[BikerBull]

Hello everyone, hope you are well.

After getting my head around the differences between dye and pigment ink and taking all the advice and suggestions by people on the site had decided on pigment inks for garment printing.

I have now come across another type "Eco Solvent" is this another type of ink? or just an environmentally friendly sounding name of either dye or pigment.
If there is a difference what are they and are they as good for transfers as pigment ink

Thank you

 

[NoXid]

It is a solvent based ink for printing on vinyl, and the like. It does not dry instantly, and the chemistry is entirely different, so there are potential issues with using it in the cheap printers we typically use for transfers. I believe this is used in printer/cutter combo machines.

 

[BikerBull]

It is a solvent based ink for printing on vinyl, and the like. It does not dry instantly, and the chemistry is entirely different, so there are potential issues with using it in the cheap printers we typically use for transfers. I believe this is used in printer/cutter combo machines.

Thanks for the reply, I noticed there was a lot of videos on you tube showing print and cut using Roland machines, a tad out of my price range I'm afraid, however , epson seem to do an eco solvent printer (the L series) it is not that much more expensive than a pigment ink printer, from what I saw on the epson site. I was wondering how the inks would compare, as I say was leaning toward a pigment ink but if there is a chance eco solvent is better for whatever reason in anyones opinion I would love to hear your thoughts

 

[NoXid]

Well, not really a matter of better, rather a different purpose. You don't print onto transfer paper with solvent, you print directly onto the final object, be it vinyl/plastic whatever

You could, of course, heat press the printed vinyl onto a shirt, but that is heat press vinyl, not an inkjet or laser transfer. Some say that on dark shirts this may be a better route than the heavy-hand low-durability transfers for dark garments. Because of that, I have been curious about it, but as you noted the equipment tends to be pricey and larger than needed for garments (aimed at printing vinyl signs, I believe).

If the Epson eco solvent printer is affordable, you would still need a cutter, but you would have one of those if planning to work with dark garments anyway. I'd be curious to see current opinions about the lower-end options for this route.

 

[missmaryfrancis]

Well, not really a matter of better, rather a different purpose. You don't print onto transfer paper with solvent, you print directly onto the final object, be it vinyl/plastic whatever

You could, of course, heat press the printed vinyl onto a shirt, but that is heat press vinyl, not an inkjet or laser transfer. Some say that on dark shirts this may be a better route than the heavy-hand low-durability transfers for dark garments. Because of that, I have been curious about it, but as you noted the equipment tends to be pricey and larger than needed for garments (aimed at printing vinyl signs, I believe).

If the Epson eco solvent printer is affordable, you would still need a cutter, but you would have one of those if planning to work with dark garments anyway. I'd be curious to see current opinions about the lower-end options for this route.

I converted my Epson ET-2760 to print with eco-solvent ink. I tried it with ppd transfer sheets for light and dark shirts. So far so good. I was hoping to have longer lasting full color designs on the shirts and so far it's working fine.

 

[NoXid]

I converted my Epson ET-2760 to print with eco-solvent ink. I tried it with ppd transfer sheets for light and dark shirts. So far so good. I was hoping to have longer lasting full color designs on the shirts and so far it's working fine.

Does "conversion" involve anything other than loading it up with eco-solvent ink rather than regular ink? I ask because I dimly remember something about people replacing some part (maybe tubing?) when converting in the past with previous model printers. But I may be getting that mixed up with something else.

If using T-shirt transfer sheets, why not just use pigment ink? I thought the point of eco-solvent was printing on vinyl and other stuff that regular inks don't work on. Curious to learn more about what you are doing and how it works out.

I print JPSS with pigment ink. Of course, that's a solution only for light/white shirts ... unless you cheat and discharge print a nice white area to put the transfer 🦄

 

[missmaryfrancis]

When I setup my printer I just added the eco-solvent ink. I never used the Epson ink it came with. I only needed the caps too so I didn't have to use any syringes. I'm just testing with the shirt transfers. I was hoping someone else had tried it and would have details too. I'll see how it holds up with the washing.