Cotten T-shirt printing, Your opion....

[Robertdh31]

Hi all im new to printing...
I have been looking around alot the last few days and would like some advice..
What is the best way to print onto cotton?
And is cotton better than sublimations tee's
I would like to print onto baby grows, bibs and tee's
I would like it to be washable and to last...
Also some sort of cost per print would be very helpfull.

Thanks all in advanced.
Robert.

[WorthDoingRight]

Hi Robert,

Well firstly you cannot sublimate onto a cotton shirt it has to be polyester or at least a very high proportion of polyester.

Some people do not like the feel of polyester on their skin or they consider it too warm.

So that leaves Cotton or Cotton/Polyester or Cotton/Other combinations.

So you now have heat applied flex in varous colours and even a heat applied sublimation flex as options.

You also have transfers either printed on pigment based inkjet or some colour laser printers. These tend to come in 'light' and 'dark'. 'Light' has a transparent backing and is suitable where the shirt is light coloured as the shirt colour will show through the transparent areas of the transfer. The 'Dark' variety has a white background so non printed areas will show as white. This does mean that it is common for these transfers to be contour cut (e.g. around the printed image edges) or weeded to avoid having a white square on the garment.

Transfers tend to be washable depending on transfers in up to a 60 degree wash however some are as low as a 30 degree wash.

Heat applied flex can be washed to higher temperatures often as high as 90 degrees which may be better for items people will want to boil wash!

Well down to cost - Light transfer paper is about half the price of Dark transfer paper (and some of the new self weeding Dark papers are a lot more)

So if we say that a sheet of A4 light paper costs 50p and dark £1 including the ink (as pigment ink is usually not as expensive as sublimation ink)

T-shirt flex is aound £7 per metre per 50cm wide piece. So the cost depends on the size of the image and how much flex you waste weeding around it.

[Charlie_]

Well said Richard, nothing else to add to that really

[Robertdh31]

Thanks for the Richard.... So how can you counter cout the images? Say if I have a name "Robert" how difficult would it be to cut around this?
And will transfers be permant not just wash out after a few washes?
And what would be the best ink and printer for this?

How would a company like custom ink do there's?
Thanks.

[GoldRapt]

Don't forget, you can screen print onto cotton .

[Robertdh31]

I don't think screen printing is for me!
has any one tried
http://www.dyetrans.com/detail.php?item_no=CLT1117C&nav=transfer_paper#
no cutting needed?


I would like to print on cotten tees, but I would like it so you carnt see the trans Papper,

Robert..



Don't forget, you can screen print onto cotton .

[WorthDoingRight]

If the cotton t-shirt is white or light coloured then the transfer sheet is transparent and so you will see it if you leave big sections of it. But you can quite happily cut around using a pair of scissors on light shirt transfers. As Dark transfers use a white background it is much more noticeable if you leave big sections of white - you can still cut around using scissors but white sections inside the transfer may be harder to remove by hand.

[Robertdh31]

Hmm this is going to be a lot more difficult than I thought.
I can see transfers being ok for a complete image although I some
One wanted me to put a logo on or a name I would not be able to do it... :(
how do companies do logos etc? Screen printing?

Any thoughts on the link I added?


If the cotton t-shirt is white or light coloured then the transfer sheet is transparent and so you will see it if you leave big sections of it. But you can quite happily cut around using a pair of scissors on light shirt transfers. As Dark transfers use a white background it is much more noticeable if you leave big sections of white - you can still cut around using scissors but white sections inside the transfer may be harder to remove by hand.

[Robertdh31]

how do companies like vista print do there's?

[WorthDoingRight]

Well some of the larger companies have DTG (Direct To Garment) printers that actually print directly onto the shirts and then these shirts are then often heat pressed to fix the image.

Hot flex is the easiest way to print just a single or a few layered spot colours on a shirt. Transfers good for full colour and then you could go for polyester shirts sublimated - some actually like polyester shirts - especially sporty types

[Robertdh31]

Hmmm might have a look at sumlimitaion shirts looks a better option.... How do you transfer with these? Do you still see the transfer paper?
Also what do you think to the silhouette cameo?


thanks for all your advice mate...




Well some of the larger companies have DTG (Direct To Garment) printers that actually print directly onto the shirts and then these shirts are then often heat pressed to fix the image.

Hot flex is the easiest way to print just a single or a few layered spot colours on a shirt. Transfers good for full colour and then you could go for polyester shirts sublimated - some actually like polyester shirts - especially sporty types

[WorthDoingRight]

With sublimation shirts you just see the image as the ink on the sublimation paper is heat transferred to the shirt. So no weeding etc. The cameo is a good cutter for shirt flex, rhinestone templates, contour cutting etc

[Robertdh31]

Ok I will try sublimitaion shirts for now, thanks for your help..... Just the printer to sort now....

[bigj2552]

I don't think screen printing is for me!
has any one tried
http://www.dyetrans.com/detail.php?item_no=CLT1117C&nav=transfer_paper#
no cutting needed?


I would like to print on cotten tees, but I would like it so you carnt see the trans Papper,

Robert..



buy a cutter/plotter.
you can contour cut very neatly around ANY image. I have done it with superb results on dark and light t-shirt transfer paper, and there is obviously,no shiny residue of the unprinted areas as i have contour cut them out.
all i got is a nice neat, clean design...
simples :wink:

[Robertdh31]

looks a lot to it and I'm still new to all this..... Once started I will look into this!

What printer and ink would you recommend?

[Craig]

the printer for me has to be the Ricoh gx e3300 it is so simple and easy to use and does not get the blocking of the nozzle and does not need constant head cleaning etc

[Robertdh31]

I was looking at the epson b1100 what do you think of that?

[Craig]

To be honest I have never had a epson and only use the Ricoh which was purchased from BMS on here which you might think is expensive to start with but all the stories of cleaning etc with the other printers if you dont use it for a day etc and also with the Ricoh from someone like BMS you always have the after sales service which is second to none

[RogerC]

Regarding the Epson you'll find loads of information regarding clogging heads etc (if it's not used for a while) on here.....likewise you'll find lots of comments regarding the reliability of Ricoh 'if' you're looking for an occasional use printer.

It's worth your while calling Martin at BMS and talking over what you want to do......he's a mine of information and the advantage is he can supply what you need. There's no pressure from him to 'sell'...it's up to you to buy if you get my drift.

[Scotty@BMS]

You do have another option with cotton t-shirts. Chromablast.

http://www.printerowners.co.uk/garment-printing/576/chromablast-for-cotton-garments-ricoh.htm

[Andrew214]

I am thankful to all of you, You have share helpful info with each other. I was also need like this info.

[Edward]

WorthDoingRight you have share with detail. Scotty@BMS you have share short cut way i like it. But i don't know they deals only for domestic level or also for international.

[Justin]

Edward, please read the post above yours and you'll see why one of our members asked you about Calgary :-) Your posts are very similar and I wonder if you're using a translation system of some sort? If so, it isn't working very well :-(