How To Make Screen Print Transfer Sheets

So you bought a heat press and want to get started using information technology to decorate t-shirts. But where can you go cool designs to press onto the tees? Y'all can buy custom-made or prepare-made transfers, but you tin likewise easily learn how to make your own screenprint transfers!

Making a screen impress transfer requires press a design onto a special kind of release or transfer paper. Depending on the blazon of screen print transfer, a variety of inks and paper types will work best. Sublimation transfers use disperse dye ink, screenprints use plastisol ink, and DTF transfers use pigment inks.

In this commodity, you will larn how screenprint transfers work. Y'all'll find out what supplies and equipment you demand to make these transfers. Finally, you lot'll discover six methods for making your ain screenprint transfers!

Quick Navigation

What is a Screen Print Transfer?
What Are Screen Transfers Made Of?
How to Make Your Own Screen Print Transfers: 6 Methods
- 1. Screen Print/Silk Screening
- 2. Plastisol Transfer
- 3. Full-Color Transfers
- 4. Atomic number 26-On Transfers
- 5. Cricut Transfers
- 6. DTF Transfer
How Long Practice Screen Print Transfers Terminal?
Can You Press Screen Print Transfers?
What Printer Do I Demand to Make Transfers?
What is the Best Transfer Paper for Screen Printing?
Should You Make Your Own Screen Print Transfers?
How to Make Screen Print Transfers to Sell
Conclusion

What is a Screen Impress Transfer?

Screenprint transfers are designs in reverse printed onto a kind of release or transfer newspaper. After placing the newspaper ink side downwardly on the receiving surface, such as a t-shirt, an application of high heat causes the ink to transfer from the paper to the fabric.

Yous can utilize several different kinds of screenprint transfers. 1 of the most popular is to screen print a design onto transfer paper using plastisol ink. Another popular method of creating this print transfer is to use disperse dyes to create a sublimation print.

In nearly ways, y'all create a print transfer exactly every bit you would design and create the print if you made it straight onto the t-shirt or other surface. Simply the benefit of using a transfer is that you lot can make a lot of that 1 design at once and save them for later employ. Y'all can likewise sell them to apply the transfer to whatever surface they want afterwards on!

What Are Screen Transfers Made Of?

Screen transfers are fabricated out of a printed design on transfer or release newspaper. The type of paper and ink used is crucial as it determines what kind of last print you will become and how well the design will transfer from the paper to the last surface. Of class, the quality of your design can also make a large difference.

When making a screen transfer, you begin with the design. Y'all can create a design in many means, ranging from using professional graphic design software to cutting out a stencil on a Cricut to just hand-painting a blueprint. Using a computer design program gives you the easiest and most accurate way to create lettering, logos, or edit images.

Once you lot have the design, you lot will use several unlike techniques to print it onto your transfer paper–you lot can find more than details on each process in the next department of this article!

But every blazon of transfer needs two things during this procedure: transfer paper and ink. Let'south accept a quick look at different types of newspaper and ink.

Transfer paper typically comes in either a hot or cold skin. Hot skin means that you can safely remove the transfer paper after using heat to adhere the ink to the material right away. Common cold peel means that you need to allow everything to cool downwardly before removing the paper.

For screenprint transfers, your best option of paper is hot peel plastisol transfer paper. You can detect dozens of different brands selling this. The key is to expect for plastisol transfer paper, non inkjet or sublimation newspaper.
For sublimation transfers, you will want to make certain you observe sublimation transfer paper. You tin too find this option in both hot and cold peel.
Finally, for DTF transfer, yous will desire to use DTF transfer sheets that look more similar a thin film.

Some other primal gene in creating a impress transfer is using the right printer and ink.

For screenprint transfers, yous tin can utilise a unproblematic mesh screen and plastisol ink or a more professional printer that comes with racks to concur screens in various colors. Screenprints are made ane color at a fourth dimension, then y'all demand a screen for each color y'all programme to use.
For sublimation transfers, you tin employ either a special sublimation printer or an inkjet printer with sublimation ink installed. Yous print these designs out just equally you would print onto regular copy paper. Sublimation ink is a kind of disperse dye that bonds with synthetic fabrics similar polyester when exposed to oestrus.
For DTF or DTG transfers, you do need a special DTG printer. It uses water-based ink that soaks beyond the surface of the fabric to class permanent prints.

How to Make Your Ain Screen Print Transfers: 6 Methods

You can use diverse techniques to create a print transfer, including using mesh screens and by-hand screenprinting, using computer graphics and sublimation dyes, or using a Cricut with several different types of ink.

1. Screen Print/Silk Screening

You lot make a screen print or plastisol oestrus transfer past pressing ink through a stencil on a screen. Setting up the screens to create a screen impress transfer takes some piece of work, simply the great affair about this procedure is that you lot can utilize the tools and ready to brand dozens or hundreds of transfer sheets! You can then let the transfer sheets dry and apply them to t-shirts much subsequently on.

You make screenprint transfer sheets in much the same way equally you make any screen impress design, with a few minor modifications. The biggest difference is that yous will want to add together an adhesion powder that helps the plastisol ink stick to the transfer newspaper.

Make a mirrored design using a Cricut, a hand-cut stencil, or a graphic design software programme. For really professional-grade screen print transfers, you will probably desire to make a stencil using a lite emulsion procedure on your screen (you tin can find details on this in the side by side section). For a simpler pattern, y'all tin can make a concrete stencil using your Cricut or a hand-cut piece of cardstock.
You need the design stencil in reverse because you lot volition flip the transfer upside down to employ it to your shirt!
The easiest screenprint transfers employ only one color because you have to layer ane color at a time using separate screens and stencils for this kind of printing.
Secure the stencil to your mesh screen. For transfer prints, you typically want a fine mesh screen of most 150 thin thread mesh.
Adjacent, you can either dust the transfer newspaper with adhesion powder or save this step and dust the finished impress with adhesion powder.
Spread the plastisol ink over the stencil using an angle of 75°. Brand certain you use a sparse, smooth layer of ink to not leak under the stencil.
If you accept a professional press, ready the transfer paper below the screen and press them together. If you have plain screens that you have gear up up by hand, advisedly align the inked screen over the paper.
Remove the stencil and flash cure the transfer paper using 180 to 260℉.

In some cases, yous may desire to try mixing the adhesive powder into the plastisol ink rather than dusting the paper with the powder. This creates a thicker ink with a raised design on the transfer newspaper.

two. Plastisol Transfer

A plastisol transfer is a piece of transfer newspaper with a screen printed blueprint on information technology. You lot utilize a heat press to transfer the plastisol ink to the surface of a fabric t-shirt. You tin can use the bones steps in the previous department to create a simple, 1-color plastisol transfer. If you would like to make a more than advanced type of transfer, follow these steps to create a more complex blueprint using an emulsion stencil.

In a dark room, follow the instructions on the package to mix up the sensitizer and photo emulsion in the proper quantities. Typically, you will also add together a certain amount of water to this mixture.
With the screen facing up, cascade your emulsion mixture across the bottom border of the screen, and then use a squeegee to drag information technology in a smooth coating over the surface of the whole screen. Plow the screen and then that you can encounter the inside of the screen and exercise this again, plumbing fixtures your squeegee inside the wooden slats of the frame to spread the emulsion.
Permit the screen dry out totally in a dry, dark identify for at to the lowest degree viii hours.
Next, you need to prep your image for the stencil screen. You can practice unproblematic designs using a Cricut or any other cut-out, just for advanced work, you will want a design program that offers colour separation. Y'all can brand a separate stencil for each colour in the image and create a screen for each color.
Print your blueprint onto a transparency sheet. Or print one sheet for each color layer if you programme to make a multi-colored impress transfer.
With your pattern ready and the emulsion screen dry out, you tin can set up the light exposure. To do this, set a vivid seedling, at least 150W, within a metal reflector. Identify this low-cal a foot away from where y'all plan to identify the screen.
Identify the transparency upside downwardly on the backside of the screen then that it looks right from the within of the screen. Put a piece of drinking glass or acrylic over the transparency (the glass insert from a large motion picture frame works well).
Plow on the lite and expose the screen for 45 minutes to an hour.
Finally, accept the screen to a sink and spray cold water over it. You should see your design offset to prove upward on the screen!
Let the rinsed screen dry totally before using it to screenprint with plastisol ink onto transfer sheets.
If you made a multi-colored design, y'all would need to repeat all of the steps for each color layer/stencil screen you brand.

three. Full-Color Transfers

The easiest ways to create full-colour transfers are to use a sublimation printer or a DTG printer. Both processes come with some pros and cons. You tin can create full-colour images using screen printing, but only by using color-separating software and and so creating a light emulsion stencil for each of the colors.

The biggest advantage to choosing a sublimation transfer for a full-color design is that y'all tin can impress out colors using the digital CMYK model using a sublimation printer. Your printer will mix up all the colors and shades to recreate a photograph for you lot if you employ sublimation press!

Y'all can easily utilize sublimation transfers to whatever synthetic material or a hard surface treated with a synthetic coating. Plus, it's pretty easy to create full-colour sublimation transfer prints.

The biggest downside to sublimation transfers is that they will only work on polyester t-shirts. Yous cannot apply them on cotton. You lot also need to own a sublimation printer. You have to brand sure you use sublimation transfer paper and the right sublimation dyes that tin evaporate and bail with polyester fibers.

DTG printers cost a lot, and unfortunately, they remain the best way to print DTG/DTF transfers. These printers use a water-soluble ink designed to soak into the textile rather than but sitting on its surface.

If you have a professional set-upwards or plan to launch a pocket-sized business, y'all can easily use a DTG printer to print full-color designs onto transfer paper.

Follow these steps to create a sublimation transfer impress:

Brainstorm past prepping a digital design. Yous can use a photo, lettering, or anything else you desire! Make sure yous either mirror the image or flip information technology horizontally before press.
Put the sublimation transfer paper into the printer with the papery side facing up and the writing side facing down.
Impress out your design. It will look paler than your digital design but don't worry virtually that!
And that's it! You practice demand a oestrus press to apply the transfer to a t-shirt later on, simply making the actual sublimation transfer requires hardly any piece of work!

4. Iron-On Transfers

Iron-on transfers work quite differently from other types of print transfers because you permanently adhere the transfer itself to the shirt using a heat-activated adhesive on its backing. Unlike all other transfers, you don't utilise heat to apply the ink and and then peel abroad the transfer paper!

The big do good of this kind of transfer is that information technology provides a backing behind the ink. This means that yous can use night-colored t-shirts without worrying about the colors fading into the shirt! You do not take to mirror your blueprint when y'all impress it onto an fe-on transfer considering you will apply the iron-on ink side facing up.

You can use plastisol inks and screen-printing methods to create designs on atomic number 26-on transfers. You can too use a DTG printer on fe-on transfers. You tin can also sublimate onto certain types of rut transfer vinyl, but you have to make sure the HTV contains polyester for that procedure to work.

five. Cricut Transfers

You can utilise a Cricut to brand a stencil to employ during the screen press process to make estrus transfer designs. You can apply whatever electronic cutting device, but the Cricut brand remains one of the nigh popular out there and comes with handy design software called Design Space that you tin use to brand and mirror your stencil design.

To make a screen print transfer using a Cricut:

Start in Design Space by creating a digital image that you want to impress. Typically, you will use only one color every bit it takes a lot of work to make multiple stencils for separate screen print colors.
Mirror the design so that it volition cut out in reverse. Design Infinite offers a handy "mirror" button that will do this for yous.
Send the file to your Cricut and cutting out the blueprint using regular adhesive vinyl.
Before you lot peel the vinyl off the cutting mat, weed away the positive space of your design. Y'all want to keep the negative infinite so that the ink tin fill in the actual blueprint afterward on!
After the weeding, carefully peel up the vinyl stencil. Remove the adhesive bankroll and place information technology pasty-side downwards on your mesh screen. Employ your squeegee to polish over the vinyl and make sure no air bubbles got stuck in it!
You can as well utilize transfer record effectually the vinyl edges for actress security.
From this betoken on, you lot apply your stencil-prepared screen only as you would for whatever screen print procedure! You will smooth plastisol ink over the surface of the stencil using a squeegee, forcing the ink to go through your pattern and onto the transfer paper beneath.

six. DTF Transfer

DTF stands for direct-to-cloth or directly-to-film, but these transfers frequently become chosen DTG, or directly to garment, as well. This is a bit confusing because when you print on a transfer, you aren't actually press direct to the garment! Merely the process of creating a DTG/DTF transfer works in pretty much the same fashion equally using this press method directly onto a t-shirt.

So, what is a DTF transfer? It's a sheet of transfer film with a mirrored design printed onto it using a DTG printer. Y'all can use the printed design to the final surface, such equally a t-shirt, using a heat press.

The great thing nearly this procedure is that y'all can apply this transfer film onto many different types of surfaces, including cotton, polyester, and even leather!

Aside from the fact that you need either a DTG or direct-to-motion-picture show printer to brand this kind of print transfer, it's a pretty simple process!

You can buy DTG film in either sheets or rolls. You will need to start by cutting out a slice that will fit your printer.
Prep your digital design. You can use full-color images such as photos quite easily.
Print out the image, and then print a white layer over height of this. If you have an bodily DTF printer, the software will practise this for you all at one time, then you do not have to impress on the film twice.
Adjacent, carefully sift hot cook powder for DTG transfers over the pattern while the ink remains damp. This agglutinative powder volition let your transfer moving-picture show to stick to the fabric after on.
Cure the adhesive powder and ink by using a rut press at 350℉ for two minutes.
Now you have a finished transfer film! To attach it to a garment, you will employ a estrus press ready to 284℉ for 15 minutes and and then do a cold skin by allowing the motion picture to cool entirely before peeling information technology abroad.

How Long Do Screen Impress Transfers Concluding?

Plastisol transfer prints can last for years and so long equally you store them in a absurd, air-tight container. The ink will non degrade or fade over time under these conditions. You can apply them at any bespeak by applying a estrus press to seal the ink onto the terminal surface.

To prolong the shelf life of your plastisol transfers, you practise demand to go on them in something air-tight similar large Ziploc numberless. You should also notice an environment with cool, dry air rather than hot and boiling air or clammy air.

Too, make sure they do not sit directly under bright light, and definitely do not continue them in straight sunlight!

Can Y'all Printing Screen Print Transfers?

You can utilise a oestrus press to seal the ink on a screen print transfer onto a shirt or other surface! To practice this, follow these uncomplicated steps:

Turn on your estrus-press and set the temperature to 325℉ to 350℉, depending on the instructions that come with the transfer sail packaging.
Apply the heat press to the shirt, where the design will get briefly to remove wrinkles or moisture from the material.
Fix the transfer sheet ink-side down onto the material.
Apply the heat press for five seconds.
Hot-peel the transfer newspaper away with slap-up care. If it does not come up abroad easily, use the heat press over again for a couple of seconds.

This process works best with a professional or clamshell-style heat press. If you have a small heat press, y'all will have to push downwards on it during the five-2nd oestrus window to add necessary pressure level.

What Printer Practise I Demand to Make Transfers?

You can utilize several different kinds of printers to brand transfers depending on the way of transfer impress y'all want.

For sublimation transfers that you desire to use on polyester, you will need a sublimation printer. These practice non cost too much though the disperse dyes necessary for sublimation printing can get pricey.

For screen printing, you do not have to have a printer at all! Yous can work with mesh-covered screens that you build yourself if you prefer. But for a professional set-up, yous will desire to get a screen print press with arms to hold multiple screens at once.

For DTF/DTG transfers, y'all will need a DTG printer. These do cost quite a lot. Well-nigh of the time, but professionals running big-calibration businesses invest in this blazon of printer.

What is the Best Transfer Newspaper for Screen Printing?

To create expert screen printer transfers, you need to utilize plastisol transfer paper. You tin find many different brands selling this kind of transfer newspaper, such as Epson, Reich Supply, and Ryonet.

You can lodge plastisol transfer paper online or find it in many arts and crafts stores. Sometimes office supply stores will have it near the printers as well!

Keep in listen that inkjet transfer paper or other types of transfer newspaper like sublimation paper or DTF pic will not work for screen press.

Should You lot Make Your Own Screen Print Transfers?

If you're trying to decide whether you should make your own screenprint transfers, print directly onto the garments, or order custom transfers, check out his helpful list of pros and cons!

Pros of making screen print transfers:

You tin can make a lot of transfers and store them for afterward utilize. This ways that you can have a popular design on mitt if many customers request information technology at once.
As well, storing transfers takes upwards a lot less space than storing folded t-shirts.
You do not take to spend a lot of money on shirts, hats, or other blanks that could be wasted if no one wants that item design.

Cons of making screenprint transfers:

It takes a bit more time than directly printing onto the blank, as you have to repeat some steps.
You take to know how to screenprint. If you have no experience in this arena, you lot may discover it more toll-effective to custom order transfer prints and and then only apply them to blanks using a heat press.
Y'all practise non see the finished product until the point at which you attach the transfer to the blank. Yous could cease up with a mistake or error in the whole batch of screen print transfers that you lot fabricated before.

How to Make Screen Print Transfers to Sell

The cardinal departure between making screenprint transfers to sell and making them for your ain use is that you lot volition mostly want to replicate the same pattern in bulk if you programme to sell the transfers.

One of the bully things nearly selling print transfers, rather than finished shirts, mugs, or baseball caps, is that your startup cost will be much lower! You only have to buy packs of transfer paper rather than buying blank t-shirts, hoodies, or hats.

Plus, depending on your print method, you may also detect it easy to utilise this method to offer custom work to customers. You tin simply print the requested blueprint onto a transfer paper and mail service it to the client. The client then uses a heat press to attach the design to the item of their choice.

Conclusion

You tin brand your own screenprint transfers using a simple Cricut stencil on a screen or a fancy DTG printer on DTF film! The bones concept of a print transfer, whichever method yous choose, is to utilise ink onto a transfer canvass. You can and then save that canvas until y'all want to use a estrus printing to utilise it to a bare t-shirt, hoodie, or another surface.

Popular ways to create impress transfers include creations plastisol transfers using traditional screen printing and light emulsion stencils or simple screen press using a Cricut-cut stencil. You can also create a sublimation print transfer by printing your design onto sublimation paper using a sublimation printer. The other super-popular blazon of print transfer requires a DTG printer and a special DTF film.

Have you always made a print transfer? What method did you employ? Exit a comment beneath to allow united states of america know!

Source: https://silverbobbin.com/how-to-make-screen-print-transfers/