kkeeble

Printing on black t-shirt

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Can you do a sublimation on a black t-shirt. The logo is bright orange and the customer wants it on a black shirt

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No, to do anything, other than HTV, on a black shirt you need a white background. You would have to do a transfer for dark fabrics. 

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only way you can do it is with this stuff and it's not cheap

http://www.digitalheatfx.com/heat-transfer-paper/sublimation-transfer-papers/subli-dark-201.html


y
ou have to have a basic understanding of how sublimation works to get why this doesn't work - the ink turns to gas and dyes the poly substrate - if it dyes black fibers you see nothing but black 

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Best way to fully understand the principal is to take a sheet of black paper and try printing something orange on it. 

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Thank for all the replies...i was looking at a dye sub printer from cobraink to just do that.. I might try the HTV first.. Im just afraid that the HTV will not hold up and the customer will be unhappy in a few months..any thoughts on the HTV..

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Thank for all the replies...i was looking at a dye sub printer from cobraink to just do that.. I might try the HTV first.. Im just afraid that the HTV will not hold up and the customer will be unhappy in a few months..any thoughts on the HTV..

I'm still wearing shirts that I applied HTV to 4 years ago. The shirts look like they were made last week.

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HTV has a very high durability, use Siser Easyweed and you should have no problems. Some reason FOREVER thinks there stuff is worth what they get, I tried their laser no cut and it sucks, and their no cut white and that even sucks.

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Thank for all the replies...i was looking at a dye sub printer from cobraink to just do that.. I might try the HTV first.. Im just afraid that the HTV will not hold up and the customer will be unhappy in a few months..any thoughts on the HTV..

Dye sub is way cool but severely limited. If I had only one printer for garments I would go with pigment ink for regular transfers. Very few people wear white polyester. I know you can do black or other dark colors on lighter colors but then you are right back to pretty much single color options and might tweak the colored shirt in the process.

 

As long as your design isn't complicated and you have a cutter HTV is seriously legit. If you are the least worried about longevity or if the garment is stretchy then step up to Siser Easyweed Stretch. It's less likely to show stress cracks with age. I have had one shirt in the last four years that has out lived regular Siser. It is a Carhart work shirt that I did a design on and the design finally failed after three years and hundreds of washings. The collar is worn through and it has holes in several places so I still would contend that the HTV lasted as long as the shirt. The only other time I have seen any come off was on one elbow of a hoodie that I did had a graphic down the sleeve and it did't like the stretching and flexing that happened at that point and came up. The second one I built to replace it I used stretch and haven't had an issue. 

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Im going to try the HTV this weekend.. Ill see how it goes.. Thank you all for your detailed responses.. they have been helpful and saved me some money since i was bout to pull the trigger on the epson wf30..

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I had a guy tell me HTV wont last, and screen print is better.

I told him HTV would and should outlast the shirt...and screenprint is faster to doing bulk shirts..

He was more concerned about quality..but I couldn't convince him that HTV would outlast the shirt..anyway he's a douchebag anyway..

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I have customers that pay the extra for htv but I also have some who order a dozen just so I screen print them. Takes all types to make the world go round.

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I had a guy tell me HTV wont last, and screen print is better. I told him HTV would and should outlast the shirt...and screenprint is faster to doing bulk shirts.. He was more concerned about quality..but I couldn't convince him that HTV would outlast the shirt..anyway he's a douchebag anyway..

thats because he buys the stuff at walmart or michaels and tries to do his own - doesn't know the proper stuff to use and to use pigment ink

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