Larry B said:
I am starting to make some customized t-shirts for the family.
Are there any suggestions for success regarding this process? I have
an HP5550 printer.
1. There are many brands of transfers. Which ones give the best
results and last longest?
2. Any special printer adjustment like Ink Volume, etc (I know about
reversing the image)?
3. Any pre or post ironning hints on the t-shirts themselves?
Hopefully someone with more experience than I have will jump in here, but
meanwhile I'll give you my 2 cents. I've used paper from Kodak, Epson, HP, and
OfficeMax with my Epson Stylus Photo, and have noticed a difference, but have
never been able to get transfers that look as vibrant and sharp as the examples
on the box covers. They also won't last as anywhere near as long as a normal
silk-screened t-shirt.
For me, Kodak paper was the worst, with pale transfers that faded quickly
(after maybe 10 washes or so). HP has been better, but still just fair -- odd
color shifting (maybe an Epson/HP mismatch?) and not particularly sharp. Epson
paper was better, and shirts made over 2 years ago have held up reasonably well
for inkjet transfers (but maybe you might run into a color mismatch with your
non-Epson printer?). My favorite paper, so far, of the four is OfficeMax. It
leaves a kind of stiff coating on the fabric (like that area has been starched)
which I'm not really fond of, but that seems to give it a better "surface" for
a little more sharpness and color. I just started using this paper, so can't
tell yet how the transfers will hold up over time.
I print using all normal (plain paper) settings -- if I use anything higher I
get too much bleeding, though I think part of that may be the "photo"-type of
my printer, which tends to go overboard on ink usage, and I seem to get better
results with an HP 2000C "business" deskjet.
Colors come out differently on different printers and papers, so you have to
experiment. You don't have to waste a lot of t-shirts -- you can usually get a
fairly good idea of what it will look like just by seeing how it prints out on
the transfer paper.
