ There is a center to everything.. I found mine at.. www.heatpressessentials.com TEE SQUARE IT, LOGO IT! TEE PAD IT!www.tbiz101.com (New)Heat Transfer Education
Is the ink your purchasing the generic ink? I only see epson ink and their generic brand at inkquik?
Epson's Durabrite ink works pretty well. The key is that the ink needs to be pigmented, so other generic inks (that are generally dye-based) won't work as well (they tend to bleed and fade). You might also look at the Magic Mix inks from personalizedsupplies.com, which are a set of inks tested specifically for t-shirts.
Hello Widget,
I guess I must be doing something wrong, but I have made several custom shirts using HP 1210 all in one printer/scanner/copier and stock HP ink. Maybe it's pigment ink like epsons, maybe not I really don't know. I've always made mine in injet transfer paper bought from Proworld and pressed with a heatpress. Have washed these shirts many times with no bleed of ink or fading. My wife even bleached one to see what happened(don't recommend this!) and it came out fine and has been washed several times since still with no noticable loss of transfer. My guess and it is only a guess as I have not tested any products like the other forum memebers here have is that it is something to do with getting the right paper for what you are doing?
But, I may be totally wrong, I just know it has worked well for me.
Hope this helps and God Bless you with your efforts.
hate to pop your bubble Craig.. you printer, 1210, uses vivera ink.. This is there answer to Epson durabrite.. The inks are pigmented. When I was an Epson Rep demoing at best Buy the Hp guy would cringe when I did our print in water test.. Then the 1210 came out.. He thought he had me. Until we compared prints on paper.. So this is why you're having luck with the printer.. not that it is an HP. Most use thermal Dye inks..not the 1210
__________________ There is a center to everything.. I found mine at.. www.heatpressessentials.com TEE SQUARE IT, LOGO IT! TEE PAD IT!www.tbiz101.com (New)Heat Transfer Education
if you're going full boat and getting a heat press, i'd way just get a transfer professional to do your transfers for you. there's plenty of affordable, quality companies-- listed in several forums here-- that do it day in/day out.
then all you have to worry about it quality formats for your designs. vector images are the only way to go.
I have done close to 13,000 transfers with the Magic Mix inks and Magic Jet paper in vector, JPEG, TIFF, etc. formats and had no problems as long as the bitmaps were saved at a high enough resolutoin to have a sharp looking image.
I use Corel Draw, V6, V9 & V X3. I have made the transfers for myself and many members of my board and others with no complaints. You can make transfers in any format they can be printed in as long as the resolution is high enough so they are not too pixilated. Have a BLESSED day.
God Bless You
Don
Hey Lou,
Not bursting my bubble at all. I just know that this printer has worked quite well for whatever reason. Glad to know it's from a better ink.
I am looking at buying a different printer in the future. Will probably go with an epson if I can afford it.
Take this guys advice widget. They know what they are talking about.
God Bless!
if you're going full boat and getting a heat press, i'd way just get a transfer professional to do your transfers for you. there's plenty of affordable, quality companies-- listed in several forums here-- that do it day in/day out.
Well, there are still plenty of reasons to use digital transfers instead of ordering transfers (usually plastisol) from another company. While plastisol is better quality and will work on darker shirts, regular transfer paper will allow you to do single prints (no 12+ minimum, handy for a new company or custom jobs) and unlimited colors (without paying extra for more colors).
There are reasons to use any of the wide variety of printing methods out there =)
Printing transfers 
