Are heat transfers better than screen printing?
To answer the question of are heat transfers better than screen printing, you really need to know which garment, hat or promotional item you are trying to decorate. It is not as simple as one method is better than the other. It all boils down to the substrate your printing on as well as the number of color and print locations.
Heat Transfers are easy!
When most people think about using heat transfers, the first thing that comes to mind is printing custom t-shirts. But many screen printers and garment decorators are finding out there are a whole lot of other fabric types and products you can decorate with a heat transfer.
Are Heat Transfers better than Screen Printing?
Todays custom heat transfers are formulated with new adhesives and inks which allow the decorator to print or embellish things that screen printers just can’t do. For example, screen printing four color process on a dark colored nylon or polyester lunch bag is nearly impossible. What makes it so tough? The answer is that four color process is transparent and to make it opaque on a dark colored fabric you have to back the process colors with white. This means if you screen print, you will need to “flash cure” the white before laying down each of the process inks. The more the ink goes underneath the heated flash cure unit, the better chance the fabric will shrink. This will cause the image to fall out of registration producing a poor quality imprint. By using a custom heat transfer, you can eliminate all of these issues.
Transfers are printed on either a paper or film substrate which can shrink, but not nearly as much as when printing directly on the garment. To apply the four color process transfer on the same lunch bag, you only need just a few seconds and your print comes out bright and in registration. There are dozens of other items that are perfect for transfers such as swimwear, yoga pants, nylon jackets, some types of umbrellas, chairs. All you need is a heat press that will allow you to press the transfer on with the proper heat, time and pressure.
