Dyesub on Tshirt colour other than white possible?

[Jim Clough]

Hi
You can only dye sub onto polyester material and the T’s are only made in white. the reason being that the sublimation inks are translucent. I believe for white or light colour shirts the archival inks are the way to go. Another alternative being colour laser using the specific transfer papers.
Cheers
Jim

[mikeleslie]

Ok I have discussed this a bit further with a collegue who is also interested in t-shirt printing.

If we wanted to print a full colour photo say about A5 in size with lettering below it in white on a black tshirt what is the easiest solution?

Is it a cad colour system like the one offered by Target Transfers?
http://www.targettransfers.com/cadcolor.html

[Jim Clough]

Hi
The sytem I was refering to uses ordinary toner (not sublimation) It depends on the make of laser printer and toner used whether you can do the transfers for dark T’s, however a company have an adapted Epson laser which can do all. I believe it’s an A3+ printer so not cheap. Have look http://www.themagictouch.co.uk
Another alternative is to dye-sub onto poly flock material and cut around on a plottr/cutter and press onto garment giving a raised effect.
As I have not done any T’s as yet I cannot comment on the finished quality
Cheers
Jim

[mikeleslie]

Cheers, So it looks like I am stuck with a cutter then, unless you can get white toner?

[Jim Clough]

Hi
If you don’t have a cutter then how about getting someone local to cut the wording from white textile vinyl for you.
Cheers
Jim

[Kevin.Beck]

if you already have the sub equipment, you can buy a white paper to use with it, from expess.

Use as before, but do not mirror image, print then contour cut with a knife, this is ok when the image has a difined edge, might not look too good say with a photo..

[Adrian Hewson]

Dye sublimation is based on the assumption that background is white, you can still transfer this to other colours of t shirts but all colours will be affected by colour of the t shirt. Spandex sell a product call ac flex and victory design sell a product caled hotmark both are white and you can print full colour onto them and then transfer to coloured t shirts (but you need a colour printer like and edge to for the printing)

[J. Hulme]

The printing to a white base then pressing doesn’t look nice.
The problem of black or coloured fabric is reproducing white, you can’t do it with inkjet, to acheive this you’ll either have to use thermal spots or screenprint.
Saying polyester only is a little misleading, you can sublimate to a polyester coating or a cotton / polyester weave, not the same as a full polyester garment.

[Jim Clough]

Hi
I agree, you can dye-sub print onto 50/50 poly-cotton but the inks will only take to the poly content making images less vibrant than 100% poly.
At the moment I am printing mostly onto aluminium which has a polymer coating,as do all of the other dye-sub printable items.
Cheers
Jim

[mikeleslie]

So does anyone here use the laser/xpress laser paper method? What are the results like?

And what model of laser printer have you had sucess with?
I actually put this question to xpress who basically said dunno as long as the toner is oil based which is great.

I dont want to initially invest too heavily in this so was looking at an Epson Aculaser C900 or a Samsung CLP500 anyone know if they are ok? cannot see anywhere if they are oil based toner.

[James White]

We bought from Magic Touch last year,be carefull!,although Magic Touch are more expensive they do guarantee their product and one jam through a laser is costly.

James

[Brian Curtis]

We use Magic Touch for white T-shirt transfers using the Epson C1000 laser, but we say that this is only a short-term print and normally fades after a few washes. If you go onto http://www.themagictouch.co.uk you can check out how compatible the Epson C900 is with their papers.

Most of the transfer papers need to go through on Thick Stock, so check that any printer you buy has this facility.

I have tried the transfer paper for use on dark coloured t-shirts, but it’s like have a vinyl sticker stuck to your chest – very unpleasant.

Hope this helps
Brian

[Jim Clough]

Hi Brian
Have you used this system on hard goods such as metal? If so how durable is the print. I know they have coverseal which laminates to offer protection.
Cheers
Jim

[Brian Curtis]

Hi I must admit we have not tried it on metal, but we were given a sample by The Magic Touch, I think, of one of their plaques, which has the coverseal on it and it seems fairly durable. I have tried to scratch it off with fingernail, but no reaction.

The Magic Touch are very good at sending out samples of their products so you can try them. I am sure if you asked they would send out a printed sample for you to have a look at – they are very helpful.

Brian

[mikeleslie]

Got some sample mini tshirts from The Magic touch, ran one of them through the wash at a low temp and faded to almost nothing after 3 washes.

Going to give this up as a bad idea i reckon.

Thanks all for your help.

[Future Freak]

quote mikeleslie:

Got some sample mini tshirts from The Magic touch, ran one of them through the wash at a low temp and faded to almost nothing after 3 washes.

Going to give this up as a bad idea i reckon.

Thanks all for your help.

I first started off with the “dark garment” inkjet paper from Xpress, however wash tests proved it to be a not very durable product – as designs began to get “scuffed” after only a few washes, the paper also allowed very dark coloured garments to bleed through the design – so white areas became ‘grey’ due to the garment being seen through the designs.

I then spoke to Target Transfers to a very knowledegable guy called Byron who advised me about their Evolution 2 inkjet paper which is VERY durable and is thicker which less of the garment colour being seen though the design.

However – there is a slight issue with the Evolution 2 paper with regard to my inkjet putting down too much black ink and then bleeding out into the garment when washed. Very annoying when doign a design on white t-shirts – as they were left with bluey blothes on them where the black ink had leaked out – but this was “solved” by changing the paper quality/draft settings when printing. However, this hasn’t solved it 100% and I still get the occasional leak depending on how much black there is in the design – so it’s for this reason, why I’m toying with getting rid of the full colour side of my business. I want to be fully confident in the quality of everything I do, as I don’t want things like designs running to ruin my business name.