# Plastisol transfers vs heat press transfer and screenprint



## triplebtees (Jun 3, 2005)

What i'm trying to say is, are the Plastisol transfers that much better than heat press tranfers? From what i have read i believe they are better than the opaque paper. Also, how do the plastisol transfers compare to screenprinting? I have been doing the heat press on white tees only, and i really want to expand and start printing on colored tees. I don't know if it is worth it to purchase the screen printing equipment, or to give the plastisol's a try? Any advice?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

There are a few posts in the heat press forum about plastisol quality. Have you read through some of those?

I think it depends on your designs, but I think plastisol transfers look pretty good on dark garments.


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## 2graphica (Jul 6, 2006)

A big thing people seem to miss is that Plastisol transfers _are_ screenprinting, it doesn't seem to have the slightly rougher feel of screen printing directly to garment with plastisol inks, because of the way it is made it seems it has a flatter feel.

My tests with plastisol have resulted in really awesome results.


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## badalou (Mar 19, 2006)

you can see my test. I have changed my whole business plan because I found out about plasisol. I picked up another school today.. Yippeee


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## MotoskinGraphix (Apr 28, 2006)

badalou said:


> you can see my test. I have changed my whole business plan because I found out about plasisol. I picked up another school today.. Yippeee


Same for me with the business plan changing. I have a big test this weekend at an event so I will know more on Monday. Plastisol, stock and custom my well be exactly what I was looking for to really get shirt motivated.


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## jacsma (May 14, 2006)

I just can't seem to get myself going on the plastisol OR vinyl. This is exactly what I need - I know, but all of the techno talk intimidates me. I don't use a 'professional' program like Corel or Illustrator or whatever. Most of my designs aren't done as vector graphics but on a simple desktop publishing program and saved as jpegs. 
Doesn't this limit me as to whether I can use the plotter/cutter, as well as the plastisols? 
Where do I go from here?


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## badalou (Mar 19, 2006)

Yes it does is the simple answer. But it is not the final answer. You may be able to send it to one of us and what we could do is trace it for you and send it back to you as an AI (illustrator or Tiff file which you save on your computer. You would send the file as it is to the company doing your transfers. Now does your designs have more that one color? If you send a design to a company like First edition they will tell if they need to do anything with the design and may charge for art work. They are great for giving info on the phone. call and ask for Janet.. I went through all this myself as I only saved everything in JPG now I save in Tiff and I am learning my illustrator. You may want to look into xara.com as they have a vector program I think for $79.00 dollars and you can download and use for 15 days. Hope this helps. Lou


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Doesn't this limit me as to whether I can use the plotter/cutter, as well as the plastisols?
> Where do I go from here?


Not necessarily. You can have your designs converted to vector graphics by places like artworksource or vectordoctor. 

Some places don't require vector graphics. 

So from here, if you already have a heat press, you could find a plastisol printer and just ask them what file format you need to send them to get some plastisol transfers made of your design(s).


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## MotoskinGraphix (Apr 28, 2006)

I would get and learn a program like corel or others if you want to really get into t-shirts or design etc. When I started my vinyl graphics business...I had already booked 4 large tuner car shows. I had the plotter, flexi, corel, AI five days before my first event. Talk about a crash course in technology and under the gun. I like setting goals...this one rather extreme but everything went pretty good and now we do t-shirts and new for me are plastisol transfers. Now Josh is getting me jammed with these new optical cutters.


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## TeeShirtSamurai (Feb 8, 2006)

Plastisol is amazing and I can't imagine printing out my own transfers (nothing against those that do). The quality is wonderful, I can barely feel the transfer at all on the shirt.

Please don't limit yourself because you are intimidated by something new. Once you learn the process of creating the correct format for your graphics (it's really very simple) then you are on your way.

Do yourself a favor and at least order some samples from some of the places mentioned in the forums (do a search for plastisol samples).


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## BadBoyzShirts (Jul 14, 2006)

We have been printing plastisol ink on t-shirts and sweatshirts for two years.
Nothing else we have used comes close to the feel and look on the shirt.
We do white plastisol ink on Cardinel and Maroon shirts as well with great results. For us they are the way to go.


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## jacsma (May 14, 2006)

Thanks a bunch y'all. Guess there's really no way around it - I'm gonna have to take the plunge. I'll keep ya updated on my progress, however slow it may be.


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