Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
We currently use First Edition for plastisol transfers for our designs. We have a new line coming out that has a lot of colors and gradients and want to know the best way to transfer them on to the shirts. They have design elements like the design in the above link, and like Ed Hardy. Ed Hardy uses a lot of different colors in his designs. How are these types of designs produced?
My rep at First Edition tells me that there is no such thing as a 4 color process transfer and that such designs need to be direct print? Is this true? I cannot imagine that this is the case since the price would be so ridiculous to produce after four colors, really.
How are such designs produced without direct print? We need them on both light and dark garments.
The design above is printed at the PrintFection fulfillment service which uses a direct to garment printer.
If you are looking at screen printed transfers (plastisol transfers), then you would need to find a company that can print process transfers. It is possible, but the minimums are pretty high due to the setup time it takes.
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I cannot imagine that this is the case since the price would be so ridiculous to produce after four colors, really.
If you are direct printing them to t-shirts, a 4 color process job isn't going to get that much more expensive. If it's 8 spot colors yes, but a 4 color process job isn't going to get too ridiculous to print as long as you are doing it in good sized quantity.
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They have design elements like the design in the above link, and like Ed Hardy. Ed Hardy uses a lot of different colors in his designs. How are these types of designs produced?
I don't know if Ed Hardy is using a DTG printer or doing large runs of screen printed jobs. Since they are larger company, it wouldn't be difficult for them to do large runs of directly screen printed shirts.
How is this design created? 
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