Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
Ok, so I'm wanting to print like sentences to my shirts, and putting them on dark shirts could be a pain with the surrounding white areas, so I was wondering if I could use one of them vinyl cutters to cut out the letters (reversed on the paper) tear off the excess and print it from the backing paper to the shirt? would that work? and yes I just want white text, so I don't care about color really.
WOW Thermoflex is EXACTLY what I need.. dang.. thank you soo much.. so if I wanted to put white text on to a black shirt, just buy a roll of white thermoflex, and use a vinyl cutter, and remove the excess from the paper, and whala there's my text... awesome..
This is exactly what I am looking to do (white letters, black/dark shirts). I'm migrating from cafepress to self fulfilling (except kids stuff, they can deal with cpsia). All this stuff is giving me a headache trying to figure out what all I need to make my various designs and products!! I can screen the most popular designs, but it's not practicle to burn a screen for each design.
So, is one cutter better than another? (I don't see a seperate child forum for plotters and cutters or I'd ask this there) Can you use photoshop to run a cutter, or do they need their own program? Does the vinyl feel heavy and thick, like the old iron ons that used to crack after a few washes?
I want to provide my customers with a quality product they will be happy with. I don't particularly care for the results of white on black with DTG but I don't get a lot of returns so customers must not find it too objectionable. I'd rather offer something better though, and I don't have the $$ to buy a DTG machine.
I've been running my cheap $500 vinyl cutter for a year now with now problems and great results. I got mine from USCutter Vinyl Cutters, Supplies, and Sign-Making Equipment as have alot of others around here. Roland and Graphtec are two of the other popular brands, but will run 2-3 times the money. You can search uscutter vs. roland for some helpful threads.
If you are going to do just text then you will be able to use the program that comes with the cutter. If you have other designs other than plain text then you will want a vector program, such as Adobe Illustrator. The designs have to be in vector form, which turns the design into lines that the cutter can recognize and cut out.
As for the quality, the customer won't know the difference between heat vinyl and screen ink. The end result is very close and of great quality that will last the lifetime of the shirt. The vinyl doesn't feel thick like you would think, unless you do 2-3 layers for a multi-colored design.
After learning the screen printing process the last few days I can really appreciate how easy it is to cut something out and press it on in just a few minutes. Good luck to you!
Vinyl cutters and dark shirts 
