Heat Press Printing
What is Heat Transfer (Vinyl Printing)?
The heat transfer process is a two-stage process that involves (1) creating a negative image, that will be pressed onto a garment and (2) the actual heating and pressing of a transfer image onto the garment. Today’s modern form of heat transfer printing includes methods and techniques from both dye and direct to garment printing.
Computers do most of the work during the design process as they are used to calculate the different amounts of ink and color that will be used to create the images. Computers will also create a mirrored-negative that will then be pressed onto a target garment.
Production defects are minimized with the computer aided process as users are able to view the print as a computer-generated image before the actual printing begins.
Images generated by the computer are printed onto a transfer paper, where the papers only purpose is to “hold” the image until it is placed on the target object (clothing, ceramic mug, etc..). The positioned image is then heated and pressed onto the target object and allowed to cool.