If you want long runs of either full colour images – you either screen print or use direct garment printing. Multi-colour images on sweatshirts or polos? Maybe embroidery is the route to go. For long runs of a single colour print, again screen printing is the choice.

But what about all the shorter runs? So often a job which requires, for example, a hundred three-colour logo and text designs on a variety of garments from T shirts to safety jackets – and they might want a few polo shirts next month and can you put the image onto this garment or that?

It becomes a job requiring several processes, each with their own artwork and set-up costs.

The answer is one of the many different transfer printing processes available – cost-effective, versatile, with low set-up costs, easy to apply and (and this is the point which surprises many people particularly clients who traditionally expect a “transfer” to be a “plastic blob” stuck on a garment), of a quality which matches any other method of decorating.

But what is “transfer printing”? There are a range of different processes covered by the general term, and they all have their place in the garment decorator’s business.

Each of them involves the use of heat and pressure to transfer some form of ink, toner or other material onto or into the surface of the garment. Unfortunately our editor has not allowed me the entire magazine to offer a full description of the many processes, their uses, advantages and disadvantages and how they are created or sourced, but I will try to outline the main options, to give an idea of the possibilities available.

Most garment decorators are already familiar with sublimation and laser transfer – these provide, in their different ways, a route to personalising not just garments but a huge range of other products.

Either of these methods require a fairly low investment in equipment and materials, and within a very short period it is possible to be creating extremely high quality images.

Sublimation transfers, produced using a simple inkjet printer with specialist inks, provide photographic quality images and can be applied to a huge range of products in addition to garments, although the process does, of course, have limitations with regard to the fabrics to which it can be applied. Laser transfers overcome this problem to a degree, although the quality of image is widely accepted to be of a slightly lower quality.

Conventional inkjet transfers also offer a possible solution for short runs of garments where photographic quality is not essential. The process requires only an inkjet printer with standard inks, and good quality transfer papers (don’t expect commercial quality transfers using the papers available from stationers or office supplies companies), and although separate papers are needed for printing on light and dark garments, this method can provide the cheapest route for one-off or very short run printing of a multi-colour image on a cotton or mixed fibre T shirt.

Heat applied vinyl provides a simple alternative, mainly for single colour applications although multi-colour overlaid designs can also be very effective. Vinyls today offer not just the traditional colours but a range of fluorescents, metallics, glitters and textures.

Commercially printed transfers, using a variety of processes, have many different applications. From full colour process printing to one colour spot printing, each has their own uses, and a number of companies will be able to offer you advice on the most appropriate style to meet your particular requirements.

Another process which can also be considered as a transfer is heat-applied rhinestone or rhinestud designs, which are available as pre-made stock designs, custom-made designs, or as a range of systems of varying complexity for creating your own designs.

However there’s another area of transfer printing which is nowadays widely ignored in Europe – stock transfers. In the United States in particular, garment retailers of all sizes find transfers a very effective way of offering a wide range of high quality designs whilst reducing stock holding, whilst many custom decorators use pre-printed designs as part of a custom design – combining them particularly with vinyl or rhinestones

The Transfer Press are probably the largest distributor of pre-printed transfers in Europe offering a range of some 11,000 designs across a huge range of subjects from cute and cuddly pets to motorbikes and from the increasing popular tattoo style designs to licensed designs featuring Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe.

Unfortunately the ease with which transfers can be produced (in some cases using methods mentioned above) mean that images are produced and sold illegally – and owners of copyrights are having to become increasingly litigious to prevent this happening.

And be warned, anyone buying and applying such transfers can, and these days much more frequently are, also finding themselves being pursued for damages. 

About the author: Graeme Turner is joint managing director of The Transfer Press, and has been in involved in various aspects of the garment printing industry for around 30 years.

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