[Rodney]

So what is going to allow me to print onto 100% cotton and darks using this Heat Transfer method ?

Sounds like either opaque transfers or plastisol transfers would be what you're looking for.

 

[Rodney]

Lucy (bless her soul for helping me so much ) has said that the plastisol transfers are done by screen printing and then transfering to the T-shirt when needed. What is their shelf life?

That's a good question, I'm not sure. You might try contacting one of the many plastisol transfer printers and asking them what the shelf life of their transfers is.

I'm guessing it's pretty long since they are often bought in bulk and pressed at different times.

So I could use the Sub Dye inks in my epson + opaque/plastisol transfers for 100% cotton ?

I'm not sure if dye-sub inks are the same as the pigment based inks needed for quality printed transfers. Maybe another member could clarify that.

Dye sublimation and regular heat transfers are a bit different.

 

[Rodney]

You don't do sublimation on dark t-shirts, you would do regular ink jet printed transfers (pigment ink).

You could do sublimation on mugs/mousepads with dye sub inks, but from what I understand it would be "overkill" to use dye sub ink to print out designs on opaque transfers. It can be done, but it would be more expensive than regular pigment ink.

Would I have to trim around the image on the transfer for both opaque and regular transfer papers?

Yes, in order to avoid the residue that shows after you press a heat transferred shirt, you would need to trim around the edges of the design (either using scissors, an xacto knife, or an optical cutter machine).

Plastisol Transfers do not need to be trimmed and leave no residue.

 

[Rodney]

Is this correct?
What is the beneft of this procedure?

Yes, that's it exactly. Instead of screen printing directly onto a garment, the screen printing screen prints the design onto a special kind of transfer paper and gives the transfer paper to you for you to press to the garment with a heat press.

The benefits of this type of transfer is that it allows you to print your design on any color garment with a finished product quality that rivals screen printing. It also is cheaper than screen printing in "up front costs" because you can print the orders on demand once you have the transfers preprinted (in a retail selling environment).

There are all types of other benefits and information you can learn in the Plastisol Transfers thread that's linked to on the main page of this site (at the top in the Six Super Threads area).