What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers?
Hey guys,
What's the difference between screenprinting and plastisol transfers? And does anyone know if one works better on 50/50 cotton poly blends than the other?
Re: What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers?
I don't know too much about transfers, but they're essentially the same. I believe that you just screen print the ink straight to the transfer to make the plastisol transfers. This would allow you to easily screen print hundreds of transfers, and then you could sell them individually or press them as orders come in. Is this correct?
Re: What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers?
But if I'm looking to outsource my printing method, would plastisol transfers be less expensive or is their main benefit that you can make many transfer papers?
Re: What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers?
I've never used or printed transfers, but I'd have to guess it's more of a convenience thing. Personally, I would charge the same to print the transfers as I would the shirt, except subbing out the price of the shirt for the price of paper (a few cents a sheet I'd imagine).
But, if you're selling fashion t's, it will keep costs down on inventory. You wont need to stock 100 of the same design in red, blue, black, etc. Just a stack of transfers, and press as you go.
Re: What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers?
As Dann said...the main benefit is that it allows you to minimize your inventory. You can stock a certain number of transfers with your design and place them on the color / size / style of garment needed as they are ordered.
__________________ Big Daddy Screenprinting -Affordable contract Heat Press Services & Low Volume Screen Printing up to 4 spot colors with no setup or screen fees
Re: What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers?
Screen printing is great if you have the time and patience, Designing the artwork, preparing and burning your screens, aligning screens and shirts, flashing the shirts (multi-color), pulling and running through dryer. I'm getting exhausted thinking about it. With plastisol transfers from a good manufacturer is like having a full staff at your disposal and only paying them when you need them. The best part is to be able to print multiple designs on the same sheet, for front, back, and a cap. This makes upsaleing a sinch. Increasing profit margins without adding costs.
Re: What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers?
Great Points. I just want to say as mentioned before, it mainly depends on what you are trying to do. Every printing technique has it's time, use, and certain methods of acheiving great quality prints. I would say if you are trying to sell your own clothing, then you might want to go with plastisol transfers because you will be able to stock the transfers and print as you make sales, as stated.
If you are trying to sell wholesale shirts to clients (orders of 100, 500, or 1,000 shirts) then it's wiser to screen print them all at once. What is it exactly that you are trying to achieve, so that we may offer better advice?
Re: What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers?
Hey thanks everybody for all the help! And what I'm trying to do is sell shirts on the internet with my designs on them. Basically I will just be coming up with the ideas for designs and running the business aspect of it because I couldn't draw if my life depended on it ( so I'll be hiring a designer), and subcontracting a printing service.
So are you all saying that there are people who I could hire to simply press the designs on my shirts (after the screenprinter creates the transfers of course)? Because that sounds like that would be the case with plastisol transfers.
After realizing that DTG might not be the best for me, I was going to go with screenprinting, but I do not need all that inventory chilling in my dorm room....
Re: What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers?
If you are living in a dorm room and trying to do this, I suggest just having a company print the shirts and sell them to you wholesale, or buy a heat press and get your transfers printed for you and sent to you.
screen printing in your situation doesn't seem like a very good idea, because there's a lot of cleaning, equipment, and supplies involved.
Re: What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers?
Well I'm not actually looking to do the printing myself, I may in the future, but I just feel like I wouldn't have time now so I was going to subcontract. Are there people I could hire who soley do heat presses?
Re: What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers?
Quote:
Originally Posted by spankthafunk
Every printing technique has it's time, use, and certain methods of acheiving great quality prints.
This is an excellent..and often overlooked...point in my opinion.
There really isn't any "best" method overall...it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
__________________ Big Daddy Screenprinting -Affordable contract Heat Press Services & Low Volume Screen Printing up to 4 spot colors with no setup or screen fees
Re: What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jollytee24
Well I'm not actually looking to do the printing myself, I may in the future, but I just feel like I wouldn't have time now so I was going to subcontract. Are there people I could hire who soley do heat presses?
Absolutely! I'm sure you could find some folks here on the forum by posting a request in the referrals section for somebody to do the heatpressing for you. Or, perhaps, to keep it local you can find somebody near you that has a heat press that would be willing to do it.
__________________ Big Daddy Screenprinting -Affordable contract Heat Press Services & Low Volume Screen Printing up to 4 spot colors with no setup or screen fees
Re: What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers?
Yea search the threads for custom transfers, custom plastisol transfers, or something like that. I know I 've seen some posts around here about it. If you are planning to order a large quantity, I'd say go with screen printing, though I'm not familiar enough of how much of a price break you get on custom transfers.
Re: What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers?
Quote:
Originally Posted by treadhead
There really isn't any "best" method overall...it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
That's just something people stuck with the low-end methods tell themselves
The best method will not always be the same (although it is most of the time), but there are some that will never be the best method.
In other words, not every printing technique has it's time, and some methods will never achieve great quality prints.
There's a lot of nicey nicey everything has its place stuff said around here to protect people's feelings and avoid disagreements - but that doesn't make it true, and it won't protect their wallets if they make a poor decision after believing what they read (one of the reasons so many businesses fail is willful delusion, and misinformation).
Re: What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Solmu
That's just something people stuck with the low-end methods tell themselves
The best method will not always be the same (although it is most of the time), but there are some that will never be the best method.
In other words, not every printing technique has it's time, and some methods will never achieve great quality prints.
There's a lot of nicey nicey everything has its place stuff said around here to protect people's feelings and avoid disagreements - but that doesn't make it true, and it won't protect their wallets if they make a poor decision after believing what they read (one of the reasons so many businesses fail is willful delusion, and misinformation).
I sort of disagree with you. Though I understand what you're saying, I think that every printing technique does have it's time and place. The reason why I say this, is because you are right that some techniques will never achieve the best print quality, but when talking on the forum, you have to take into consideration the people you are talking to. Some of us are corporate entities with multiple employees, some us are small shops with a couple of employees, some of us are one person in their garage, and some of us are teenagers looking how to make their break at a young age.
Your points hold very true when you take away money, capital, and items like that. When you consider the best equipment for every job, automated screen presses, high end plotters and cutters, the best printers, etc, then there will only be a couple of the best methods to choose from. But some of us are trying to make this work with the budgets that we have. If on my budget it's cheaper to get a plotter and make shirts with vinyl, then that is best for me because I can't afford to buy equipment for custom plastisols, or find the time to learn process screen printing.
Quote:
That's just something people stuck with the low-end methods tell themselves
This is a very true statement, but you gotta realize that maybe 50% or more of this forum are people on low budgets.
This is a discussion about What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers? that was posted in the Screen Printing section of the forums.
What's the Difference Btwn Screenprinting and Plastisol Transfers? 
