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Printing on dark shirts

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16K views 38 replies 8 participants last post by  sublial  
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#1 ·
What is the best setup to use to print on dark shirts that is not screen printing? I feel like i am spending a lot of time and money on testing different papers, researching and searching and such when the best option may simply be to ask the experts what they are successfully using.

I want to be able to produce dark colored shirts with bright and vibrant colors and the lightest hand possible. I currently do sublimation printing on polyester but would like to be able to print on cotton and cotton blends.

The equipment that I currently have is?
Ricoh 3110 dn - with Sawgrass Sublimation Ink
HP color Laserjet Pro 452dn
Epson Artisan 1430 - with regular ink

It seems that what i am reading is that it really isnt possible to print dark colored cotton / cotton blend shirts with a light hand and bright colors without a white toner printer which are WAY too expensive. Or To screenprint them.

I have tried the Jet Opaque for laser printer paper which produces bright colors but feels like heavy plastic. I have tried neenah dark image clip and the hand is much better than the opaque but the colors were dull. I have some JSSP coming in the mail to try...

So I thought I would ask you guys... what is your current setup like that is producing awesome results that you are able to sell to the public?

Thanks in advance for your insights!!
Shallena
 
S
#3 ·
Been doing soooo much reading and it seems that this is the best setup for least amount of money... hoping some veterans can chime in yay or nay...

The ability to use white toner... so an older oki printer fitted with white tone

an inkjet printer

laserclip dark

print white toner on one of the papers and inkjet on the other... marry the two... and press onto garment...

that is what i have gleaned from hundreds of posts...

am i close?
 
S
#4 ·
I re-read your post again... and you are using sublimation inks on one side and the white toner on the other... got it!

i must have read ink jet on one side and toner on the other on another post... or maybe my brain is making that up... it does that... lol!

Thank you! I am off to do more reading!
 
#6 · (Edited)
That is correct on both counts. The thread started with inkjet. It wasn't even pigment ink. I was just experimenting when I discovered that ImageClip laser light can be printed with inkjet printer. So I expanded my experiment with ImageClip laser dark. Printed the A sheet with the white toner and the B sheet with inkjet ink. Married the two to weed the unwanted opaque. Pressed the A sheet on dark shirt. And the rest is history. It worked. I did not have sublimation printer to find out how it is going to turn out. Al Lacosta of ATTTransfer printed a sample using sublimation printer and sent it to me. That was the beagle.

BTW you need to use 100% cotton because cotton blend has migration issue. The dye from the shirt will migrate like sublimation and drastically ruin the color of the transferred image.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Translucent toner is like color or white toner but it does not have pigment. It is available from ATTTransfer.com. The contact person is Al Lacosta his forum handle is @sublial. Translucent toner is more appropriate for pigment ink because the toner will be on top of the inkjet image when the sheets are married. White toner will mute the pigment ink color. The amount of white toner has to be toned down if used with pigment ink. Either type of toner will work with sublimation ink because the ink will sublimate through the toner.
 
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#8 ·
Thanks Luis!! I will get with Al and see what he might be able to do for me. I can get the white toner cartridge for my HP from Ghost but it has to ship internationally so i am guessing it will take longer to get here...

I had someone message me asking about my use of my HP Laser printer with the image clip... and I didnt know people say the HP's get too hot... the first time i ran my image clip dark through it actually was not hot enough... the toner smudged when it came out of the printer. I spent a couple of hours reading and searching how to turn up the temperature on my fuser but it turns out that my model does not have that option. But I read that if i used a decal paper setting i would have better luck. Again... I dont have a decal setting... but I did have a setting that was for Opaque Film... and I used that setting. That setting made the paper go through the printer much much slower that the first time so there was more time for the toner to set and the picture was beautiful. So... for what it is worth... that is my limited experience with the use of an HP laser printer with the image clip dark. have some image clip light coming... will update when i try that...
 
#9 · (Edited)
Thank you for sharing your settings. Smudging exactly what happens when the toner is not fused properly. That is why the print speed must be slowed down so the toner will fuse properly. Maybe those that owns the HP printer that get smudging say the fuser runs too hot. When actually it is the opposite based on what you are telling me that you end up using decal settings to fuse the toner properly and avoid smudging.

Okidata printers have plenty of media weight options to slowdown the speed.
1) Ultra heavy
2) Ultra heavy 2
3) Label
4) Label 1
5) Transparency

Other models have much more.

In addition there area media type options for thick media like cardstock.

Most of the time I use Ultra heavy media weight and cardstock media type. Occasionally I use label or transparency depending on the transfer product. Sometimes when the speed is way too slow can cause ghosting because very faint trace of the toner will stick to the fuser that ends up transferring back to the transfer paper.

Your settings maybe will help other HP printer owner that think its fuser is running too hot for heat transfer.
 
A
#18 ·
It is not a question would your Ricoh work or not. The problem is in B paper that is used as white enhancement. The white toner is simply an anchor for white polymer on B paper.

It can be a transparent toner if you like.
So if you like you can use on A paper with some inkjet print with transparent toner. And merge it with B paper.
And B paper is some kind of hot melt plastics and you will never get real Soft Hand feel like this second Latex on Latex sample .
It will always look and feel like better or worse cut out transfer foil for dark.
 
A
#20 ·
If you want a best of the best and last expensive solution for the Soft Hand result on dark, I am sorry I can not be of great help, since this Latex on Latex is close club technology and is offered only with suitable printer, available as a whole package. And this information for obvious reason is not a public domain since this package cost somewhere 200 - 300 USD

But if you like Plug ans Play solution you can consider A + B transfer paper. And for white toner you do have different solution.
The last expensive and the most affordably is this Lexmark approach since these printer are readily available all over the world for 10 - 20 USD. Since they are replaced still in excellent condition at many corporate companies and banks with the new and the last models. Even if you ask on the right place and at the right time, they would be most happy to gave you some Lexmark for free, just to get ridge of them and not to pay for recycling.
 
M
#21 ·
Printing on polyester will require a slightly different process than standard cotton prints. Here are a few tips to get you started:
• Pretreatment – Use light pretreat for white garments with no white ink. You don’t need to use as much pretreatment as you would with cotton; you just want a damp even square.

• Pretreatment Drying – The Temperature of drying poly is a little lower than cotton. The standard is about 220 degrees F. Hover the heat press over the garment for 30-60 seconds. Then press with light pressure for 30 seconds twice.
• Rip Settings – You may need to slightly lower the ink volume if there is any bleeding in the print. You may need to reduce the ink percentage, or print in a lower resolution. Printing on dark garment requires slightly different setting than on cotton prints. You will need to increase the amount of white ink. The color pass should stay the same. You will get an increase amount of white ink by changing the resolution to 2,880 X 1,440 or 2,880 X 720

• Ink Drying – You will always want to use the settings provided by the manufacturer for curing. Poly has a tendency to burn at the average direct to garment pressing temperatures so a lower temperature is required. The cure time for light garments with no white will typically be about 60 seconds.

Here are a few more tips that will show you how to perfectly print on all cotton, cotton blends and polyester garments.
 
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#30 ·
yep... that is the HP I use/used. it prints beautifully... no issues with any of the papers running through it. I am bummed I messed it up. It is weird that the Image Clip Dark works for some but not others... I had a gal who it works for give me her printer and press setting since we used the same ones...but no matter what i did... white around the edges... I will go ahead and get on chat with HP... I was trying to avoid it mostly because I feel silly for what I did... lol
 
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#29 ·
Hi Luis... yeah... I waited different times before peeling ranging up to 10 seconds but still got the white around edges and inside letters. My image was a logo for a pocket so it was small... but I make it in Corel Draw so the edges were all smooth... I tried different pressures from very light up to very heavy... different heat... nothing seemed to make a difference. I did like the images though... Question Luis... What are your main go to procedures for printing dark shirts and light shirts? Regarding B papers... i think you said to use the Image Clip Dark... that it takes sublimation ink very well. Is that correct?
 
#31 · (Edited)
Yes Imageclip will accept sublimation inkjet ink. But if you are having issue with small images then that will be issue with sublimation also. If you look at the Beagle the image was clean except the registration was off when I married the sheets. The back side of the image is clean. Even the whiskers transferred and crisp. But that was a large image. If you want send me the image you are having problem. PM system does not allow attachments. So send a PM and I will give you my email address if you don't have it already. Click my address then attach the file. Make sure it is the actual size and high resolution. I use CorelDRAW and Photoshop. BTW I use the old version of Imageclip laser dark settings to marry the sheets. I had issues with the new version settings.

Make sure your inbox is not full.
 
#32 ·
not sure if you have moved on from the hp Shallena,
but thought i would throw this in here

for whatever reason i could not finagle the settings for the hp out of him
communication issue is my guess

i'm tossing around a few different brands to purchase right now
if i get an hp, i will pointedly ask him for the settings
he did say the hand and washability has been good (no mention of the white bleed issue that Shallena had)
 
#33 ·
Update! Shallena did sent me a file a while back. But I can't use it because I did not have the font that she used. I emailed back and asked her to possibly send me the font or identify it or publish the file to pdf with text converted to curves so font compatibility will not be an issue. I have not heard from her again.
 
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