Screen Printing vs Heat Press

[Pascale]

Hi,

I'm starting up my own t-shirt printing business and wanted to know what is the main difference between screen printing and heat press printing, can anyone advise me?

Thanks
Pascale

[soulclaimed]

it depends what you're asking as there ae many ways you can use your heat press to do tshirts, you can even press screen printed designs e.g someone else screen prints them to make a transfer and you press it. You can also use your heat press to sublimate 100% polyester tshirts but you cant really use this for opaque coloured tshirts and will require a printer that is compatible with sublimation inks, i use an epson s22 for my sublimation but these arent recommended as they require printer profiles and dont always have the best results although i have had some good prints. You can also use your heat press to press vinyl designs but its is recommended that you also have a vinyl cutter for this to get a quality looking cut of your design. Theres also transfer printing, i use 3g jet opaque for dark tshirts and and jet pro soft stretch for whites from yolo.co.uk prints look great on both however i prefer the feel of jet pro soft stretch as in the name it has good stretch to it and the white area of the transfer blends well with the garment if cut by hand (in my opinion. 3g jet opque looks great but it feels to me like a piece of paper pressed onto the garment in terms of the feel of it on the material.
For transfer printing you need a printer capable of using pigment inks e.g epson s22 or s235w whcih both use durabrite pigment inks which are used alot due to their uv resistance and good wash ability etc. Screen printing takes a lot of work as you need the screens themselves then you need to create your negative on something such as acetate then use photo emulsion on your screen with the negative then a machine to cure it so the photo emuslion hardens only in the areas that the light has passed through to leave the design( the image negative) then you need to make sure you have correct registration (placement of your design) especially for multicolour designs then the printing, then drying and pressing also the chemicals and space required for cleaning the screens. Transfer and vinyl to me is easier but others may tell you everything i have said is wrong lol my knowledge is limited to the 6 months i worked as a print assistant in a screen print factory and the time i have spent sublimating and transfer printing which is another 6-8 months but nobody else has answered yet lol

[logobear]

Hi,
These debates have been conducted in excruciating detail on http://www.t-shirtforums.com/
If you don't know "what is the main difference between screen printing and heat press printing?" then are you sure you are ready to start your own t-shirt printing business?
WHY do you want to start one? - what skills or qualities do you have that will help you achieve this goal?
Spend many hours on Google and reading forums before asking questions that have been answered a '000 times.
This forum is great in helping answer specifics, but it is up to you to discover the basics for your self.
Good learning!