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What is a Heat-Transferred Print?

April 26, 2017digital printing heat-transferred print printing screen-printing

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What is a Heat-Transferred Print?

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Thanks to digital imaging and the technology of the heat-transferred print, anyone can now own a t-shirt, coffee cup, or hat that says anything he wants it to. Screen-printing and offset lithography, the primary alternatives to heat-transferred prints, are laborious processes, messy with ink and odorous chemicals. Making a heat-transferred print, however, is relatively tidy and quick, accessible to everyone with a computer and a printer, and leaves only paper behind as waste. There are two ways to make a heat-transferred print. Both require inks, a source of heat, and a receptive surface, or substrate, but they vary in their details. One is a topical transfer, which places the ink on top of the fabric. The other, called sublimation printing, makes the ink part of the fabric through a chemical reaction. An iron-on applied to a t-shirt is a topical heat-transferred print at its simplest. The iron-on is a digital image printed on special transfer paper, which is coated with a clear film.