Transfers

Custom-printed transfers are a great way to sell your designs without having to invest in costly screen printing equipment. All you need is a professional heat press and your imagination. Transfers are great for schools, camps, youth groups and t-shirt shops.

We screen print our transfers using the same plastisol inks that we use to print on t-shirts and other garments. For your convenience, we offer several different sheet sizes, and you can gang print different designs on any of our sheets. Our transfers must be applied using a professional heat press. If you need transfers that can be applied with a home iron, please check out our Iron On Decal product.

Always do a test print on a piece of scrap material before starting a production run.

Hot-Split Transfers

Most of the transfers we produce are hot-split transfers. That means that you peel the backer off while the garment is still hot. These transfers work on light- and dark-colored garments.

Hot-Split Application instructions for 11" x 11" sheets:

Set press temperature to 375°. Let your press warm up at least 10 minutes
Set pressure to firm
Set time for 10 seconds
Pre-heat the heat press platen (the bottom pad) for 60 seconds. This is a very important step!
Pre-heat the garment for 10 seconds. This removes moisture from the garment, and is a necessary step for each garment.
Place transfer on the garment and press for 10 seconds
Open heat press and peel transfer immediately in a smooth, even motion from one corner to the opposite corner.

Hot-Split Application instructions for all other sheet sizes:

Set press temperature to 325°. Let your press warm up at least 10 minutes
Set pressure to 60 PSI
Set time for 7 seconds
Pre-heat the heat press platen (the bottom pad) for 60 seconds. This is a very important step!
Pre-heat the garment for 7 seconds. This removes moisture from the garment, and is a necessary step for each garment.
Place transfer on the garment and press for 7 seconds
Open heat press and peel transfer immediately in a smooth, even motion from one corner to the opposite corner.

Cold-Peel Transfers

Cold-peel transfers are available in 11" x 11" sheet sizes only. Some customers prefer these transfers when they need more opacity. We apply a special adhesive layer to these transfers to allow for the backer to be peeled once the garment cools. Almost all of the ink is deposited on to the shirt with this process. Cold-peel transfers are only available printed with one spot color.

Cold-Peel Application instructions (11" x 11" sheets only):

Set press temperature to 330°. Let your press warm up at least 10 minutes
Set pressure to Medium/Firm
Set time for 10 seconds
Pre-heat the heat press platen (the bottom pad) for 60 seconds. This is a very important step!
Pre-heat the garment for 10 seconds. This removes moisture from the garment, and is a necessary step for each garment.
Place transfer on the garment and press for 10 seconds
Open heat press SLOWLY and do not touch garment or transfer for at least 30 Seconds*. Then carefully move garment to a table to completely cool. Finally peel transfer in a smooth, even motion from one corner to the opposite corner.

*An alternate cool-down method is to place a metal cookie sheet or similar metal plate over the transfer after SLOWLY opening the heat press. Place metal sheet over the transfer for 5-7 seconds and this will absorb the heat faster. Do not peel transfer until the garment and transfer are cold.

Spot Color Transfers

Our stock ink colors for transfers are listed below. The PMS values listed are for reference only and are not intended to indicate exact or match colors. PMS equivalent colors are available if you require a color not listed. There is a $25 mixing fee for non-standard colors. Note that exact PMS matches are not available for transfers due to the nature of the plastisol inks.

Ink	PMS Approximation
Red	187C
Gold	1235C
Royal Blue	287C
Dark Green	5535C
Navy	654C
Maroon	184C
Columbia Blue	299U
Kelly Green	349C
Purple	2685C
Orange	172C
Grey	7543C
Black
White
Vegas Gold	4505C
Texas Orange	1525C
Pink	1905C
Brown	467C

4-Color Process Transfers

We're excited to offer 4-color process plastisol transfers. These transfers are not digital productions - we actually separate the image and screen print it just like we would print a t-shirt. Our 4-color process transfers give you the ability to product high-quality photo-realistic images for a great price.

Four-color process transfers are great for both light- and dark-colored garments. We print over a thin underbase to enhance visibility on the dark garments, but the color of the garment does interfere somewhat with the vibrancy of the ink colors. If you need an extremely vibrant print on a dark-colored garment, be sure to contact our customer service department for options.

Ink Opacity and Transfers

Cold-peel transfers provide the highest opacity for garments. The ink is peeled when the garment cools. The special adhesive we use to coat the cold-peel transfers helps deposit all of the ink on to the garment. Cold-peel transfers have a smoother, thicker feel than hot-split transfers.

Hot split transfers can also be used on both light and dark garments with good success. The end result will not be as opaque as cold-peel transfers. If you need high opacity, we recommend either cold-peel transfers or having your garments screen printed in our shop with an underbase.

Fabric

11" x 11" transfers work on cotton or cotton/polyester blend fabrics. All other sheet sizes work on cotton, polyester or cotton/polyester blends.

Note that polyester fabric dyes may migrate into plastisol inks, discoloring the ink. We cannot guarantee against dye migration. If you are concerned with dye migration, we recommend selecting 100% cotton garments.

Art requirements for transfers

Vector art required for spot color production
Raster artwork must be at 300 DPI or greater
4-Color Process images must be in CMYK mode
Spot Color images must be created with the spot colors that will be printed. CMYK elements will not print if your design is to print in spot color.
All files must be supplied on a transparent layer
Files must be created in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop CS4 or earlier
A jpg proof should be provided with each art file. The proof must contain a non-printing colored layer (use a color that is not included in your design). The non-printing colored layer should not be present in the print file.
All colors that show in the print file will print. All white areas will print white! Make sure to remove any white areas that you do not want to print.
Stand-alone white or black areas must be at least 1 PT in line weight
Non-printing areas (negative spaces) must be at least 2PT in line weight
All other areas must be a minimum of at least 3PTS thick
Outlines must be 1PT thick for black/white outlines or 3PTS thick for all other colored areas
Non-printing colors must be knocked out
True Blue should have a difference of 30% between cyan and magenta. If your art contains blues where the cyan and magenta are closer in percentage, the resulting print will likely be purple.
Blacks and Greys should only be made of percentages of black
Single-color transfers can be shown in black ink if you specify what color is to print
Design must be a solid shape without soft edges, transparencies or overprints
Fonts must be converted (Outlines in Illustrator or Rasterized in Photoshop)
Images must be ganged in the file the way you want them to print
Images must be at the exact size that you want them to print
Be sure placed images are included
Art should be right reading. We will reverse it prior to production.

If your file is not print-ready, we will e-mail you a preflight sheet showing what areas need your attention before we can proceed with production.

Production Time

11" x 11" transfers are printed on a 7 to 10-day production schedule after art approval. All others are printed on a 4-day production schedule after art is confirmed print-ready. If art correction is required, your order will be placed on hold until we receive print-ready art files. If you have any questions about your art file, please contact our customer service department for assistance.

Sheet Sizes

Sheet Size:	Available in:
4" x 6"	Up to 3 spot colors and 4-color process
6" x 9"	Up to 3 spot colors and 4-color process
11" x 11"	One spot color
9" x 12.75"	Up to 8 spot colors and 4-color process
12.75" x 19"	Up to 8 spot colors and 4-color process