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Heat Press
What Is Heat Press Technology?
This is nothing like the iron-ons that are for home application. We use specialized inks, papers, and industrial heat press technology to achieve results you may think were screen printed. With high heat and pressure, the specialized inks are bonded with the fabric, rather than merely applied on top.
Advantage Over Screen Printing:
Heat press’ advantage over screen printing is that screen printing is most cost effective for large runs (hundreds) of identical items. With heat press technology, we can provide a cost effective solution for as few as 6 pieces.
Advantage Over Embroidery:
Heat press’ advantages over embroidery are that it is less expensive to do a very large (such as for the back of a jacket or the front or back of a t-shirt) design and can be done on lighter fabrics. A large embroidery design, while more expensive gives you the most beautiful product with a higher perceived value.
Heat transfers can cover a large design less expensively. This is a function of capital investment (embroidery machines are much more expensive than heat transfer presses) and time (it takes less than a minute to heat transfer a large design, while a large embroidery design could easily take over an hour to sew).
In addition, we really don’t recommend putting large embroidery designs on light fabrics such as polo shirts and t-shirts. Heat transfer doesn’t have the push and pull of the needle and thread to distort and wrinkle light fabrics that we put a large design on. Heavy sweatshirts are about the lightest fabric that we recommend embroidering large designs on
Learn More:
General Guidelines for Heat Press Orders
Treated Us Like Family
"As part of the Rochester community Harmony Design treated us like family. We truly appreciate this business."
~Jeannette Miller
Program Director,
Ganondagan
General Guidelines for Heat Press Orders
Size:
Larger designs cost just a little bit more than smaller designs.
- Left Chest Design: 4.5″ x 4.5″ max
- Youth Shirt Front or Back: 10″ x 10″ max
- Adult Shirt Front or Back: 12″w x 14″h max
Transfer & Apparel Colors:
Unlike embroidery (which is priced based on number of stitches), heat transfers are priced by size and the number of colors. A large design will cost just slightly more than a small design, but a one color design will cost roughly half what a three color design will cost.
Consider having us simplify your logo to reduce the number of colors. If there’s white in an enclosed space in your logo and you will be putting the logo on white shirts, maybe you don’t need that color. If you’ll be putting it on other colors, you may need the white. Even if there’s just a tiny bit of a second color in a large design, it’s priced as a two color design.
Because we use different types of transfers for light or dark fabrics, and for different types of fabrics, we need to know exactly what you will want the transfers applied to. Also, if you have a mix of colors of apparel, we may need to use black ink for text on light colors and white ink on dark colors.
Apparel Types:
Smooth fabrics with at least a 35% natural fiber (cotton) content are best for heat transfers. We recommend 100% cotton. In the past, 50/50 (cotton/polyester) t-shirts were significantly less expensive than 100% cotton, but this is no longer so.
Additionally, 50/50 t-shirts can “bleed” the color from a dark color t-shirt to a light color ink due to the type of dyeing process used in 50/50 t-shirts.
We also recommend at least a 6.0 ounce weight shirt. 5.6 oz shirts, while we do offer them in the 50/50 category of t-shirts, have a looser weave than 6.1 oz shirts and will not produce as detailed an image through heat transfer – the same image that transfers to a 6.1 oz shirt well may appear washed out on a 5.6 ounce shirt.
We do use one product which can go on up to 100% polyester fabrics, which makes it great for athletic uniform lettering. Most of the transfers we do are on t-shirts and sweatshirts.
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