# How do I print on vinyl?



## roslynscloset (Apr 18, 2007)

I currently own a heat press and epson 88 printer doing designs on white clothing. I am wanting to have more options and am interested in vinyl heat transfers. 

My designs are hand-drawn, and then digitally enhanced (so there are many colors involved in the designs), so my question is how would I print my designs onto vinyl? Would I just need white vinyl to print my designs? Also, will I need a special vinyl printer AND cutter to make this happen? If so, what products do you recommend? Any information would be most helpful!

Thanks!


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## marcelolopez (Jul 16, 2007)

There is one vinyl that can be printed on a C88 that I am aware of, it is called color jet III, I bought it some time ago from specialtymaterials.com.


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## roslynscloset (Apr 18, 2007)

i will look into that! thanks for the information


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## Masterkoin (Jul 23, 2008)

While vinyl has many great purposes, I think you would be better off looking at some transfer paper. JPSS and Iron All seem to be the favorites around here. A search on either will give you lots of hits. You can get many companies to send you samples of their paper to try.


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## DTFuqua (Jun 26, 2008)

I haven't tried a lot of the "opaque" papers but the ones I have tried I believe are printable vinyl. At least they feel like vinyl after pressing them on the shirt. This is why I haven't really gotten of the ground yet. I feel like most people want black and or colors and can't find a way to affordably print to colors and blacks without screen printing and I don't do that. YET!


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## Masterkoin (Jul 23, 2008)

Most of what we do is white on black or dark clothing. I'm just having plastisol transfers made for anything over about 30 qty. and doing vinyl and transfer paper for numbers under that. I'd like a nice DTG machine setup to print white on darks, but out of my price range for now.


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## mattschoch (Mar 18, 2008)

don't print on vinyl.
for one, you need a vinyl that can take ink, and probably a special printer/cutter.
plus, then you'll have the vinyl feel on your shirt. if your doing white shirts, just get inkjet transfer papers


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## roslynscloset (Apr 18, 2007)

Thank you for the information! I've been using the IronAll Dark Heat Transfer Paper, which is so far the best type I've found (at least in my opinion) for doing dark tees. I just wish there were more options of using different types of vinyl with an inkjet printer.


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

Yea the only real vinyl available to print on would be a printable vinyl that is used with a vinyl printer/cutter such as the versacamm, which are pretty expensive as they use eco solvent inks. If you search the forums, you will find alot of info on the versacamm. I know there are quite a few owners of them here.


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## COEDS (Oct 4, 2006)

sunnydayz said:


> Yea the only real vinyl available to print on would be a printable vinyl that is used with a vinyl printer/cutter such as the versacamm, which are pretty expensive as they use eco solvent inks. If you search the forums, you will find alot of info on the versacamm. I know there are quite a few owners of them here.


This is not 100% correct. As stated earlier there is a product called COLOR JET III that is available and can be printed with regular ink jet printers. The format is not as wide as the versacamm, but it is a printable vinyl . When most think of printed vinyl they do think of the large format vinyl printers that use ECO SOL ink that must be printed with a thermal type printer like the versacamm. I hope this helps. .... JB


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## CUSTOM UK (Jun 28, 2008)

There is a printable vinyl available for garments called subli-dark. The downside as its name suggests, is that it has to be printed up with sublimation ink. The subli-dark should be able to go through a regular vinyl cutter, but the company that produces it (Forever), should be able to give you more specific guidance.

These inks are readily available for the Epson 88, but they are quite expensive.


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## roslynscloset (Apr 18, 2007)

Thank you COEDS and Dreamglass...I will look into those products!!! I appreciate the information!


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## amir guitamir (Feb 8, 2010)

for those i the uk there's a site which sells Iron-On Printable Vinyl. i've ordered some sheets and will test them out since i've no idea how good/bad they are. the link is 

TechSoft Materials for Knife Cutting

anybody used this stuff??


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