[jaiparis]

Hello - I'm new to heat transfer and have a question, I have been reading all the forums and I'm finding alot of information everyone here has been very helpful! my question is concerning my Epson 1280 Printer, people on this forum say I need to buy pigmented based ink, but on Epson's web site, it says the photo ink (dye based) works great on heat transfers, I have tried some of these and washed it, no fading, looks as bright as when I first pressed the shirt. I am going to do some more testing... but guess I'm not understanding why I have to use pigment type inks? any help would be appreciated!
Thanks
Jai

 

[derzerb]

Did you press onto a cotton or polyester shirt?

 

[jaiparis]

Pressed it on to white 100% cotton shirts.

 

[Twinge]

Try printing with dye-based inks on to a shirt, and then soaking the shirt in water and folding it on to itself. This is a bleed test; if the ink runs after being soaked like that for a while, they may run for your customers.

In general, pigmented inks are chosen because they will not bleed when washed, and I believe they usually stay brighter and more vibrant on shirts as well.

 

[jaiparis]

Ok I'll give it a shot and see what happens!

Thanks

 

[badalou]

OK, you say you washed the tee. Please tell me how you washed the tee. Then I want you to think of your customer who may wash the shirt a completely different way. I am an ex Epson rep. One of the things I did at my demos which would upset the HP rep who was there was to take a picture from one of our printers (durabrignt Ink, pigment ink printer) and place in jar of water. Then the customer would ask me to do the same with one of the HP pictures. I could see the look on the HP reps face. He knew what was going to happen.. Anyone for Kool Aid. I never did the test with a 1280 because we did not have one in the store I was assigned but I did on the models which were not pigment based and used the same ink as epson 1280 and I never did it in front of the customer. Ok the reason for the different inks is not that one is better for tees then the other it was because true photographers prefer the dye inks because the pigment inks tends to dry darker. They have better color control over pigment inks. But that is on photo paper. Your working with tees. You want a print that not only washes great, as you say your tee did.. but you want to make sure it doesn't fade over time, which a dye ink is inclined to do. Lou