[visualnewbie]

What is your opinion on the Photo Trans Imageclip transfer paper as well as your experience with the paper. I'm thinking of going this route, but I'm new to this and your thoughts would be of great help. Thanks.

 

[badalou]

You talking about just transfer paper that you can put a picture on? Like we all use? I use Iron All on lights and jet dark now for darks.

 

[jdr8271]

Photo trans image clip is a special paper that can only be used with color laser printers. It is a self weeding paper, so that it supposedly looks like screen printing. No waxy stuff is transfered onto the shirt...just ink.

I have never used it, so I cant comment. I have heard that its not worth the extra money though.

 

[visualnewbie]

badalou: Yes...bascially the transfer paper that everyone else uses. It's the self-weeding paper like jdr8271 stated.

Basically, I'm interested in the ImageClip paper because of the self-weeding(no window) attributes. Are there any other transfer paper that does the same thing without the window and can run through a laser printer? I'd like to use something close to plastisol screen transfers but going the laser route if possible.

I want to know if ImageClip paper is worth it to those who use it because it is a bit more expensive.

Thanks.

 

[PlayHard]

I've been using ImageClip for about 8 months now. The no weeding aspect is great and has saved me a lot of pain from long sessions with the X-acto knife. The extra expense of the paper (I'm paying $.69 a for A-size sheets) is worth it. The color fastness is great. My first test involved soaking a newly pressed shirt in a sink full of hot water. I haven't had a bleed yet.

The hand is very similar to traditional inkjet transfer but of course you don't have polymer in the white areas.

On the downside, I have had zero success in getting it print light gray tones and any gradients that fade to white. Tonight I found out that it also won't handle light pink. Yesterday, I had to switch back to inkjet to finish a job because of the troubles with gray.

It also seems to have trouble with large areas of black. I have yet to achieve a true deep black tone like I can with ink-jet. I compared my black to an Imageclip sample I got from a tradeshow, and mine didn't come close. I believe this is a printer/toner specific problem and not the due to the paper. I printing on a OKI C3200 which was one of the printers recommended by the supplier. I think I'll take some sheets down to Staples and try it out with some different printers to see if I have better success with a different printer.

Not having to weed and worry too much about bleeds would be well worth finding the right laser printer.

I really hope that Neenah continues development of this line and gives us a better product. I'm hoping for a dark print version.

 

[Twinge]

You won't have to worry about ink bleeding with inkjet if you're using pigmented inks, though you will still have to trim the image, of course.

 

[MotoskinGraphix]

I would love someone to explain self weeding/no weeding digital papers. Can you post some step by step photos of how it works. This is a big deal for anyone doing digital printing at home. Is it a breakthrough? Is it a fad?

 

[T-BOT]

I would love someone to explain self weeding/no weeding digital papers. Can you post some step by step photos of how it works. This is a big deal for anyone doing digital printing at home. Is it a breakthrough? Is it a fad?

hi David, du-no about photo-trans (mind you they have been around since the begining), but there is another company down the street that tells me that they too have developed a transfer paper media where NO trimming is required around the design. This would be for CLC machines but the real break thru is that you will also be able to use OFF the shelf type Lazer Printers.

They are sending us out samples friday (tomorrow), so early next week when i get them I will test it thru our Xerox CLC and will even go out and buy a color Lazer printer just for this testing.

We have known this fellow for a while and he too has been around since the begining and we have faith.....so its worth buying a Color Lazer printer ( i need one anyways ).

We'll see how it turns out.

 

[MotoskinGraphix]

Thanks Lucy...but ya know me, plastisol transfers for life. I just would love to see a self weeding digital paper. I thinks its an interesting breakthrough if its what they describe. Love to actually see it in action.

 

[PlayHard]

You won't have to worry about ink bleeding with inkjet if you're using pigmented inks, though you will still have to trim the image, of course.

Hey Twinge help me out... I have 4 injet printers, an Epson 1280, a Epson Photo R320 (my favorite), a Epson C66, and some HP which I don't use anymore.

I bought the cheapo C66 to try out the Durabrite inks which are pigmented (correct me if I'm wrong). However, I have gotten a bleed from the black ink. The colors also seem to color-shift unpredictably when heat his applied.

I thought perhaps that only the color cartridges were pigmented but according to Epson's website, the black is also a Durabrite ink.

What printer/ink combination are you using?

 

[PlayHard]

Imagetrans comes as two sheets of paper. One with red text on the back and one with green text on the back.

Basically, you print a mirror image on the paper with the red type using CLC or CLP with the saturation kicked up, and media set to "heavy."

Lay the print on your heat press and cover it with a the transfer sheet (green text) containing a layer of polymer. Press 20 seconds at 225 deg-F.

Peel the top sheet (green) off hot and set the original print (red) aside.

Heat up to 375 degrees and press the original print (red) to your garment. No X-acto knife needed.

I think it's a break-through, not a fad. It just needs more development. I opened a new pack of paper last night and noticed they've changed the paper with the polymer. It seems like the polymer is thicker and the release paper itself is different.

Neenah is the manufacturer. If you go to their website under Products>>Technical>>Heat Transfer>>Photo-Trans Imageclip, there are pictures, instructions, and an article from Printwear.

 

[Twinge]

I bought the cheapo C66 to try out the Durabrite inks which are pigmented (correct me if I'm wrong). However, I have gotten a bleed from the black ink. The colors also seem to color-shift unpredictably when heat his applied.

I don't know why you are getting any ink bleeding; I've never really heard of pigmented inks bleeding after being applies to a shirt. The color shift is common with Durabrite though, and generally easily fixable:

You will need to adjust your color profile settings when printing. Go into the advanced section and try setting yellow to -15, cyan to +5, and magenta to +5. This should probably solve it, though you might try tweaking these settings for best effect.

 

[PlayHard]

Thanks Twinge, I'll try that for the color and give the Durabrite another try.

 

[elviejo]

Heat up to 375 degrees and press the original print (red) to your garment. No X-acto knife needed.

I think it's a break-through, not a fad. It just needs more development. I opened a new pack of paper last night and noticed they've changed the paper with the polymer. It seems like the polymer is thicker and the release paper itself is different.

I have just tried a couple of transfers and have experienced some peeling problems. I am using a Geo. Knight 16x20 Swinger at 225 degrees for 20 seconds for the red to green transfer and then 375 degrees onto the T. I start peeling after about 5 seconds and abuot half the time get some of the transfer staying on the paper - ie, not pn the sheet.

Any ideas?

Charlie

 

[PlayHard]

Is the part of the transfer staying on the paper specific to some colors or does it seem to affect the design in general? I've seen that with very light colors, light grays and gradients fading to white.

Are you getting a good transfer of polymer from the green sheet? Usually you won't see any polymer left on the green sheet in the image areas. You also shouldn't have any polymer on the white areas of the red sheet.

I think that the with the light colors and grays, there's not enough toner on the red sheet to "grab" the polymer from the green sheet and therefore those areas won't transfer well to the garment.

Check your print settings. I set the paper weight in print options to heavy and max out the saturation.

If it is affecting the whole transfer it, you might also check the accuracy of your temperature settings.

Good luck. I'm hoping this new(reformulated) no-weed Duracotton paper will solve these problems (fingers crossed).

 

[elviejo]

you might also check the accuracy of your temperature settings.

Good luck. I'm hoping this new(reformulated) no-weed Duracotton paper will solve these problems (fingers crossed).

Had not thought about the polymer issue. Would a slightly higher heat (240-250 vs 225 or slightly longer time 30" vs. 20" help ....or hurt?

What is Duracotton? Is this a CLP transfer?

 

[PlayHard]

According to Neenah the transfer temperature needs to be right on 225. I don't think changing the time would help either. You might measure the temperature of your press when it's set to 225 and see if it is accurate.

Duracotton is for CLP/CLC.

 

[elviejo]

Who makes / sells DuraCotton?

 

[GloverEggs]

I have some of this Image Clip paper. I am just now trying it out. I was able to get the images to transfer the polymer just fine (though I had the same problem with a nice even gray not transfering until I darkened it). However, after I washed the T-shirt, the image cracked very badly. I had washed the t-shirts before applying the transfer to make sure that they had shrunk. My image has large colored areas, so the cracking is very noticable and not good.

What do I do to fix this?

Thanks.

 

[bugleboy88]

Hi Playhard
Appreciate your comments and am awaiting your test,I just picked up a konika minolta magicolor 2300dl CP and am trying to find transfers that will work on it,Hoping the image clip will but one Dist. I called had no Idea,and boo-z had me on hold so long i gave that up..and called my screen supply and have them researching it?? Confused bugleboy in NY