The protective paper is only to catch the ink steams that releases in process so the heat press will not get dirty
Also, I'm not sure but it might also keep the ink from burning, till I got this combination of process I got some burned images, you can see it on the brown tons the most
Anyhow, using this setup I'm getting extremely good results each time
I apply high pressures not medium so the image will be good all over the image, even at the edges of it
With medium pressure I got some weak printing on some spots like it doesn't transferred properly
Here is the results you should get
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