There are many types of printing techniques used for printing images on fabrics. For a person who’s interested in opening a T shirt customizable business, it is important to understand what custom iron on transfers are. Iron- on transfers are basically images that can be imprinted on any substrate, or fabric. These images are primarily printed on to T shirts and other merchandise, such as hats, caps, scarves, etc.
One side of the custom transfer is paper, while the other side constitutes the image to be printed. However, this image must be posted in reverse, so that it can take its actual shape when printed. Ordinary paper cannot be used for this process. This is a special paper known as heat transfer paper.
How Does it Work?
After the heat transfer paper has been prepared, it must be placed on the fabric and ironed out. Usually, simple ironing does not provide appropriate sticking power. That is the reason why heat presses are used. Heat presses are heavy sized presses. The substrate is placed between the press, and the heat transfer paper is placed on it. The press is closed, and heated. At the end of the process, the image is successfully transferred on to the fabric. You can also get specific iron- on transfer paper that can be used with a conventional computer printer.
The paper is inserted in to the printer and an image is printed on it. Then, the image must be cut from all sides so that there are no whitespaces left. After the pruning is complete, the custom iron on transfers are placed on to the fabric under a heat press to transfer the image.
Is it Better Than Screen Printing?
There are many advantages of iron- on transfers as compared to conventional screen printing. Screen printing is a popular technique in which a woven mesh is used to provide support for a special stencil. A squeegee releases textile ink, and the stencil draws the image on the fabric.
However, iron- on transfers are significantly cheaper as compared to screen printing. As mentioned, you can also purchase heat transfer paper that can be used with your own computer printer. You can then iron the image on to the cloth. Hence, the only costs incurred in this case are the costs for buying the heat transfer paper. Moreover, custom iron on transfers also allow for the creation of more full color designs. They can be used on 100% cotton garments (very important since most T shirts are pure cotton). You can print as many images as you want using iron- on transfer paper.
