# Printable Vinyl Comparison Question



## bella78 (Sep 2, 2015)

Hello,

I'm new to print and cut materials. The distributors in my area have the following materials available, but I can't order a sample or a small roll so I am thinking carefully about which one to try first.

1. *Siser Color print PU
2. Specialy Materials Print Soft Matte UPSM 4032
3. Chimica Soft print 1792*

This is for fashion applications, so the factors that matter to me are 

A. ease of use (weeding, masking etc.)
B. Soft stretchy texture
C. Durability

Any feedback or experience with these products would be greatly appreciated!


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## professaurus (Feb 16, 2008)

Do you have a solvent printer capable of printing on these materials?


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## idonaldson (Sep 29, 2008)

It would be nice to know which machine you are using and where located. There might be other distributors in your area with more options. The stretchy is the qualifier.


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## bella78 (Sep 2, 2015)

I am likely going to get a roland bn-20. I am located in the bay area of california. The distributors I have looked at are denco and glantz and sons. Both of those have siser products, denco also has a product called tatoo by sef, and glantz and sons carries some of the chimica and specialy materials products.

I went down to Glantz and Sons in person and they were able to give me some easy weed and colorprint pu matte samples. The colorprint was softer than I was expecting. I understand easyweed is in a different category all together, but as a point of reference, it was much more plastic feeling that the colorprint.


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## johnnyb57 (May 26, 2012)

Not that I like them all so much but signwarehouse sells 1yd. rolls of vinyl ?


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## hyperqube (Jul 9, 2015)

i have a mutoh vj-628x and so far have not found one printable vinyl i'm happy with. either to thick and rubbery to horrible color fastness. just tried siser colorprint soft and having issues with fading after first wash.


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## Rob_K (Jun 29, 2009)

Try the Stahl's Super TEK Opaque media it is great for performance garments. The BN-20 from Roland is a good machine to start with and will print and cut this media well.


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## Riph (Jan 11, 2011)

My "go to" materials on my BN-20 are:

For anything made of nylon, I use Stahl's SuperTek Opaque. I get a lot of outerwear orders that have nylon shells.

For general synthetic performance fabrics where light hand and stretchiness is desirable, I would use Stahl's Solutions Opaque, but I get very few of these orders.

For cotton t-shirts, I use Stahl's Express Print. If it were a "fashion" t-shirt, meaning "thin" and the design could handle it, I would probably go lighter, to Solutions Opaque.

I don't love the weeding of either Supertek Opaque or Solutions Opaque, so I try to make these designs with an easy to weed border and I don't use free floating text if possible.

Weeding time is where a lot of the cost is. If your designs are going to have free floating text or small/fine design elements that have to be weeded around, you're going to trade off "ease of weeding" vs. "thinness of the material" (which equates roughly to the "hand" on the garment).

Just my 2 cents, there are probably other good materials that I haven't tried.


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## Nitrox73 (Apr 27, 2015)

I can't find the Solutions Opaque in anything but a 24" roll. Where are you seeing this in a 20" roll or smaller?


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## Nick Horvath (Feb 26, 2010)

Nitrox73 said:


> I can't find the Solutions Opaque in anything but a 24" roll. Where are you seeing this in a 20" roll or smaller?


 Solutions Opaque is only available in a 24 inch roll.

We have SPTEK Opaque in 20 inch however. This media is very similar to the Solutions Opaque. They both work on the same fabrics.


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## Nitrox73 (Apr 27, 2015)

Thanks, talked to my Stahls rep yesterday before dropping $$$ on more vinyl.


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## TH Apparel (Jul 12, 2013)

we use the specialty materials(2160) with our roland.


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## LeanHeinen (Jul 21, 2017)

Hi I have a Roland BN-20 and am looking for soft almost retail quality printable materials. 
I have used the Stahls supertek opaque but I find it too plasticky for bigger prints. 
Is the solutions opaque any better or the Sisier print soft 2.0?


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## BigHE (Jun 12, 2017)

professaurus said:


> Do you have a solvent printer capable of printing on these materials?


Doing my research...What is a solvent printer?


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## pippin decals (Aug 26, 2015)

Im using JPSS for my tshirts and its awesome, Printing off of my new epson WF7610 all pigment inkand now ordering the refill carts and a tank setup from cobra ink which uses the top pigment ink as well.. They just updated the Ciss tank lines as well. Not sure if this falls under what your wanting but i just wanted to throw it out there.


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