The Transfer Print Column
A laser transfer paper for every job Y
This month, Peter Wright, managing director of Amaya Sales UK, explains how you can create great single or full colour designs on garments and hard substrates.
ou may already have a laser printer either mono or CMYK or a white toner printer and already use transfer papers. The question is, how many of the different types of paper do you use and what variety of finished personalised products could you be offering your customer? These products range from T shirts, caps, jackets, mugs, bags, mirrors, umbrellas, bags, books, bottles, candles etc, etc. Just imagine what you could offer your clients. Transfer papers fall into two categories; two-step process papers which allows the printing to go onto dark substrates, and one-step papers which tend to be more for light coloured products. The most popular two-step paper is for printing full colour prints on to any coloured fabric and hard surfaces. This process requires a white toner printer that allows you to print a white under base to your design to create a bright colourful image that is opaque on any colour product. This is a Laser Dark (No Cut) paper and the No Cut means you have no weeding to do whatsoever, and no glue left on your product after transfer.
The best bit
The next great two-step paper you can buy is a single colour transfer media, where the paper is a solid colour – it can be white, blue, red, but more interestingly it comes in neon and metallic. You print in one colour laser toner onto the sheet of media that is for example rose gold, and then it can transfer onto the product with no weeding whatsoever. It allows you to print intricate designs that you would never have managed in vinyl. As mentioned, this Flex-Soft laser paper comes in basic popular colours, metallic and neon and the best bit is it will work with basic mono laser printers, you don’t need the white toner printer to use this. A new laser paper just introduced is the Laser Dark lite which is ideal for light products and comes with a lower cost and shorter press times.
| 46 | November 2020 Give your customers a wider choice
Five Star Universal works with CMYK printers also, and is great for open weave fabrics like polo shirts, sweatshirts, jute bags etc.
Laser Light (No Cut) is another option that is made to work with white toner printers, but to apply to light garments. The white toner coverage under the colours enables an extraordinary bright result on light coloured textiles. Suitable for T shirts, sweatshirts, aprons, babywear and more. You would choose this over the popular Laser Dark as it is only a one-step paper and significantly cheaper if you are working with light products. Laser transparent is another paper made to work with CMYK laser printers.
Hot stamping foils are worth a mention at this point, as they are a great addition to the two-step papers and can be used to give an extra dimension to your designs. Moving onto the one-step papers, Classic & Universal is a great go-to stable in the laser transfer market. It works with CMYK printers. It is a budget paper with a soft touch and high-quality finish. It is great for printing onto light coloured textiles, mousepads, caps, bags etc for promotional events.
Its self-weeding characteristics means it leaves no background on the unprinted areas, so makes is a premium alternative to the Classic & Universal and is more suited to corporate logos and high-end products.
Moving onto more specific products you can print on ceramic, glass, plastic, candles and more with a waterslide transfer paper, that is ideal for heat sensitive and uneven substrates.
Versatile options Then you can buy a
Multi-trans paper which is perfect for the decoration of most hard surface products. For printing on to dark mugs or products you would need a white toner printer, but these papers also come in metallics so you can achieve a metallic print on a black mug for example, using only a mono laser printer. Similarly, with the Flex-soft paper because the paper is the colour you want to achieve on the end product you only need black toner. This is a really versatile option as it can be printed onto mugs, wood, metal, ceramics and more. Finally, and probably the latest development in transfer paper is a
sublimation paper that prints on to cotton not just polyester. So, using your existing sublimation printer that you have, you can buy A4 or A3 paper that will print onto a cotton T shirt opening your market massively. These papers have several variations including one with a glitter finish. To optimise the usage of your transfer papers, talk to your supplier, as most manufacturers also produce a RIP software that gives different effects on the print and allows you to get the most out of your laser printer and transfer papers. So, break away from the habit of using just one or two papers because you always have. Call your supplier today and ask for some advice and recommendation of what else you can, get some free samples and start experimenting to give your customers a wider choice.
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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