Today's highly competitive environment means that printers must deliver a high quality product to maintain their business edge. The strong market demand for occasional, personalized T-shirts makes the case for heat transfer. New heat transfer papers permit greater flexibility in the selection of art and also of the finished product appearance. Improvements in these areas mean larger sales and profit.
Easy done
If permitted by the garment's color and texture, and also by the specific art, the easiest and quickest usable products are those requiring only one step. Such a case applies the art to print in its mirror image and positioned face down on the chosen garment and then pressed. The pressure, temperature and time needed varies according to the garment and the transfer chemistry. The chemistry determines whether the concerned backer sheet is peeled cold or hot. The operator can trim and cut such papers.
A few transfer papers have only minimal polymer, and generally improves with first wash. The papers with hot-peel chemistry takes up the fiber and could feel a little rough. The surface can be smoothed with second pressing. Papers which peel cold feel smoother. They can also be heavier. When the aesthetic needs are met by the print press transfer, it makes the best option. This is due to the fact that as color control becomes easier, it enjoys lowest material expenses and minimum amount of labor. Such products are frequently used on a number of promotional products like bags, puzzles and tags along with a number of others where the unprinted area polymer adds protection.
Opaque transfer
The opaque heat transfer papers have an opaque layer with either a laser or an inkjet coat. Color control can be easily managed and be outputted on desktop printers. Images are right reading printed and the art is cut to desired shape by using registration marks. Unprinted areas are weeded out. The art is subsequently moved to garment and heat pressed with face up. If the art contains numbers or letters, they can be aligned with the transfer tape. The opaque heat transfer papers permit the broadest color gradients range from the extremely light pastels to the over-saturated and intense colors. These papers are excellent for numbering and lettering tasks along with photo and art reproduction. Recently introduced self-weeding papers have been used for both dark and light fabrics. Their transfers are not as simple as print and press ones.
