Heat Press Ink Jet Transfers

In an early post I mentioned something fairly new to the market in Ink Jet heat transfers. Now these aren't the Wal Mart heat transfers that you print off and then iron on with your standard $12 iron. These are from a professional company that sells heat presses and their own transfers. I sent an inquiry to the company and found out a little more about the process. Keep in mind I haven't personally tried these yet but the company basically broke it down like this:

"The transfers printed by our company are screen printed onto paper using plastisol ink. The only part of the transfer that shows on your garment is the area where the ink is. These transfers have a longevity that is similar to a silk screened tshirt.

With that being said, our ink jet transfer papers are a bit different. They are made by using the standard ink from your ink jet printer. The entire sheet will
transfer to your garment rather than just the ink, so any area you do not want, you will need to trim away. We offer 2 different types of ink jet paper, one
is for light color garments and the other is for dark color garments. The light color garment paper has a clear residue that appears on the garment if the area is not trimmed away, and the paper for dark color garments has a white backing that will transfer if not trimmed away."

So basically you have to do some trimming with these plastisol ink jet transfers and I get the impression they aren't as long lasting as their other transfers. I have done some further research and found that the type of ink and printer you use also makes a difference. For the best results using these transfers you are going to want a pigment based ink printer. Typical dye based ink is absorbed in to the paper, whereas pigment based ink sits on top of the paper in tiny, encapsulated particles. I can only assume since it's not absorbed it makes for a better transfer to the shirt.

If you are going to heat press your shirts yourself I would recommend using the ready made transfers most companies have, or having them print your custom designs on plastisol for you as opposed to ink jet transfers. Trimming and ink cost could get rather expensive and traditional at home printers are not known for durability. One way I could see using them is to have a supply at home for 'test designs'. Sometimes you just aren't sure how your image is going to look on a shirt, so you put it on Cafe Press in your media basket and hope for the best. At the same time if you are sending off for a company to do your transfers for you it wouldn't make sense to order 250 transfers of a design you aren't sure about. So have a supply of ink jet transfers on hand just to simply test designs! They would work good enough for you to transfer to a shirt and see if the text is large enough or if the colors work as you had anticipated. I'm sure this is an ongoing technological advancement that could get better with time, and I'm still anxious to see how they work in person. If you have any info on them I'd love to hear what you have to say. Happy Designing!