Comparing Full Color Transfer Options

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Do you have full color artwork you want to use on a shirt? Maybe a photograph? Or maybe just something with a lot of different colors? Which transfer will work best?

In our free online class, “Comparing Full Color Transfer Options” learn about the four different choices you have.

We will compare:

Uses - what applies to the different shirt types and how the material effects your choice
Pricing and Minimum orders
Feel and Look
Application

Video Transcript

Good afternoon everybody and welcome to the Transfer Express webinar of Comparing Full-Color Transfer Options. We appreciate you joining us.

It was a record registration for us and I see the attendees are filing in as we speak up to about a hundred and ten so we greatly appreciate you joining us on this Thursday afternoon. Before we get going here, you'll see in the chat, if you have any questions along the way you could feel free to put them into the chat.

We do have some people behind the scenes working that will be able to answer your questions. Type in and if I see them, you know, I'll be able to answer them as well. Also you will be getting a copy of this webinar, if you're attending, as well so you will get that at the end of the show.

Hi Delores, how are you? We'll be down in Texas in two weeks at the ISS Fort Worth Show, so we hope to see you there.

In this webinar, we're going to talk about if you're not familiar, or even if you are familiar, our transfer options when you're getting into full color prints. We have a couple different options and substrates that we're going to get into, hopefully educate you about those, talk a little bit about the pricing of them, when to use them, when to use one over another, and stuff like that.

So we will get started here and I apologize - my name is Dan. I'm Dan Kane filling in for Andy Curtiss today. This is my second webinar, so bear with me here as I get the jitters out.

So as you see here, we have the two choices. We have our digital choice, which is called our CAD-PRINTZ® and we have three different substrates for the CAD-PRINTZ transfers.

Any of our CAD-PRINTZ Express, our CAD-PRINTZ Opaque and our CAD-PRINTZ Sub Block and we will talk about each of those individually here within the next couple slides. What it is, is the digital transfer it's a toner-based print ink that's printed onto a thin vinyl, then it goes into the masking process, and you know we print them in-house here. You send your image to us. We would do the printing, mask it, and then send it to you as a transfer to just apply to your garment as if you were applying any other, you know, heat transfers.

We also have our Stretch Litho™ which is a hybrid using the screen print and digital processes. On the Stretch Litho is a toner-based printing onto a screen printed backing, so again it's kind of a hybrid mix of the the two productions to get you those full-color graphics.

And when we get into the pricing, well you know, will let you know, kind of getting ahead here, the Stretch Litho is priced per sheet with unlimited colors and the CAD-PRINTZ digital options are priced per I'm sorry Stretch Litho those price to per sheet, excuse me, in that and the digital CAD-PRINTZ are priced per piece, per square inch.

So you kind of see that on this slide here. The CAD-PRINTZ Express will take and some black do have different pricing ranges. You could find those on our website. We don't have a slide here for those ones but generally ballpark in depending on the square inside, you're looking at from anywhere from about nine cents to sixteen cents per square inch per transfer. And again, that's individual image square inch pricing.

So the nice thing is, you can do a minimum of one or two. There is a $25 minimum order on the CAD-PRINTZ, so even if you only need two and your design is, you know, five by five and you know we need to bump you up to five to get you that $25 minimum, we do that in-house for you. But again, so you can do one, I just wanted to remind everyone that even with the square inch pricing is a $25 minimum for those digital CAD-PRINTZ.

The Stretch Litho is sheet pricing. Again that is sheet pricing for the Stretch Litho. It's just like our Goof Proof or Hot Split or Elasti Prints sheet size, it's 11.25” by 14” and again, that is where you could gang images. So if you're getting into full-color images that you're able to gang up, or the nice thing is, is say luck on your side, someone came into your shop and they had to do a red, white and blue, they say a four color red, white, blue, and yellow print, and someone came into your shop the same day that you're able to gang with your other job that's a gray, black, gold, and kelly green design.

Now I know those those colors probably don't go together, but stick with me here. It's just an example so now you're able to get eight colors on that Stretch Litho’s sheet and it's not priced per color. So you're able to get unlimited colors on that sheet so it is nice if you're getting into different full-color images as to where you could gang it up together with it with another job, or you know the front is a couple colors and the back’s a couple colors.

So that's a huge huge advantage to using the Stretch Litho though that it is just priced based on the sheet, no matter how many images you have on there, how many images you have on there and how many colors, you're just paying per the sheet. And those start at a five sheet minimum for Easy Prints and a ten sheet minimum for Easy Prints Plus.

This kind of gives you an example here is you'll see our digital CAD-PRINTZ this is one of our Opaque transfers over here that I'm kind of circling. Again, it will have a yellow backing paper on it, so when it came to you, you would peel that yellow backing paper off. You would then see it on a clear plastic vinyl then you would you know to place it down and heat apply it on that way.

And over to the right here, we have our Stretch Litho print. As you'll see, it's 11.25 by 14 clear plastic carrier, clear kind of plastic sheet carrier there, and again you'll see in both images, the multi colors that we're getting in both images to where it wouldn't be cost-effective to do these as a screen print, you know, depending on quantity. So that's again why we do offer these full-color digital options and again some of this detail and stuff in this design here would not be you know and when you're getting into shadings, would not be the best option to go screen printing. So again, you would want to choose one of these full color digital or Stretch Litho transfers.

So now we're gonna go ahead and get into the different types of the CAD-PRINTZ that we offer. If it can't print Express that is the the lowest square inch pricing on it so it is the most cost-effective.

It does apply to cotton, polyester, and poly cotton blends. It's a matte finish. It's great for t-shirts and hoodies and applies at the low temperature of 300 degrees for 15 seconds.

I actually, just before I came in to do this webinar, did an order for myself here for sixty left chest prints for my nephews preschool, and I wish we had a picture of the design, but we don't, but it was just a full color, about 10-12 colors, to wear. It was about 5 inches by 1.4 inches, I believe, is the size. And I did 60 of them and it came out to about $1.43 per piece. So again, getting all those colors into a transfer to where they're going to apply and it had a lot of shading to it. I'm only paying $1.43 per transfer on that.

It's a great cost for all those colors and you know a good profit margin for you, if you're getting into a full color design.

Hopefully you're letting your customers know that that's you know you know a little bit more difficult to do on your end, so you know you can definitely add into your cost and add into your profit margin there.

You'll see both of our examples here. This one, here, is kind of a picture, looks like a team picture there. That's another benefit to both of these full-color transfers, excuse me, is that you can do photographs of people you know that you wouldn't be able to do screen printing. You could do them both with the CAD-PRINTZ Express, CAD-PRINTZ Opaque, and the Stretch Litho.

So you know, if you've got a customer team on the championships and you get a nice team photo and you're going to the banquet for the year, you would want to do that as either a CAD-PRINTZ or Stretch Litho and again, you do get the effect in kind of capturing the moment with the picture and then put it on a shirt for everyone to keep and remember the accomplishment that they just had. So I went off on the Express print there and again that's good for any of the full color options.

When we get to the Stretch Litho I kind of have a personal story that I'll share with you on those. So that is the CAD-PRINTZ Express I see some questions coming in and I see my team doing their due diligence in answering those for us, so we appreciate it. Keep the questions coming.

The Opaque, the CAD-PRINTZ Opaque, is the lightest kind of softest full-color option that we have. It has great stretch and rebound for the application so you can apply these to your lycra and spandex eyes so you're getting into your your yoga pants or, you know, any type of spandex shirt that's gonna have stretch, once it's on, you know, an athletic fit body or, you know anybody for that matter, but you're getting into an athletic fit body and you got a little CAD-PRINTZ Opaque transfer on there, it does have great stretch and rebound for that.

The other benefit for it is that this works on nylon so you'll see here that we have in our picture an umbrella that you know those are usually made of nylon or you know any nylon jacket, rain jacket.

This is the transfer that you are going to want to use, so again, it's the CAD-PRINTZ Opaque. It works beautifully on nylon. Starting October 1^st, which is less than a month away, we're replacing the Opaque with what's called the Soft Opaque. What that is, is it's taking the old Opaque that was a two-step application of 300 degrees apply for 5 seconds and then remove the plastic (the vinyl plastic) carrier and then put a cover sheet over it and apply it for another 5 seconds.

We've actually gone down to a one-step application for you so it's going to save you some time there. It has the same feel and look and it works on the same products so again what this new Soft Opaque is doing for you is just saving you some time - the one-step application as opposed to the two-step application.

Anytime you're doing the Opaque, you want to think if the customer comes in and says they need prints on nylon, rain jackets, umbrellas, don't turn them away. Just know that you could use the the CAD-PRINTZ Opaque (and then starting October 1^st, the CAD-PRINTZ Soft Opaque).

So he kind of threw another slide here just because our last picture was an umbrella you might sit there and say how did they get that CAD-PRINTZ Opaque on to an umbrella? We decided we'd tell you if this is a market that you're looking to get into or something that you just never thought you could do.

A couple different options and all depends on the press that you have, as you see in our picture here, this picture up to the top left, it's just your basic standard Hotronix Cap Press that your umbrella would be able to fit over.

You know when the spokes are out you'd be able to get just a flat nylon surface on your press and be able to get that transfer on.

Now, what I am going to tell you is to make sure, even if it's raining or not, you go open that umbrella outside and then bring it back into your shop to apply, because you don't want to have that bad luck of opening an umbrella inside your store! Because we say that if you open the umbrella inside the store and the transfer doesn't stick, it's just bad luck! Just a little joke there for you. But, yeah, make sure you're opening the umbrella outside so you don't have that bad luck.

If you're working with any of our Hotronix Clam or Fusion presses, you'll just want to go ahead and get the smaller platens on to the bottom there. It looks like we have our leg and sleeve platen on there. Six by ten would work, as well as the seven-inch round, any of those smaller platens. You just want to swap out your 16x20 press. That's how to apply the umbrella. If you never thought you could do this based on maybe not having the proper equipment or not knowing what transfer to use, now you know you can. The transfer that we're going to use for that is the CAD-PRINTZ Opaque.

Our next and final CAD-PRINTZ option is the Sub Block. This is specifically printed for polyester sublimated apparel.

It has an added dye blocker so when you're getting into the, you'll see our red jersey, and you know, a lot of sublimated reds, try to put white on that red is gonna bleed right through. So this Sub Block with the dye blocker. It is going to get your image on there with no show through.

If you see the picture over to our left here, it's hard to tell in the picture, but that white is actually it's very opaque due to that dye blocker on this CAD-PRINTZ Sub Block so you're not going to get any dyes coming through. You're not going to get any obstructions to your image so this is what you would do if you are getting into the sublimated garments.

Again, priced per piece, per square inch, so you could do a minimum of one. Just keep in mind of that $25 minimum order when you're getting these. Not that they're bad garments, but these, or any type of sublimated garment, always used to sell black because it will have no obstruction to your image.

You won't have upset customers coming back saying that the image is bleeding through. Keep that in mind. Very opaque on reds, greens, whatever color the sublimated garment might be and it's a low low low application temperature, 265, so you're not going to be scorching your garment. You're not going to be seeing any heat press squares or anything along those lines.

A very good transfer to use. We see it most popular among soccer jerseys. In my opinion, that's where I see it used the most, but it can be used for other things as well. Any sublimated garment.

That brings us onto the Stretch Litho. Just to kind of refresh your memory here, the Stretch Litho is the full color option that comes on an 11.25 by 14 sheet. It is priced per sheet just like your Goof Proofs or your Elasti Prints. It applies to cotton, cotton/poly blends as well as polyester.

It's printed and sold by the 11.25x 14 sheet and it's the best economical option for orders 25 or more, full size.

So when you're getting into this smaller left chest, you know, three inch by three inch circle logos or some of those logos that you saw on the the CAD-PRINTZ slides, the smaller ones if you're only doing 25 to 30 of those, you're going to want to go ahead and do in the CAD-PRINTZ because there is a sheet minimum for the Stretch Litho, whether it be 5 or 10 sheets. Based on the size of your image, let's say if it's a 3 by 3, we are able to fit 12 of those on this 11.25 x 14 sheet. If you only need 30 of them, okay, but it's a custom logo and you're going to have to order 10 sheets. Then that's getting you a 120 images. It’s probably more than you would be paying for the individual CAD-PRINTZ that are priced per piece per square inch.

You can do photographs of people on this and this is the one that I wanted to let you know about. People do photos like championships, or in my case, it was in memory of someone every year my family and friends and people in the neighborhood have for about nine years now. Been doing a little fundraiser, kind of a different fundraiser, obscure fundraiser, but great fundraiser just in my parents front yard.

If you're familiar with the Susan G Komen Walk for the Cure, you know for the breast cancer, we one year decided a friend of ours was walking in that event and we're looking to raise money. So my dad decided that he wanted to set up an adult lemonade stand where he would serve Manhattan drinks to any passerby ers, people in the neighborhood that would just care to make a donation to the woman that we had walking in the Susan G Komen walk. So that was the first year and our neighbor that lived behind us came and decided to call it, instead of the Race for the Cure, with the libations that we were serving, she decided to call it the Bracer for the Cure. So the first year we raised about $65 for our neighbor walking in the Susan G Komen and she went on her way.

Within that year our neighbor, that came up with the Bracer for the Cure, came down with ovarian cancer and passed away pretty quickly. So the following year, we decided to take it a little bit more serious and did what is called Bonnie's Bracer for the Cure, to where we did the same thing - set up an adult lemonade stand and also printed shirts with Bonnie's picture on them so people could remember her and pass them out to the people in attendance.

I used the Stretch Litho transfer for that because we did a great amount, did about a hundred and fifty shirts, and it was full size so I was using up more of that to where it was more cost-effective to put on the shirts. Stretch Litho, keep in mind, it's an 11.25 x 14” carrier.

You can gang images, and as I said previously, if depending on your jobs and everything, you could have a design for example our two designs that we have in this picture here. We have our Lake Erie paddle design that has a couple blues, yellow, brown, and that looks like it's about 11 inches wide by five inches tall image, give or take.

We'd be able to put down on a sheet, that is about seven colors in its own, and then if you look over at our bag here, you know we have a couple different greens, black, red, a couple different oranges in there, so that's another eight color design and maybe only two or three of the colors are in common there. But this is probably maybe a little four by four design so I'm able to take my seven color design over here, and my eight color design over here, we're up to 15 colors, and place that on the same sheet to where we don't have to worry about pricing per color.

So again, keep in mind when you are doing these full color options to sit down, do your homework, and figure out if it is the more economical way to go with one of the CAD-PRINTZ Express Print, Opaque, or Sub block, or if it's more cost effective and economical to go with the Stretch Litho print.

This is a download of comparison chart and this will tell you kind of everything that we went over, application times. So you'll see our CAD-PRINTZ Express is a 300-degree application. The Soft Opaque is a 310, the Sub Block is a 265, and the Stretch Litho is 275.

The great thing about these full color options is they are all low temp applications so you're not going to have to worry about any scorching on polyester or anything when you're doing these application times. They all kind of run about the same, about 15-20 seconds. They're all one-step applications. I stressed on it, and maybe sounded like a broken record, so I do apologize.

The CAD-PRINTZ Express, Opaque and Sub Block are priced individually per piece per square inch and Stretch Litho, though, is the one that's per the sheet. It tells you right underneath there that you can gang the Stretch Litho but you cannot gang the CAD-PRINTZ option.

Another thing that we see getting a lot is the customer has two logos and they want to gang them. But they want to do two CAD-PRINTZ. That is not possible. They would be two separate orders if you choose to go that route.

We talked about the minimums, $25 for the CAD-PRINTZ and ten sheets (five or ten sheets) for the Stretch Litho. Durability, just like any of our products at Transfer Express, we test wash over 50 wash and dry cycles with no cracking or peeling so these shirts and garments, and images on the garments, are going to last.

The CAD-PRINTZ - one thing that I did not touch on is they will have a small white outline around it. It does not take away from the integrity of the design at all. For me, it actually is a benefit to it. It makes it pop a little bit more on darker garments and you can't even tell it's there to be honest, or at least I can't, but I think it's a great feature because it does help it pop on more garments. So just keep in mind if you are ordering those, there will be a white outline around it.

Stretch Litho has a clear outline around it, so you will not see that at all, either, on colors. This is one of the more popular, or kind of common, questions that we see is how are they colored. It is the CMYK process, so we are actually printing in the four-color process with all the full color options that we talked about here as opposed to the spot color and PMS colors that we do for our normal screen print Goof Proof, Elasti Prints, and whatnot.

Keep that mind if you're doing upload to us, then if you're getting ready to send this art, to make sure you convert it over to the CMYK colors because if it does come in the RGB or the spot coloring, we're going to convert it over to the CMYK and you might see a slight variance in colors. So always better that if you're uploading it to us, that you just get it to us in that CMYK because if you do, that's what you're getting.

Our upload team is great, our whole customer service team is great, about letting you know that if your upload did come in RGB that when we do convert it over to CMYK, you might see some slight color variances.

Now you're not going to see a kelly green turn red, but you might see a lighter or darker shade of that green color, or whatever color it is that we're converting, so keep that in mind when you are sending those orders to us.

How are we doing on questions? It looks like we're getting pretty good, getting answers for you so that's it for our options here at Transfer Express.

Just a recap - we have a couple different options for you. These are great when you're getting into photographic transfers or something with a lot of shading or tons of colors that you wouldn't be able to get a screen print out of. We are always here to help to let you know which transfer type you should be using based on the artwork.

When you do get an order for these, sit down and do your homework. All the price guides and everything are downloadable on our website so you could see just how much it is per piece per square inch, and sit and compare it to the sheet cost for the Stretch Litho.

Do your homework going back and forth of how many can gang on the Stretch Litho sheet versus what the sizes are and how many you actually need to help you make the best decision and cost-effective decision and what you're trying to do.

keep in mind that we may have opened a new market to you. Those rain jackets, umbrellas, anything you could think of there that you might not be printing.

We do have that option for you if you didn't know the CAD-PRINTZ Opaque and switching over to the Soft Opaque October 1^st.

We are here to grow your business. You could always email us at info@transferexpress.com. Subscribe to our blog. There's so much information on the blog and what we just talked about and as well as anything that you can imagine.

You can watch our videos and previous webinars as well as this one that you just attended. You can go back and listen to if we were going to click or that was something that you didn't catch. You could go back and watch this one.

Visit us at trade shows. I said to my Texas friend at the beginning there we're going to be seeing in two weeks down there in Fort Worth. We have a team in Indianapolis as we speak right now. I think I saw someone over there say that they had already stopped by or were going to stop by.

We have the SGIA show Las Vegas and then we're rounding third and heading home to finish the year in Charlotte. As long as Florence doesn't have anything to say about it, we'll be in Charlotte at the beginning of November.

Check out our videos on YouTube, social media and we are always here to help you grow your business. Again, I'm Dan Kane. Thank you so much for joining me.

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