How durable are laser/ink jet transfers for tshirts?

[Justin]

Very interested to start using transfer paper again. The only ones I ever used were Xpres which were fine but would like to try yolo papers. What's the Image Clip like? I guess I'd need a mono laser printer for the mask but could use my B1100 for the transfer with standard inks?

[logobear]

I have tried all the laser papers over the years, we like TMT and Forever best, but they all fade over washing compared with vinyl, sub on polyester, and screen.
On the other hand, it is quick, and cheap, and perfect for promo garments.
We do far more laser transfere on white than any other form of decoration, and when we have a fixed price of 36p per A4 or 56p per A3 (= 2 A4 if cut in half) it is very cheap and very fast.
Tumble dryers are the worst, ironing over the design restores most of the newness.
Very worthwhile!

[AdamB]

AdamB: And are you using Yolo or Neenah paper? Or have you ever try and compare both of them?

I'm using papers direct from Yolo UK ................... but are Neenah papers the same (or very similar)?

taken from Yolo's Site:

About Us
yolö offers one of the widest ranges of inkjet & laser heat transfer paper, vinyl and transfer accessories in the UK. We’re here to help you earn a living doing what you love. Whether you're starting out or have years of experience, we have products to help reproduce your vision or design. Our products will enable you to release the true potential of your designs and images. We've been busy sourcing some of the best performing products on the market so that you have peace of mind and more time to do what you do best!

You'll find products from Neenah, the leading US heat transfer paper manufacturer, garment films from Chemica and Sef, Graphtec contour cutters and George Knight heat presses. We stock an extensive range of inkjet heat transfer paper and heat transfer paper for laser printers, as well as garment film, heat presses, contour cutters and a selection of heat transfer accessories.

Launched in 2007, the yolö website has gone from strength to strength. Always aiming to provide the best customer service, we have built up a very loyal customer base. Our core strengths include knowledge of digital transfer methods, a carefully selected network of partners and a passion to create and discover practical new products that meet our customers' needs.

The yolö team is always on hand to help answer your questions so don't hesitate to say [EMAIL="hello@yolo.co.uk]hello@yolo.co.uk[/EMAIL].

[michallatal]

Probably I will try both of them - Yolo and Neenah - order both samples pack and I will see... ))

[Yolo Creative]

From our experience of heat transfer papers, we have found that inkjet transfers printed with pigment tend to be the most durable. They seem to wash slightly better than inkjet transfers printed with dye-based inks or even the laser transfers. Self-weeding papers such as the Image Clip range tend to be even less durable than standard laser transfers. For this reason, they are mainly used to produce promotional products or items which will not require frequent washing e.g. tote bags.

Durability can be affected by the type of ink/printer, fabric, the paper you are using and how you apply the transfer to the shirt so it can be difficult to generalise and say that certain papers are better than others. For light coloured, synthetic fabrics we would agree with Justin in that sublimation produces much longer-lasting results. Vinyl or garment film is also a great way to transfer text or solid colour logos/images onto garments but you won't be able to transfer photo-quality images. Inkjet and laser heat transfer papers are designed to offer a viable alternative for transferring full colour images to dark coloured or other non-synthetic fabrics (such as cotton). Re-pressing after peeling and washing garments inside out and at lower temperatures will help to increase the lifetime of our inkjet and laser transfers.

We stock almost all of the Neenah papers plus a few papers from other suppliers. You'll see the manufacturer's name on the product pages on our website. The most popular Neenah papers are Jet-Pro Sofstretch for light coloured fabrics and 3G Jet-Opaque for dark or black coloured fabrics (both of these are inkjet papers). We visited Neenah's paper mill in the US back in October and we were really impressed with their set-up. They have a research and development department as well as detailed quality control and testing procedures. Neenah is a relatively large company so they are constantly investing and developing their products. We would confidently say that they produce some of the most reliable and best heat transfer papers on the market.

If anyone hasn't tried our papers and would like to then please send us a message with your details and we'll pop a few samples in the post.

[mrs maggot]

been very impressed with the yolo paper we bought, but i remind my customers that the garments need washing carefully, and not to use vanish or other wash improvers in with them. printed some on my husbands workwear, oil & grease (bike mechanic) and washed every week, and no real fade, i use epson printer with pigment ink from coralgraph they can sometimes look very creased, but as said before just re-ironing or in our case pop under the heat press soon brings them back up again. i have found with all papers, that the re-pressing when first pressing them is the key, using either the paper you have just peeled or other silicone paper - not a pressing sheet as this will leave weave marks on it.

[logobear]

I have tried all the laser papers over the years, we like TMT and Forever best, but they all fade over washing compared with vinyl, sub on polyester, and screen.On the other hand, it is quick, and cheap, and perfect for promo garments.We do far more laser transfere on white than any other form of decoration, and when we have a fixed price of 36p per A4 or 56p per A3 (= 2 A4 if cut in half) it is very cheap and very fast.Tumble dryers are the worst, ironing over the design restores most of the newness.Very worthwhile!

[smitch6]

anyone know if my hp photosmart c309g printer uses dye or pigment ink pls

[mrs maggot]

found on the HP website:


Proprietary dyes help ensure that Original HP inks deliver exceptional light fade resistance while maintaining a large color gamut. The use of dyes, rather than pigments, also enables Original HP inks to provide an exceptionally smooth, uniformly high-gloss finish on glossy photo papers

so that reads like dye ink to me not pigment, but i could be wrong, why not call corelgraph and see what pigment kits they do for it

[smitch6]

thanks Mrs
i searched and couldn't find any info about it lol