Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
I thought others may find this interesting and newbies informative.
The pic is on Hanes 50/50, Epson C88+ with durabrite ink and spectrabrite paper from JBL.
Printer settings were, heavy paper, text/photo, + 5 mangenta, + 5 Cyan, - 20 yellow.
Press 385, medium to heavy pressure, 15 sec.
This shirt has been washed once and put in a hot dryer.
I am one happy camper.
Does anyone know how this compares with laser dye sub ?
Pigmented transfers on cottons or 50/50 shirts are very inexpensive to produce. As you can see by your finished product, you can achieve nearly photo quality results with pigment inks. The transfer will wear very well and is great for personalized tees, event tees, etc. You can have a finished product between $2 and $3.
Dye sub transfers on polys also can produce near photo quality prints. Dye sub printed shirts are of higher quality. By this I mean the image will never crack, peel or fade, which is a limitation of the pigmented transfers. Dye sub transfers do not retain quite as much detail as a pigmented transfers. This is because of the inherit dot gain of the sublimation process. Your low-end cost of a dye sub printed shirt will be approx. $7.
We use both processes in our business. It's the customers requirements that determine which process we use. Grandma really is not going to care which process is used to get a pic of the grandkids on a shirt. On the other hand we sell a lot of dye sub printed shirts to athletes and construction workers. They appreciate the wicking capabilities of the newer fabrics and are more than willing to pay the premium.
Dye sub opens the doors to decorating many more items than just tees and tote bags. We print a lot of mugs, ceramic tile and metals.
Pigmented inks have come a long way and are gaining in popularity. We are currently testing a new pigmented ink manufactured specifically for textiles which seems to be working out nicely. It has proven to be much more fade resistant than the durabrite, MagicMix or SpectraBright inks when using the MiraCool type transfer papers.
Sorry to be so winded. I am sure others can offer their opinions as well!!
Don that is an excellent look shirt. Did your trim real close?
__________________ There is a center to everything.. I found mine at.. www.heatpressessentials.com Tools to get the job done! www.tbiz101.com (New)Heat Transfer Education
Untill I could get my two lasers, dyesub setup and running, I bought a cheap C88+ to just play with. A fellow signman uses nothing but spectra-bright paper and durabrite ink. Said it holds up for years on his shirts, so I decided to try it. Colors are amazing. Only thing, so far it seems all pics need color adjusting with the C88+. For instance, the pic here setting was +5+5-15.
Just did another of a kid, the setting was 0 0 0. Another one was +15+18-25.
Running a small test print and pressing on a scrap T shirt is my method so far.
Yes I trimmed with an x-acto blade on a glass counter top. When stretched hard you see the light between the loosley woven fabric. On tighter woven shirts, so far the ones I made for my work shirts with the company logo across the front pocket, have not cracked or changed colors, they've been washed 10 times or so.
The shirt in the photo was washed once and put into the hot dryer with everything else.
Good luck everyone and happy pressing. Merry Christmas.
Does trans-jet paper have blue lines on the back ?
I had some sample sheets of " Jet Light " from Coastal Business.
It had blue lines on the back. I got a better, brighter image with Spectra-bright,
it does not have blue lines on the back.
Don
Last edited by taurusndixie; December 21st, 2006 at 04:59 AM.
Hey,
Im want to adjust my settings, how do you do this? I have been trying but cant seem to find where. Im using Photoshop( a beginner) is it here? I've looked at my printer settings d88+ cant see it there either. help
thanks
I am not familiar with photoshop. I use Corel. Install the disk that came with the printer. If you have more than one printer then make sure everytime you wish to print, the C88 is selected.
In Corel when I hit the print button a box pops up and I select the C88 from a list of printers and then hit PROPERTIES and the C88+ printer control panel pops up and there is all the printer settings.
Make sure you have the printer software installed. If you do, then you may need to take it out and install it again. Someone else that woks with photoshop may be able to help more.
Let me warn you the yellow will be tough to control. All my prints require making many small test prints before I can get the yellow right.
Pic with durabrite Ink, great. 
