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Vinyl transfers
From T-Shirt Wiki
Vinyl transfers are designs cut from vinyl on a carrier sheet. From there it can be applied to garments with a heat press.
Contents |
[edit] Manufacture
Vinyl transfers are cut using a plotter. The design then needs to be weeded - the process of removing the pieces of vinyl that won't be transferred. Once the transfer is ready, it is applied with a heat press.
[edit] Limitations and Technical Considerations
[edit] Application Options
Vinyl can be used to decorate dark or light colored garments, and applied to a wide variety of substrates.
[edit] Quality
Compared to inkjet printed transfers, plastisol transfers, laser printed transfers and opaque transfers, vinyl transfers fare well for print quality and durability, coming in behind only plastisol transfers.
[edit] Specialty Techniques
As well as the standard colour range there are other options, including glitter and metallic vinyl.
[edit] Advantages
Vinyl transfers can be produced in single order quantities, so they are excellent for custom garments, and for decorating a run of shirts with changing information (for example the player names and numbers on a team uniform). If you want a design on a single dark coloured t-shirt, vinyl is one of the best options.
[edit] Disadvantages
Each design needs to be weeded, so it is no cheaper to do a hundred shirts than it is to do one. Because the artwork needs to be vector based it cannot be used to reproduce photos. While multiple colours of vinyl can be applied to one shirt, there are still practical limits to the maximum number of colours in a design (it's usually preferable to use three or less).
