twentythreemx

htv material help (comparing to screen print)

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Hello,

Long story short, I do a good bit of vinyl decals and have worked with a screen printer for a while and built up quite a few clients selling shirts..  I'm not doing much work with them anymore, and don't have any room for a screen printing setup for myself. I'm picking up a heat press tomorrow so I can do some small jobs with HTV. I dont plan to steal back many of my clients that I've dealt with that that shop, but I'm sure a few will want to continue to work with me directly..

my question is, what kind of HTV can I use to look as close to screen printing as possible?  I assume I want something matte or semi matte? is flex stuff better for that? thinner better for a softer feel?

HEre's the different brands and model vinyl I've considered. And yes I've done too much googling already and find a ton of info but its all pretty old.. I imagine in the last 5 years the HTV game has changed a little. I just remember years ago anything heat transfer vinyl related looked cheap. I dont want that, I need this to look as close as possible to what the clients would have expected before!!

I was looking at: easyweed, easyweed stretch (is thinner better for a softer feel?), stahl fashion film, spectra cut, spectra cut 2, spectra eco, stahls premium plus, thermoflex turbo, thermoflex plus...

all seem simlar in price. i'm probably over thinking it, but I'd rather just get some of the "right stuff" instead of trying out 10 different products. any advice would be appreciated..and I understand none of this will fully look like screen print, but as close as possible as to not throw clients off too far....

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I pretty well use Siser stretch on any that they carry the right color in and regular for most the rest unless I get a special color I have to match or sometimes a specific application like Nylon stretch etc.... You will never get the rough hand feel of screen print BUT to say that HTV looked cheap must have been thick junk or something you were looking at. HTV is a step above (or two) screen print for longevity and color clarity. I understand what you are saying with the feel (hand) of a good screen print job particularly if it's a stretchy product, just don't sell yourself short. Also as you probably know you can buy plastisol transfers that will let you compete in the screen printers market but they also have a smooth hand similar to vinyl. Stall's makes good products too but most of theirs are applied at higher temps and I decided a long time back I didn't like having to pay attention to all the myriad of products I have laying around and worry whether that was needing 320deg vs 305deg etc... Easy weed is low temp and hot peel and easy to layer so I stick with it. 

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On 2/27/2018 at 4:57 PM, Wildgoose said:

I pretty well use Siser stretch on any that they carry the right color in and regular for most the rest unless I get a special color I have to match or sometimes a specific application like Nylon stretch etc.... You will never get the rough hand feel of screen print BUT to say that HTV looked cheap must have been thick junk or something you were looking at. HTV is a step above (or two) screen print for longevity and color clarity. I understand what you are saying with the feel (hand) of a good screen print job particularly if it's a stretchy product, just don't sell yourself short. Also as you probably know you can buy plastisol transfers that will let you compete in the screen printers market but they also have a smooth hand similar to vinyl. Stall's makes good products too but most of theirs are applied at higher temps and I decided a long time back I didn't like having to pay attention to all the myriad of products I have laying around and worry whether that was needing 320deg vs 305deg etc... Easy weed is low temp and hot peel and easy to layer so I stick with it. 

I thought siser easyweed was hot or cold peel? I'm new to this so , i read that somewhere. i also read it goes on 305. that is how i have done mine so far. I do peel it off while still hot.

To the OP I am brand new ive made 4 shirts so far. and like the Siser stuff but nothing to compare to. doesn't look cheap to me.

 

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I'd rethink the wanting it to look like screen printed part.  Vinyl doesn't have a great hand, but they are crisp solid colors.  For instance white vinyl on a black shirt just looks great.  If you got the right clients that want the metal or glitter/bling looking stuff, hard to do with screen printing.  Glitter screen printing ink isn't cheap and doesn't jump out like vinyl.  But if you got a crowd into that HTV is a good road to go, (think cheerleader squads.)

So for me it isn't about the looks, HTV looks fine.  It's about the production.  You can't match screen printing production to HTV production.  Two hundred shirts screen printed is a job, two hundred shirts done in vinyl is approaching a nightmare.  One thing you can leverage with vinyl that you can with HTV is the customization.  Much easier to do twenty shirts with twenty different names with HTV than screen printed, which would be twenty screens.  Many screen printers won't take orders under twenty.  So the small customized orders are something you should be able to compete with.  It's practical to do orders of one with HTV, no how no way with screen printing.

Easyweed is going to have a semigloss look peeled hot or cold.  Sometimes you can hit it again with some parchment or kraft paper to get it more to a matte look.  Easyweed stretch is a matte finish and has a better hand and feels about as soft as screen printed, close anyway.  

Though you may not want to, eventually if you do this often, you will have to try a range of them.  Some will send samples.  I general stick to Siser, just because I find their results predictably.

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