How To Make Digital Heat Transfer? (Easy Guide)

The digital heat transfer process requires a special kind of heat transfer paper where you print your design with the best quality vinyl to have nice color composition.

You use special vinyl adhesive to ensure the durability of your design onto your garment. You don’t need a specialized garments printer to execute this.

Digital heat transfer artwork can be made by an inkjet printer or laser printer. Heat transfer can be done in a few ways like sublimation transfer, inkjet transfer, vinyl transfers, and applique transfers.

Required Tools to Make Digital Heat Transfer

Required Tools to Make Digital Heat Transfer

Electric Tools

To make your own design for your custom garment you will need a laptop or pc. or you can just download a photo for printing from any copyright-free site.

An inkjet printer or laser printer is capable of printing vinyl. You just need a special breed of transfer paper and plastisol transfer ink.

The commercially available heat press is another electric tool you need for digital transfer. Without a cutting machine, it’s quite hard to cut the design perfectly.

A vinyl cutter is an electric tool that is used to cut the vinyl adhesive.

Paper, Sheet, And Tape

Heat transfer paper is designed for heat transfer.it is a primary requirement for digital transfer. There is a sheet called a heating pad that is used for heat resistance.

It is made of silicone or foam. It is a rubber-like material. Use of transfer tape is necessary. you might know it as heat tape.

No wonder it is heat resistant. It will help your design to print in the exact place you want.

Fabric Or Materials

Last but not least you will need a piece of fabric or a surface of the material like a coffee mug where you want to heat transfer your design.

It is great news that there is a round shape heat press available for this kind of job.

Where to Use The Digital Heat Press?

You can print likely everything with a digital transfer. Cotton fabrics, t-shirts, footwear, or 100% polyester materials. Tiles and plastic items can be printed by using this method.

How To Make Digital Heat Transfer

How To Make Digital Heat Transfer: The Process

At first, gather the items required for heat transfer. Check if you missed something. If not you can start your transfer process. The process is given below, follow as it says:

  • Producing artwork for digital heat transfers is simple and quick because the overall process is digital.

    Simply give the artwork to the printer, who will polish it up before transferring it to an inkjet printer or laser printer.
  • A five-colored vinyl from the ink cartridge is used to print the artwork onto the back of a polyester film.

    The opposing side of the film is then covered with an adhesive that is designed to stick to your unique product, whether it’s a customized pen, bottle of water, travel mug, or something else entirely.

    The film is then cut to the proportions required for your item, to be printed and supplied to you directly.
  • Now the role of the vinyl cutter comes into play. once printing is finished use a vinyl cutter machine to cut out the design that will be printed.
  • Set the temperature of your heat pressing between 350-370 degrees Fahrenheit. (175-190 degrees Celsius).
    When the heat plate is warming you must leave the heat press open. eliminate the heat pad from the heat plate.
  • Every kind of fabric does not need the same amount of pressure. If the fabric is thick you will be needing more pressure. whether thin materials need comparatively less pressure.
  • As there are different types of digital printing processes, not every process needs the same time. here is a table of times needed for various printing processes.
  • As there are different types of digital printing processes, not every process needs the same time. here is a table of times needed for various printing processes:
TypeTime for Printing
Inject Transfer Paper15-20sec
Dye Sublimation Transfer30-35 sec
Digital Applique Transfer25-30sec
Vinyl Transfer50-60sec
  • Near after, place your design on the design space of the t-shirt you want to print. If you want your design to be 100% safe you can place thin clothes or sheets to protect your design from any kind of hazards
  • Then lets press the start-up button. before that make sure your design is placed perfectly where you wanted it to be.

    You have to pull the handle of your heat press down. When you hear the machine shouts beep beep you will know it is done.

    Open the heat press and remove the transfer paper from it after 2-3minutes.
Advantage Of Digital Transfer

Advantage Of Digital Transfer

Digital heat transfer is indeed the greatest solution for designing your goods for a variety of reasons.

For starters, digital heat transfer can be applied to almost any material. Digital heat transfer can be done on leather, cotton, or 100% polyester. tile, metal, glass, or plastic can also be printed.

Another advantage of digital heat transfer is the ability to incorporate changeable data into your designs because the process is fully digital.

That’s why numerous photos can be included in a single design! As a result, digital heat transfer is an excellent solution for short runs.

Furthermore, digital heat transfer produces photo-quality graphics in full colored vinyl. It guarantees that your design looks bright and clear on the fabric.

Screen printing is used for printing fabrics or fabric-made products. A digital heat press is more appropriate than standard screen printing for beginners.

Limitations Of Digital Transfer

Limitations Of Digital Transfer

It produces very low-quality vinyl heat transfer. After a few days of wearing the print starts to crack from different places on your garment.

It is hard to print two same designs by digital transfer. It is not that easy to operate. Supplies needed for digital heat transfer printing

That will be all for digital heat transfer.

Also Read More Textile Printing Guide Articles On:

How to Keep Sublimation from Fading & Reasons for Fading

What Are The Different Types Of Heat Press Machines?

How To Clean A Heat Press Machine

Terms Used for Heat Press and Their Meanings

History Textile Fabrics



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