You need pigment ink for heat transfers. I have no idea what kind of ink Canon uses. A good place to start with inkjet transfer paper is the JPSS (Jet Pro Soft Stretch) paper. This is for light colors and white cotton and cotton/poly blends. There is paper out there for dark fabrics but it requires a lot of weeding and trimming or contour cutting with a cutter/plotter.

 

your canon printer is fine for photo printing but not for garments. the ink will simply wash into the garment and destroy both the graphic and garment. follow advise by Loretta.

 

Your could replace your cartridges with re fillable ones with pigment ink . Or get a cis ink system with pigment ink . The jet pro soft stretch is pretty good , for darks the 3G opaque is good also .

 

Thanks for the advice guys. i have another inkjet printer as well. Its a Canon pixma MG2120. would it be any better than my other printer? or is it also bad for heat pressing.
Should i just get and Epson printer? is so which one would be best for me?

thanks
Ollie

 

One more thing, what are good websites that sell you high quality customized transfer paper for a good price? a website where you send them your design?

Thanks again
Ollie

 

As far as Epson printers goes try to get a workforce 1100, it has been taken out of production but every now and then one shows up. Or go to the Epson website and see what printer they replaced it with.

I don't know about companies that print your design on transfer paper. Imprintables might and a few other companies on the left of this screen might.

 

We did a test print last week on a Canon mp620, with oem ink, on Magic Touch transfer paper. At this point, the ink has not run, but the Magic Touch paper is very heavy. We have ordered JPSS, so we have to wait and see.
The ink came out vibrant. We had to go into the manual settings of the driver and increase the darkness/saturation on the colour profile. It took a bit of playing around to get it right. We waited a week before washing, and the ink did fade, but still looks good. We have done another print and are waiting a week again before washing.
We believe that the Canon ink is dye, not pigment, but we're not 100% sure on that.
What we have found out is that the Canon ink is excellent for printing on aqueous vinyls for small products like bumper stickers etc.
My recommendation is to try the Canon, see how it goes and if youre not happy then grab yourself a cheap Epson. I think thats what we will be doing eventually.

 

Pigment ink won't fade. I've washed them immediately after pressing and didn't have any change in my images. Dye ink will fade and run and bleed.

 

You can also use stock epson durabrite cartridges ...

 

That you can and it will cost you a small fortune. Better to visit cobraink.com and get refillable ink carts and buy the bulk pigment ink.

 

sooo if i get a epson workforce 1100 printer, refillable pigment ink, The jet pro soft stretch transfer paper for light colors and 3G opaque transfer paper for darker colors, will the quality of the print actually be nice, durable, and long lasting? or will it wash away after a couple of washes and make it look cheap? i just want the best quality out of the shirts

one more thing. Do i have to cut around the design on the transfer paper so that the line doesn't show or will the ink just come off?

 

sooo if i get a epson workforce 1100 printer, refillable pigment ink, The jet pro soft stretch transfer paper for light colors and 3G opaque transfer paper for darker colors, will the quality of the print actually be nice, durable, and long lasting? or will it wash away after a couple of washes and make it look cheap? i just want the best quality out of the shirts

one more thing. Do i have to cut around the design on the transfer paper so that the line doesn't show or will the ink just come off?

For JPSS on white tshirts the "line" around the design will not really show up if pressed correctly. On light colors the lines (polymer window) will show.

3G Opaque images and looks nice, however, it will eventually crack and look ugly.

 

I was pointing out he could also use the durabrite ink .

 

The quality of the print should be fine. You do want to weed the paper around your image to cut down on any transfer that you don't want, but it will last. I suggest you go to cobraink.com and see what kind of refillable ink carts they have. The epson 1100 is no longer in production and is hard to find. I don't recall off hand what the replacement for it is, but you'll find it probably on the cobra website. In any case make sure you can get ink carts for it before you buy a printer.

 

I have used the 3G on darks for as long as I can remember , not one single issue of cracking or looking ugly . I have countless shirts of my own here and they still look almost as good as the day they were done .

 

I have done extensive wash testing with all the available opaque papers and 3G will crack, it's not a question of if, but when. Also, if it goes into a hot dryer it will shrivel up like frying bacon.

No 3G tshirts I made could get past 15 washes (per the OEM wash instructions) without cracking, some were sooner.

The only single step opaque paper that will not eventually crack is called "Iron-all for darks" "Super stretchy Dark" and "Ink flex dark", all the same papers just different branding names. It is made by IYA but for some reason they have not been able to provide it to suppliers this year.

2 step opaques do not crack, however, it is expensive, the hand is way bad, and difficult to apply.

If you search the threads here others have tested this also and posted the results ... 3G will crack unless you are washing by hand and hang dry.

 

Must be doing something right then easy over 15 washes and not a single issue . The ink I use is pigment but its designed for t shirt transfers especially . I tested many pigment inks also , some claimed to be something they are not . I finally had some sent to me for a trial and was impressed . This is just my experience with it . But like any process you encounter many variables .. Ink , press , paper , garment etc .

 

Yes, it's hard to simulate all the variables. On that note some washing machines have a more "gentle" or more "delicate" gentle/delicate cycle than others. For the opaques I always tested on the most gentle cycle on my machine and just "fluff" dry or no heat tumble dry in the dryer.

Good chance your washer is more "gentle" on the gentle cycle than mine is. But that also leaves the question is your customer using a washer that is as gentle as yours or better?

Also, once the shirt leaves your hands you cannot control the customers washing habits even if they have a "gentle" machine. The person that had the shirt made is not always the person washing it, so unless specific wash instructions are passed on to the person actually washing the shirt they won't know ... other than maybe not washing a colored shirt hot etc. Murphy's law.

The bummer about other paper I mentioned from IYA is that the paper has availabilty issues.

I abused it and it still won't crack. Hot wash hot dryer, never cracked.

The instructions from the paper for washing ...

http://transferpapershack.com/image...ack.com/images/instructions/ironall-dark-heat-transfer-paper-instructions-1.pdf


"No special laundry instructions are necessary".

 

If IYA can't supply and it's the superior product then I'd assume a phthalate plasticizer issue. Once you remove phthalates from vinyl you have to replace it something to compensate, and the replacements aren't always as good. They can be more susceptible to drying out and cracking. Unless the other papers are specifically not for use in children's garments, they'll have a phthalate substitute, and hence the potential for more cracking.