Difference Between Light And Dark Heat Transfer Paper

If you are actively using a heat press in your home or company, you are likely already using thermal transfer vinyl (HTV). However, you may not have the opportunity to use thermal transfer paper. Thermal transfer paper prints full-color images and transfers them to clothing by heat pressing. With the advent of new products, what is the difference between light and dark heat transfer paper?

Heat transfer paper is intended for garments or other substrates with cotton, cotton blends or polyester, nylon and lycra synthetic fibers. Thanks to the polymer film that holds the ink and fabric together, the transfer paper can be permanently transferred to these substrates. Its standard American alphabet and tabloid sizes are 8.5 "x 11" and 11 "x 17", respectively. As mentioned earlier, using thermal transfer paper allows you to print full-color images on one sheet of paper. For previous users of HTV, this means that layering is no longer needed. Some papers can be transferred without visible background or white space. For most cases, we recommend that you manually cut the paper transfer or use the contour cutter feature of the vinyl cutter (sometimes called "print and cut").

But let us return to the first question, what is the difference between light and dark thermal transfer paper? More specifically, why are there two types of thermal transfer paper for printers? Light-colored thermal transfer paper is used to press on white or light-colored fabrics, while dark-colored thermal transfer paper is used to press on black or dark-colored fabrics. Considering that most printers do not have white ink, light thermal transfer paper will use the white or light color of the fabric to fill the white portion of the graphic. Dark transfer paper prints like plain paper, filling these spaces with the white of the paper itself, which is why some papers are called "opaque". Due to the transfer method of the light transfer paper, the image must always be mirrored before printing. This is not necessary for dark / opaque thermal transfer paper.

If you want to imprint full-color graphics or images on your clothes, use thermal transfer paper.