Discover the ultimate definitions for essential (TheMagicTouch) personalization terms in our curated glossary. Quickly understand the key concepts of all printing techniques and simplify your learning journey with the comprehensive glossary.
The image drum, also called imaging drum, is the heart of a colorLED printer. It is a cylindrical component that is responsible for transferring the image created by the printer onto the paper. This process works by means of static electricity. The surface of the drum is initially given a uniform electrical charge.
A series of small LED lights emit light to selectively discharge specific areas of the drum, creating the image pattern. The toner particles, which are electrically charged, are attracted to the charged areas of the drum and form the image. The image consisting of toner is then transferred from the drum to the paper. This is repeated for each color and the toner is melted and bonded to the paper by heat and pressure.
For this process to work, each color (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) has its own imaging drum.
The imaging drums have a limited lifespan and need to be replaced periodically, depending on the number of prints they have made and the environmental conditions.
The surface of the drum is sensitive to light and dust, so it is important to handle it with care.
Essentially, the imaging drum is the crucial component that converts digital data into a physical print.
Also called pressure roller in English. In a cutting plotter or inkjet printer, a pressure roller ensures that the media remains in place during printing or cutting and that the feed takes place without slipping. The larger the cutting plotter or printer, the more pressure rollers are needed for reliable feed.
Auto open is a function where the heat press opens automatically after the set time has elapsed. Some heat presses are equipped with this function, such as theDTF Station Prisma Auto Heat Press.
This can be convenient, so that you do not have to stand next to the heat press to open it manually.
Technically, there are 3 ways to achieve this:
This is also often called the Backprint. TheMagicTouch transfer paper always has a print on the back. The print on the back helps you identify the following:
You can see which transfer it is by the color of the print on the back. The color of each transfer paper is stated in the product details on our website.
The print on the back indicates that you should print on the other side of the transfer paper
For some transfers, arrows are added to the back to indicate the desired paper path.
The only exception isTheMagicTouch ORD 8.1. This transfer paper does not have a print on the back, because the back of the paper remains visible on the final product. So to give a smooth finish, there is no backside print visible.
Why are there arrows on the backside of some TheMagicTouch transfer paper types?
Self-adhesive foil that is glued onto a cut and peeled self-adhesive vinyl design to remove the entire design from the carrier and transfer (apply) it to the place where the foil is to be glued.
Application tape is used for Eco Solvent printable flex for textile printing in addition to self-adhesive vinyl. In that case it is important to use an application tape that is suitable for a transfer press.
Transferring cut media (for example self-adhesive vinyl film) using application tape to ensure that the entire design is neatly transferred in one go.
This principle is also used for Eco-Solvent printable Flex, for which special application tape is used that can be used under the transfer press.
When the print contains consecutive stripes, this is called banding.
On an inkjet printer, such as a sublimation printer, this is usually caused by clogged nozzles in the print head. These stripes always run in the same direction, the same as the back and forth movement of the print head and in the opposite direction in which the sublimation paper runs through the printer. Most sublimation printers offer various utilities to quickly solve this problem when banding occurs.
To prevent the nozzles of the print head from drying out, Sawgrass sublimation printers offer a special cleaning procedure that is automatically activated every now and then. To take advantage of this, the printer must be left on at all times, which is not a problem as it will go into sleep mode without consuming unnecessary energy, yet can still clean the nozzles automatically.
If a design containing the color black needs to be transferred to black textile, for example with the transfer paper TheMagicTouch WTT, you can remove all the black from the image, so that the black of the textile provides the black color. In those places where the black has been removed from the design, no more transfer is needed. This makes the print feel thinner and more stretchable. This trick is called Black Removal. TheMagicTouch Software Pro has a special easy function for this to achieve this with one click. This is also often done with Direct To Film on black textile.
A BlowOut sheet is a polyester cloth, also called a degassing cloth. By placing this cloth on the transfer during pressing, you prevent pigments from evaporating to places where they do not belong on the product you are sublimating. This phenomenon is also called ghosting. Ghosting is therefore prevented by using a BlowOut sheet. (degassing cloth)
A cast vinyl film, also often called a cast vinyl is manufactured by liquefying a liquid mass with a solvent-based substance and pouring it onto the substrate. The solvent is then evaporated by heat, leaving the vinyl as a solid on the substrate.
The material has almost no shrinkage because it has no internal tension itself, it can be manufactured thinner and has a long lifespan outside (7 years or longer) the disadvantage: The production is more expensive than rolled vinyl film, an alternative production method.
Concave or often written as the English term concave, is another word for hollow with regard to a surface that needs to be provided with a lettering with self-adhesive Vinyl. Concave is therefore the opposite of convex. A hollow surface is difficult to stick because the Vinyl has to deform in order to be able to follow the hollow shape well and to stay in place well. In general, you can say that for concave surfaces you should use a cast vinyl film because it fits the shape better and stays in place better.
Convex is another word for a convexity with regard to a surface that needs to be provided with a lettering with self-adhesive Vinyl. Convex is therefore the opposite of concave. A convexity is difficult to stick because the Vinyl has to deform in order to be able to follow the convex shape well and to stay in place well. In general, you can say that for convex surfaces you should use a cast vinyl film because it fits the shape better and stays in place better.
A configuration page is a document that provides information about the printer’s settings and configuration. The configuration page typically contains information about the device’s IP address, network settings, firmware version, and other important details. The purpose of a configuration page is to allow the user or a technician to easily access and view the device’s settings, which can be useful for troubleshooting and ensuring the device is configured correctly. The configuration page also often provides information about the status of the printer’s consumables.
The configuration page also contains the serial number you will need if you wish to purchase a license for TheMagicTouch Software Pro.
Configuration pages can typically be printed directly from the device or accessed through the device’s web interface.
This is the paper or film that holds the transfer layer or Heat Transfer Vinyl so you can print and/or cut your design. After pressing, this is what you remove and throw away. It is also often called liner.
Most Heat Transfer Vinyl, for example, uses a carrier made from PET plastic. While the carrier is essential for handling and applying flex foil or other transfers, it is eventually removed, leaving only the design stuck to the garment.
To transfer print onto a cap or hat, the same parameters are needed as on a T-shirt or other garment. The challenge is that it is difficult to get the right amount of pressure on the odd shape of a cap or hat. That is why there are specialCap presses, with a specially designed top and bottom plate, to give the right amount of pressure and heat to the printable surface of a cap or hat.
Most cap presses are equipped with a special mechanism to tighten the cap around the bottom plate, so that it does not move or fold when pressed. On some Cap presses, the bottom plate can be changed with different sizes for different sized caps, which can be very useful to get the best results.
Heat presses can have different constructions to open and close. The term Clamshell refers to a heat press that opens and closes like a clamshell. This means that it hinges from the back with a plate that opens upwards. The advantage is that it has a smaller footprint and is easier to
The disadvantage of this construction is that it is difficult to construct it in such a way that high pressure is achieved. You also often encounter uneven pressure with more pressure at the back than at the front with most clamshell heat presses. When not in use, the clamshell press opens wider than a foldaway heat press. This causes the heat plate to cool unevenly, which can lead to uneven results.
A good example of a Clamshell heat press is theTheMagicTouch HTP123 Prowhich was specifically developed to create a clamshell press that can deliver relatively high pressure for a clamshell press and also has good temperature control to counteract the disadvantages mentioned.
Clogging also means blocking or clogging. In inkjet printers, this usually refers to the print heads or ink tubes being blocked by dried-out pigments. This can cause the print head to miss some or all of the nozzles, resulting in sub-optimal prints on yoursublimation paper with dropouts or missing colors together.
If an inkjet printer misses a full color while printing, this may not be due to blockages. There may also be air in the ink wells preventing the ink from reaching the print head.
To transfer an image to a product with sublimation paper and a sublimation printer, that product must have a polyester coating or be made of polyester.
A coating spray is a polyester coating to spray on uncoated products. As interesting as this may sound, it is not a durable and professional solution and you rarely get a good result. You are better off with special products that already have a perfect polyester coating.
In a transfer process, in most cases the carrier must be removed after pressing the product. The carrier can also be referred to as Liner or Backing. This removal of the carrier is called “Peel”.
When it is necessary to do this only after it has completely cooled after pressing, this is called a cold peel. An example of a product with Cold Peel properties isMagiCut 123Premiumflex foil.
The carrier must be cold before it is removed after the heat press has been opened.
With cold peeling, it is faster to remove the product from the heat press after pressing and let it cool completely before peeling it. While it is cooling, the heat is free to press the next item. With cold peel it is no problem to first press all the parts of a job and then peel them later when they have all cooled down to keep the production speed up.
A controller is the electronic brain of atransfer press, providing the user with buttons to select and set your time, temperature, and on some models, additional features such as a counter. In most cases, the physical buttons are combined with the other electronic components on a single electronic circuit board. This circuit board is called the controller.
The electronic components of the controller are responsible for regulating and maintaining precise temperature and time settings during the heat transfer process.
On some heat press models, the controller is built into a unit that can be easily replaced by the user. In those cases, the entire replaceable unit with the control board is usually called the controller.
Stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and BlacK. These are the four primary colours used in most printing processes. Black is indicated by “K” instead of “B”, which may seem a bit strange. This is often explained by the story that the “K” was chosen to avoid confusion with Blue. However, this is not correct. This use of the “K” instead of the “B” for black comes from traditional printing, where the black colour printing plate was called the “Keyplate” or “Keycolor”. Hence the “K”. The CMYK printing process already offers a huge range of possibilities for transfer printing, such as with thisstarter pack for printing t-shirts.
Stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and white. In printers that use these colours instead of the more common CMYK, the black (K) is removed and replaced with white (W). This allows the printer to print white, which gives unique possibilities, for example with theOKI Pro8432WT and TheMagicTouch transfer paper. The printer can still print black, because it can make black by using cyan, magenta and yellow. When these 3 colours are added together, they also appear as black. Because black is composed of the three colors, this type of black is often called “Composite Black.”
Adding white in the printing process greatly expands the applications of image transfer, as it allows the user to transfer images onto colored products and surfaces thanks to the ability to create a white layer under the actual image. This is not possible with a more traditional CMYK setup.
The Direct To Film (DTF) printing process uses acuring oven. It is a specialized heating oven that is used to melt the adhesive powder and bond it to the printed transfer film.
To create textile transfers using the Direct To Film (DTF) printing process, the ink is printed onto a PET film. A layer of adhesive powder is applied to this printed image. The curing oven then heats the film to a specific temperature for a certain amount of time, causing the powder to melt and fuse with the ink and the film. This process is crucial to ensure that the transfer adheres well to the final substrate when it is heat pressed.
Doming is a process where liquid wax is poured over TheMagicTouch SPF series of Vinyl to create a lens or dome over the top.
This video from Liquid Lens shows how doming works →
Direct to Film a relatively new and innovative technique used for clothing decoration. In DTF printing, a transfer is made by a special inkjet printer that prints the image directly onto a film. Hence the name Direct To Film. After printing, a powder adhesive is applied that only sticks to the still wet ink and not to the surrounding area. In order to obtain good opacity and an even layer of adhesive powder, the printer adds a white layer on top of the printed color image. This powder is then fused with the ink by heating it with a curing oven, resulting in a transfer that can be used on any color of fabric and can easily be applied with a heat press.
The advantage of this process is that the image has no background and can be applied to many types of garments, regardless of the color of the garment.
Transfer media where the printed transfer layer can be released from the carrier by soaking the printed transfer in water. The ultra-thin transfer layer with the print on it, releases itself and can be transferred to many different products, as long as they are non-porous and smooth. The best-known waterslide transfers are the variants of TheMagicTouch DCT 4.5 transfer papers:
A situation in which color pigments from polyester fabric slowly react with a flex foil design on that garment by penetrating the flex foil color layer. This reaction is caused by the heat of the heat press process and is not affected or caused by washing.
Using flex foils that can be applied at a low temperature helps to prevent this undesirable phenomenon in most cases. On thicker garments such as softshell, the risk of bleeding is greater, simply because there is more colour pigment in the thicker fabric.
In these situations, it is recommended to use a flex foil with a so-called sublistop or blockout layer such as MagiCut 123Premium Flex Sublibloc White.
Also often referred to as the Carrier, Liner or backing. This is the paper or film that holds the media layer or film so that you can print and/or cut your design. After pressing, this is what you remove and throw away.
It looks like a clear glossy sheet or a silicone coated paper that the actual media is glued to. A good example of a typical media with a carrier isflex film.
With Heat Transfer Vinyl, the carrier side should be placed face down during cutting and after weeding it can be placed face up on the garment while transferring to the heat press.
There are two different types of carrier films: pressure sensitive carrier sheets and static carrier sheets. The difference between the two is that pressure sensitive carrier sheets have a sticky backing and static carrier sheets have a smooth, non-sticky backing.
When an area right next to a collar or seam needs to be printed, it can happen that the thicker collar takes all the pressure and the flatter area next to it, where your transfer needs to go, hardly gets any pressure. This is called a print shadow.
DTF stands for Direct To Film. This is a relatively new and innovative technique used for clothing decoration. With DTF printing, a transfer is made by a special inkjet printer that prints the image onto a film. Hence the name Direct To Film. The printer covers the image with a white layer of ink. After printing, a powder adhesive is applied that only sticks to the still wet ink and not to the surrounding area. This powder is fused with the ink by heating it with a curing oven, resulting in a transfer that can be used on any color of fabric and can easily be applied with a heat press.
The advantage of this process is that the image has no background and can be applied to many types of garments, regardless of the color of the garment.
A specialized type of film made from PET plastic that is used in theDirect To Film (DTF) printing process. The plastic is coated with a special layer that allows the ink to remain wet for a period of time without running off the surface of the film. This allows the image to be coated with a powdered adhesive that sticks to the wet ink. Once the powder and ink have cured together on the PET film, you have a transfer that can be transferred to the garment. DTF film is the foundation of the DTF printing process and provides the necessary surface area for creating high-quality transfers.
A DTF printer is a special type of inkjet printer, which is able to use special inks for the Direct To Film (DTF) printing process. This printing technique is used for decorating garments. TheDTF printer prints the image directly onto a special film. Hence the name Direct To Film. During the process, the printer covers every part of the image with a white layer of ink. After applying special powder glue, which is fused to the ink, the end result is a transfer that can be used on any color of fabric and can be easily applied with a heat press.
The advantage of this process is that the image has no background and can be applied to many types of garments, regardless of the color of the garment.
DTF stands forDirect To Film. The powder used in this process is an adhesive designed to adhere to garments when heated and pressed using a heat press.
In the DTF process, after the ink is printed onto the DTF film, a layer of DTF powder is applied to the printed area. The DTF powder is specially formulated to adhere to the wet ink and melt when heated to form a bond with the ink. When the film is pressed onto the garment using a heat press, the heat causes the DTF powder to melt again and also bond to the fabric, creating a permanent, durable design.
Refers to which side of the media, for exampletransfer paper, should be facing up and which side should be facing down in a printer or during the transfer process. The printed side is what is called “the face.” So “Face up” means the transfer layer (printed) is facing up. Obviously, this is the opposite of Face Down.
Refers to which side of the media, for exampletransferpapier, is facing up and which side should be facing down in a printer or during the transfer process. The printed side is what is called “the face”. So “face down” means the transfer layer (printed) is facing down and the back of the media is facing up. This is the opposite of Face Up.
A special type of vinyl that has a heat-activated adhesive on the back and is mounted on a clear PET film (also often called a backing) so that a cutting plotter can cut a design into the vinyl layer. The plotter is set to cut through the vinyl but not the liner. This allows the user to weed out the access HTV from the liner. What is left can be printed onto fabric items such as t-shirts, bags, and other garments when heat and pressure are applied. The result is a durable, professional design. Flex foil is available in a variety of colors, textures, and finishes, allowing for endless customization possibilities.
MagiCut is one of the largest flex foil brands in the industry and is available in a variety of standard flex foils. There are also 3D flex foils such as holographic, metallic, and soft metallic and various glitter and patterned flex foils.
A color laser or color LED printer uses toner instead of ink. The toner, which are small solid particles, are carried to the paper by static electrical charges to form the image. Once on the paper, the toner particles must be bonded to the paper. This is what the Fuser unit does.
Thefuser uses a combination of high heat and pressure to fuse the toner particles to the surface of the paper. In color laser and LED printers, the fuser plays a crucial role in ensuring that the different colored toner particles fuse together correctly, creating accurate and vibrant images.
Also called calendered vinyl foil. To manufacture this vinyl, a paste-like mass is passed through rollers, which makes it increasingly thinner (=calendering). This ultimately creates the vinyl layer.
Advantages: The production process is simpler and therefore cheaper than cast (cast) vinyl. Disadvantage: It is more sensitive to shrinkage due to temperature changes than Cast vinyl foil. It is also thicker and has a shorter average lifespan outside (1 to 2 years).
A head cleaning is a routine that an inkjet printer can perform to clean the nozzles, also called nozzles. Head cleaning can be enabled from the software that comes with the printer and/or via the menu on the printer itself.
In the context of transfer heat presses, recovery time refers to the time it takes for the heat press’s heating element (the top platen) to return to its optimum operating temperature after a transfer process has been completed. This period is essential to ensure consistent and effective heat transfer results in subsequent applications.
During the transfer process, the heat press is set to a specific high temperature to facilitate the adhesion of the transfer material to the substrate. During the transfer process, the product (e.g. a T-shirt being printed on) absorbs the heat from the heating platen. This will allow the heat plate to cool down, especially once the process is complete and the pressure is released.
Recovery time is the time it takes for the heat press to reach a high enough temperature to reliably perform another transfer without compromising the quality of the output.
Factors such as the power of the heat press, its insulation, and the size of the heating element can all affect recovery time. Efficient recovery is crucial to maintaining productivity when printing high volumes.
On a good quality heat press, recovery time is very short, allowing the operator to transfer products continuously without having to worry about temperature drops.
High tack literally means ‘high adhesive strength’. It is a term used to indicate how strongly a material, such as flex foil or application tape, adheres to a substrate. With flex foil with a high tack backing, the foil adheres more strongly to the backing. This ensures that small details are less likely to come loose during peeling.
Due to the strong adhesion, small details stay in place better during peeling. The disadvantage is that removing the foil from the backing may require a little more force.
In addition to high tack, there are other levels of adhesive strength, such as low tack and medium tack. The choice of a certain level depends on the specific application. In short, High Tack offers good adhesion, which means that small details are better preserved. However, it is important to know that peeling may require a little more effort.
All transfer presses have the option to adjust the pressure setting. However, most heat presses do not allow you to set the heat press according to a scale. It is therefore not possible to set a heat press to a certain amount of pressure, for example in Bar or Psi, because there is no gauge where you can read the set pressure. To solve this, the required pressure setting for a transfer application is divided into low, medium or high pressure.
High pressure can be achieved, for example, with theTheMagicTouch HTP256 Plus. On most heat presses this means a setting where the pressure is set to the highest point but still at a usable level and one that will not damage the heat press.
It should be around 5-6 bar / 72-87 psi, however the actual pressure applied to the product can vary greatly depending on the type of heat press used so some testing may be done.
Refers to a type of adhesive that is used in solid or powder form and melts when heated. It is essential in various garment manufacturing processes, such as in solid, layered form for Flexfilm and in powder form for Direct To Film (DTF).
Hotmelt adhesive is applied as a thin layer to Flexfilm, or is applied as a powder during the Direct To Film process. When the Flexfilm transfer or DTF transfer is pressed onto the garment with heat, the hotmelt melts and bonds the transfer to the fabric.
Small ground particles of polyester adhesive that melt and can be used to stick a printed design to the garment using the DTF (Direct To Film) process. A DTF printer prints onto a special film and adds a white layer of ink to the entire design. TheDTF powder is then added to the print and sticks to the ink while it is still wet. When fused with heat, it forms a melt layer that turns the print into a transfer that can be applied with a heat press.
In a transfer process, the carrier must in most cases be removed after pressing the product. This removal of the carrier is called “Peel”.
When it is possible to do this almost immediately after pressing, with only a minimum of cooling so that the transfer is still hot, this is called a hot peel.
An example of a flex film with Hot Peel properties isMagiCut 123premium Ultra.
A Hot Peel transfer does not necessarily have to be peeled while it is still hot, it is okay if it cools down and is peeled. In some cases this can cause a bit more tension when removing, but in general this is not a problem.
HTV is the abbreviation of Heat Transfer Vinyl. This is the English term for flex foil. This is a special type of vinyl that has a hotmelt layer on the back and is mounted on a transparent PET film. This film is called the carrier.
A cutting plotter can cut a design into the vinyl layer. The plotter is set to cut through the vinyl, but not through the carrier. This allows the user to remove the unwanted parts around the design, the so-called peeling. What remains can be printed on textiles such as T-shirts, bags and other clothing items when heat and pressure are applied. The result is a durable, professional print. Flex foil is available in different colours, textures and finishes, which allows for endless application possibilities.
MagiCut is one of the largest Flex foil brands in the industry and is available in many different versions. There are also flex foils such as holographic, metallic and soft metallic and various glitter and patterned flex foils.
A digital printing process that uses tiny droplets of ink to create images on paper or other media. An inkjet printer works by ejecting tiny microscopic ink particles onto a surface, creating an image dot by dot. Most small desktop inkjet printers are best suited for home use, as they are very cheap to purchase but have a relatively high cost per print.
The ink used in these printers is unsuitable for transfer printing, as it is highly soluble in water. The inkjet process is also used in sublimation printers, where special sublimation paper is printed with special ink containing colour pigments that can be transferred to polyester using the heat and pressure of a heat press.
Larger inkjet printers are used professionally for advertising lettering purposes and EcoSolvent inkjet printers can also be used for high quality garment printing with special Eco Solvent printable Heat Transfer Vinyl.
If the actual measured temperature of a heat press does not match the temperature indicated on the heat press, the controller must be adjusted accordingly. This process is called calibration.
To do this correctly, you must accurately measure the temperature of the heat press.
In many cases, infrared (IR) thermometers are used for this. These are notorious for their inaccuracies, because they must be corrected for the heat emissivity of the surface. This is the relative ability of the surface to give off heat through radiation.
For this reason, you should never calibrate a press with an IR thermometer, because it will not give a reliable measurement unless you have the heat emissivity to correct for the surface of the heat plate.
If you need to test the temperature of your press, always use special TheMagicTouch temperature test strips. These provide a much more accurate reading of the heat plate, allowing you to properly calibrate your heat press.
Most heat presses offer a service mode to adjust the set temperature indicated by the controller. Consult your manual to see how to do this for your heat press.
This is essentially a set of rules that a software program must follow when creating a print file. The colour profile provides the correct “recipe” for the inks or toners present in the printer.
This “recipe” for the colour mix ensures that the output from the printer matches the image on the screen as closely as possible. However, if you want to transfer the image using transfer media, the output should be as close to the original as possible once it is transferred to the product, not when it comes out of the printer, because a slight colour shift can occur during the heat-press process. This requires special colour profiles to take into account that shift when using transfer paper. This is why special software such asTheMagicTouch Software Profor OKI printers with white toner and the Sawgrass Print Utility for sublimation are indispensable.
Alaser printercreates the image using static electricity and colored powders called toner.
The toner is applied to the paper in exactly the right amount and in the right place by means of static electricity. The exact location of the electrical charge required for this process is precisely applied by a laser beam, so that the toner sticks to the image drum exactly where needed to create the image which is then transferred from the drum to the paper as the paper runs through the printer. The advantages of this process are the high print speeds that are possible, the sharpness of the image and last but not least, when using a suitable color laser printer, the possibility of using transfer paper to transfer the image to other products.
The pressure can be adjusted on all heat presses. However, it is not possible to set the heat press to a scale on most heat presses. This makes it difficult to set a heat press to a specific amount of pressure in Bar or Psi on most heat presses, as there is no gauge to read the actual pressure being set. To overcome this, the required pressure setting for a transfer application is usually divided into low, medium or high pressure.
Low pressure on most heat presses means a setting where the pressure is set to a point where there is still some resistance to be overcome when closing the heat press, but minimal.
It should be around 2-3 bar / 29-44 psi, however the actual pressure being applied to the product can vary greatly depending on the type of heat press being used, so some testing may be carried out.
Low tack is a term that indicates the low adhesive strength of a material. It is mainly used in connection with the carrier (or liner) of flex film and application tape. This carrier is the material on which the flex film or tape is supplied before it is applied. A low adhesive strength ensures that the flex film or tape is easier to remove from the carrier. This is useful when cutting and applying small details.
The advantage is that peeling is faster and easier. The disadvantage is that with very small details there is a chance that film will come loose from the carrier during peeling. In addition to low tack, there is also medium tack, high tack and ultra high tack. These terms indicate how strongly the material adheres to a surface.
Low tack is a property that makes working with flex foil and tape easier, but it can in some cases lead to slightly less accurate results with very small details.
This term is used for heat presses that must be closed manually by the operator. This is in contrast to a heat press that can be closed by air pressure or by electric current. With a manual heat press, you must close it manually to start the pressing process and generate pressure.
Manual heat presses can be divided into swing-away or clam shell heat presses, which determines the way the press opens. As the name suggests, a swing-away heat press can be swung open once the heat plate moves up in a straight motion. A clam shell opens like a clam or a book. In general, clam shell manual heat presses are more compact and easier to manufacture. Swing-away heat presses have the advantage that the pressure is generally more even and the structure makes it possible to build a heat press with a higher pressure.
Marking marks or in English also called Crop Marks, are used in the Print & Cut process. This means that a print is made on media, which is cut out around the edges by a cutting plotter after printing. To ensure that the plotter can cut in the right place, markings are printed by the cutting software, which can scan the plotter. These markings are called Crop Marks.
A mask print is the printing of a design, where that design is cut out by a shape of which many are placed next to each other. Usually a circle is used for this, so that the design is built up from many small circles. This can give a nice effect, but also ensures that an image no longer consists of a poster, but feels softer and is more stretchable on the fabric.
This allows the pressure to be adjusted on all heat presses. However, most do not allow the heat press to be set to a scale. Because there is no gauge to read the actual pressure being set, it can be difficult to set a heat press to a specific amount of pressure in Bar or Psi.
To overcome this difficulty, the required pressure setting for a transfer application is usually divided into simply low, medium or high pressure.
Medium pressure on most heat presses obviously means a setting where the pressure is set at a point halfway between high pressure and low pressure.
High pressure is a setting where the pressure is set at the highest point, but still at a workable level and one that will not damage the heat press.
Low pressure still has some resistance to overcome when closing the heat press, but minimal.
Medium Pressure is right in the middle of these two.
It should be around 4-5 bar / 58-73 psi, but the actual pressure being applied to the product can vary vary greatly depending on the type of heat press used, so some testing may be performed.
Medium tack is a term that indicates the average adhesive strength of a material. It is often used with flex film and application tape to describe the bond between the carrier (or liner) and the material itself.
A medium adhesive strength means that the material adheres slightly more firmly to the carrier than with low tack, but less strongly than with high tack or ultra high tack.
A medium tack tape is generally easier to remove than high tack or ultra high tack variants. It may take a little more effort to remove the vinyl from the carrier compared to Low Tack tape.
The adhesive strength of materials is often divided into four categories: low, medium, high and ultra high tack. This classification indicates how strongly the material adheres to a surface. Medium tack offers a good balance between easy removal of the tape and a sufficiently strong bond to the vinyl. The choice of medium tack depends on the specific application and the desired properties.
This is a term used in the graphics industry to describe the unwanted movement or bleeding of dye from a fabric into the ink or transfer that has been applied to it. For this reason, it is often referred to as “bleeding through”. Migration usually occurs during or after heat transfer printing, where relatively high temperatures are used to bond the transfer to the garment.
This can occur especially in polyester fabrics, where dye is often sublimated into the fibers to color the garment, meaning it is embedded in the material. When exposed to high temperatures during the transfer process, this dye can migrate to the surface and mix with the transfer ink.
Color migration usually causes a light-colored print, such as white flex foil, to shift, which can cause the printed colors to appear different than intended, often becoming duller or tinted by the color of the fabric. Also, the fabric dye can often bleed into the printed design, causing blurry edges or discoloration. In some cases, the pattern or design of the fabric can be partially transferred to the printed area.
Preventing color migration
To minimize color migration, several techniques can be used. Lowering the heat temperature: Using a transfer method that can be transferred at a lower heat setting can significantly reduce the risk of dye migration due to the lower temperature. MagiCut offers several (printable) foils that can be transferred at lower temperatures.
Using a (printable) flex foil with a special pigment barrier on top of the low temperature transfer process can further help prevent dye migration. MagiCut offers several Sublibloc (printable) flex foil products that provide this extra protective barrier against migration.
This is a term used in the printing industry to describe the unwanted movement or bleeding of dye from a fabric into the ink or transfer that has been applied to it. For this reason, it is often referred to as “bleeding through”. Migration usually occurs during or after heat transfer printing, where relatively high temperatures are used to bond the transfer to the garment.
This can occur especially in polyester fabrics, where dye is often sublimated into the fibers to color the garment, meaning it is embedded in the material. When exposed to high temperatures during the transfer process, this dye can migrate to the surface and mix with the transfer ink.
Color migration usually causes a light colored print, such as white Heat transfer Vinyl (HTV), to shift, which can cause the printed colors to appear different than intended, often becoming duller or tinted by the color of the fabric. Also, the fabric dye can often bleed into the printed design, causing blurry edges or discoloration. In some cases, the pattern or design of the fabric can be partially transferred to the printed area.
Preventing color migration
To minimize color migration, several techniques can be used. Lowering the heat temperature: Using a transfer method that can be transferred at a lower heat setting can significantly reduce the risk of dye migration due to the lower temperature. MagiCut offers several (printable) flex foils that can be transferred at lower temperatures.
Using a (printable) flex foil with a special pigment barrier on top of the low temperature transfer process can further help prevent dye migration. MagiCut offers several Sublibloc (printable) flex foil products that provide this extra barrier of protection against migration.
A rolled vinyl film can have a monomer or a polymer composition. The difference lies in the composition of the paste that is used to roll out the vinyl film. Monomer films are mainly used for temporary campaigns because they have an average lifespan of about 2 to 5 years outdoors, depending on the circumstances and the chosen color.
The reason that a monomer lasts shorter is due to the plasticizers that are used in the production process. This is more affected by sunlight (UV) than the plasticizer in polymer. However, monomer is cheaper than polymer.
Extra input option to feed paper into a printer, specially designed for media that is thicker or has a different composition than normal printing paper. Because these media are often fed per sheet, the multi-purpose tray is also often called the manual feed. The Multi-Purpose tray is placed on the printer in such a way that the paper path is as easy as possible to enable the feeding of special media. The most commonly used media from the multi-purpose tray are:
Also often called multicoloured. When printing textiles with Flex foil, a design can be composed of multiple colours of Flex. Sometimes it is necessary to press these colours together for the design. This is called Multicolour. Since the adhesion of a flex foil to another flex foil can be less, it is not possible to work Multicolour with all Flex types and colours. The product pages state in the details whether a Flex is suitable for multicolour/multicolour processing.
An alternative can be to cut the colours apart in each other. This ensures that all colours adhere to the fabric and not to each other, which is better for adhesion. The disadvantage of this method is that there is sometimes minimal space between the colours.
This is an additional step in the transfer printing process, often used with Transfer Paper, Flexfoil and Direct To Film (DTF) transfers. It involves applying heat and pressure to the already transferred design for a second time. This additional step serves several purposes. Firstly, it improves the adhesion of the transfer to the fabric, making it more durable and resistant to washing. Secondly, it helps to reduce the sheen that is often left behind by the initial transfer, resulting in a more matte and finished look. Thirdly, it bonds the transfer more to the fibers of the fabric, giving the impression of a thinner transfer and enhancing the softness of the print. In short, pressing improves the overall quality and appearance of the transfer. To further improve the pressing process, TheMagicTouch has developed a special pressing paper called T.Seal to cover the transferred print during pressing. A soft silicone coating on the T.seal plate further improves the adhesion with the fibres, which contributes to the beneficial effects of post-pressing.
If multiple print jobs need to be printed and/or cut in succession on an Eco solvent printer/cutter, the software can automatically place these designs on the media as economically as possible instead of underneath each other. This is called Nesting.
Nylon was once the go-to material for rainwear because of its strength and durability. As a synthetic fiber, it offered good resistance to water and abrasion. However, nylon tends to absorb moisture, which can affect performance over time as a water-repellent coating wears off.
In recent years, polyester has largely replaced nylon as the fabric of choice for rainwear and other water-repellent products. Polyester is also a synthetic fiber, but it has several advantages over nylon in this context. It is inherently hydrophobic, meaning that it repels water rather than absorbing it. As a result, polyester garments dry faster and are more resistant to water penetration. Additionally, polyester is often more wrinkle-resistant and easier to care for than nylon.
Because water-repellent products are usually treated with a water-repellent coating or impregnation, it can be difficult to adhere a transfer print to these products. TheMagicTouch offers several products for printing on these garments that can help overcome this problem due to low transfer temperatures, such as several MagiCut Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) products and transfer paper products such as TheMagicTouch WTT.
A microscopic tube in the print head of printers that work with the inkjet principle, such as a sublimation, Direct To Film, Direct To Garment or Eco Solvent printer. A print head of an inkjet printer consists of hundreds of these small tubes. The ink is shot from these tubes onto the media that is to be printed. Clogged nozzles can cause the ink to spray unevenly, which leads to poor print quality. Regular checks and cleaning of the nozzles are therefore essential in this printing process.
A diagnostic feature found on a variety of inkjet printers, including sublimation, Direct To Film, and Eco-solvent models. It is an essential tool for maintaining print quality and identifying potential issues. A nozzle check essentially prints a test pattern to evaluate the condition of the print head’s nozzles. These small nozzles are responsible for dispensing ink droplets onto the print surface. The exact steps for performing a nozzle check vary depending on the printer model, but generally involve opening the printer’s maintenance menu and initiating the nozzle check. The printer will then print a test pattern that you can analyze for any irregularities. In short, a nozzle check is a simple yet effective way to maintain the health of your printer and ensure optimum print quality. By incorporating it into your regular maintenance routine, you can extend the life of your printer and consistently achieve excellent results.
These are the temperature and humidity levels in the room where you are working and/or storing your transfer paper. It is important to keep an eye on this as high humidity or very high or very low temperatures can have a serious negative effect on the performance of your media. As a general rule, the relative humidity should be between 20 and 60% and the temperature between 15 and 32°C/60 to 90°F.
On a heat press, this is the plate that you place your product on. Unlike the heated plate, this usually comes down from the top, often called the top plate. In most cases, the bottom plate is covered with a rubber foam pad that helps stabilize your product during pressing. This flexible rubber mat is also important to get the most even pressure possible, even when the product is not exactly the same thickness everywhere, for example due to stitching in the garment.
A phenomenon that can occur after sublimating a product with a design that needs to have a clear sharp edge, such as a logo or image. Instead of the design having a sharp, clearly defined edge, the color appears to have blown outside the intended boundaries of the image, resulting in a blotchy, blurry effect. This effect is therefore also called a blow-out.
This phenomenon can be caused by uneven temperature, overheating, or excessive pressure during the transfer process on the heat press.
Using the right sublimation paper can also help prevent such accidents, as it plays an important role in absorbing the ink in such a way that the dye can be optimally transferred into the polyester when it enters a gaseous state during the transfer process.
This is the path that paper takes through a printer from input to printed output. For transfer paper that has a special composition, it is important to have a paper feed with as few sharp bends and corners as possible. This is often called a “straight paper feed”. One of the many reasons why OKI colour LED printers are so popular for transfer printing is that these printers can offer a straight paper feed.
Peeling in the context of transfer printing refers to the removal of excess media around the actual design after the cutting plotter has cut the design from the media. All media processed with a cutting plotter, such as MagiCut Flexfilm, must be peeled after cutting in order to retain the desired design from the cut media.
When using a cutting plotter, for example to cut a design from Flex foil, the excess material around the design must be removed before the design can be transferred to the garment. This process is called “peeling”. There are handy tools that make peeling a lot easier. Sometimes a tweezer-like tool is used, but most commonly used are peeling tools with needle-like tips, which can easily push away the excess materials. The tips can be straight or hooked, depending on the user’s preference. A peeling tool with a small LED light built into the tool makes peeling even easier and faster, as the cutting lines can sometimes be very difficult to see.
When using a cutting plotter, for example for cutting Flexfoil, it can be useful to include a square around your actual design that needs to be cut along with the design itself. This will give you a better overview of your designs and the areas that need to be weeded after cutting. When removing the access material around your design (peeling) it gives a good starting point and better view of what needs to be removed (peeling) and what needs to remain on the carrier (the actual design)
Especially if the design is cut multiple times, a peel border around each design allows you to quickly weed all the excess material around each border, giving you a good overview of what needs to be weeded next.
Most cutting plotter software offers a function to automatically cut a peel border around your design. If this function is not provided, it is easy to create a border yourself using the rectangle drawing tool that every cutting software has.
The Grafityp Eco solvent printable vinyl types are available with a permanent or removable adhesive layer. The permanent does not have a much higher adhesive strength, which is also high for the removable, but the permanent leaves a bit more residue when it has to be removed.
A good mug press is equipped with 2 temperature settings. The standby temperature and the press temperature. When printing a mug, the temperature difference between these 2 must first be bridged, only then is the set time counted down. This has the advantage that a colder mug automatically stays in the press longer than a warmer one.
Is a small color particle that is insoluble in the medium in which it is used, such as paint. When it comes to printing, color laser printers and color LED printers use toner, which is essentially a type of pigment, to create the image on the transfer paper. The toner is then transferred to the garment using heat and pressure and does not directly become part of the fabric fibers. The pigment remains on the surface of the fabric fibers.
A pneumatic heat press, such as the Insta HTP728, is a specialized piece of equipment that is widely used in the transfer printing industry. This machine uses compressed air to provide consistent and even pressure, allowing for precise transfer of images or designs to a variety of substrates. The compressed air must come from an air compressor, which is essentially an air pump that can store the compressed air in a tank, ready for use by the heat press.
A major advantage of a pneumatic heat press is that the pressure can be precisely adjusted thanks to the pressure gauge, whereas with a manual heat press you have to guess the correct pressure by feeling the resistance when closing the press.
The reliable technology of these pneumatic heat presses allows for efficient and faster production while also providing a better working environment by eliminating the need for the operator to manually open and close a heat press, which can become quite strenuous if you have a lot of garments to decorate. This makes a pneumatic heat press a great tool for companies that transfer larger quantities of products, such as custom apparel, promotional products, and other applications that require personalized printing.
Polyester is a synthetic material that is often used as a textile that is widely used in fashion, sports and promotional clothing. It is strong and durable, wrinkle-free, quick-drying and can also be made into a highly insulating yet lightweight fabric such as Softshell.
Polyester is necessary for the sublimation printing process of garments to work. This is because polyester fibers have a specific molecular structure that allows the special ink that is on the sublimation paper to bond with it at a molecular level when the dye turns into a gas during the transfer process on the heat press. This creates a permanent, high-quality image that does not fade or crack.
Polyester can also withstand the high temperatures required for the sublimation process without melting or deforming. Ideally, for sublimation printing, a 100% polyester content is ideal, and the less polyester in a blended fabric, the lower the quality of the sublimation transfer. Generally, a blend of 65% polyester and 35% cotton is considered sufficient for good sublimation results and the limit of cotton content in a garment to be sublimated.
A rolled vinyl film can have a polymer composition, or a monomer. The composition of the paste that is used to roll out the vinyl film makes the difference. Polymer films last about 5 to 7 years. This makes these films more suitable for advertising signs and car lettering than monomer, which on average last less, but are somewhat cheaper.
When using a cutting plotter, for example for cutting Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV), it can be helpful to include a square around your actual design that needs to be cut along with the design itself. This will give you a better overview of your designs and the areas that need to be weeded after cutting. When removing the access material around your design (peeling) it gives a good starting point and better view of what needs to be removed (peeled) and what needs to remain on the backing (the actual design)
Especially if the design is being cut multiple times, having a peel border around each design allows you to quickly weed out any excess material around each border, giving you a good overview of what needs to be weeded next.
Most cutting plotter software offers a function to automatically cut a peel border around your design. If this function is not provided, it is easy to create a border yourself using the rectangle drawing tool that every cutting software has.
A powder machine, also known as a shaker, is a machine used in the DTF (Direct to Film) transfer printing process to evenly apply adhesive powder to freshly printed ink on a special film. After the powder has been applied, it must be bonded to the ink by fusing the powder with heat, fixing it. The powder is essential because it ensures that the transfer can adhere to the desired garment (such as a t-shirt).
Powder machines can be manual or automatic. With manual powder machines, only the layer of powder is applied and this is fixed in a separate oven. With an automatic powder machine, the oven is integrated. The goal is always the same: to create a consistent, even powder layer for optimal transfer results.
Or process colors. These refer to the color model used in most printers. This method involves combining small dots of four primary ink colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. These are often referred to as CMYK, with the “K” standing for black. This is because in traditional printing, black was referred to as “The Key Color,” or simply “Key.” Hence the “K” for black. By varying the size and density of these dots, printers can create a wide spectrum of colors.
Print & Cut is a term used when you first make a print on special media and then contour cut it with a cutting plotter.
Print & Cut is usually used when the printer cannot print white. You use the white that is present in the transfer. To prevent white from showing around the design, the print can be cut around the contour by the plotter. Typical media that can be used with the Print & Cut process are:
Processing with equipment that is capable of printing and cutting special printing material within the same machine.
For example, the Roland VersaSTUDIO BY-20A and MagiCut 2Print White printable Heat Transfer Vinyl. The difference with Print&Cut is that the media does not leave the printer and the same machine can also cut. The printer first prints and then cuts contours. Where you would need two devices with Print&Cut. With Print + Cut it is not necessary to print the registration markers, with Print&Cut you do that.
The printhead is the part of the printer that actually creates the image during printing. It consists of hundreds of microscopic tubes that throw small droplets of ink onto the media. This way of printing is used in printers that work with the inkjet principle such as Sublimation, Direct To Film, Direct To Garment or Eco Solvent printers. A weak point of this way of printing is the risk of clogged nozzles causing the ink to spray unevenly, leading to poor print quality. Regular checks and cleaning of the nozzles are therefore essential in this printing process.
This is a software for the sublimation process, which optimizes the print on the sublimation paper, so that the end result, once transferred to the final product, has the best result. It does this by adding the correct color profile for your sublimation paper and blank product. Because the colors change during the transfer process, it is an important part of sublimation printing to get the perfect colors on the printed final product. This software is also often referred to as PrintMate or Print Utility.
Colour laser and LED printers cannot print to the edge of the paper. A small border around it remains white. This small border is called the print margin. For example, on most OKI printers, this is a border of approximately 4.5 mm. When printing transfers, it can be useful to maintain a larger print margin, which is why the print margin can be set by the user in TheMagicTouch Software Pro and TheMagicTouch Software Basic.
This is a software for the sublimation process, which optimizes the print on the sublimation paper, so that the end result, once transferred to the final product, has the best result. It does this by adding the correct color profile for your sublimation paper and blank product. Because the colors change during the transfer process, it is an important part of sublimation printing to get the perfect colors on the printed final product. This software was also often referred to as PrintMate or Print Manager.
The printer driver is also called the printer driver. Every printer needs a printer driver to work. This is basically a small piece of software that needs to be installed on your computer.
The printer driver software is responsible for converting the print job created by the software program from which you click print, into a data package that the printer understands in order to print the print job on paper or other media.
It can also provide additional information in the form of printer settings, such as information about what type of media the print should be made on. This can be very important for printing on transfer paper.
The user can set these in the printer driver by clicking on the “properties” of the printer to set things like media type and media weight, the need to not print double-sided or in color or black and white. Every printer comes with a printer driver in one way or another.
The name of a clever mechanical system on a heat press that locks the interchangeable bottom plate in place. As the name suggests, it allows the operator to quickly swap out the standard bottom plate for a small one, or vice versa. Several of the heat presses offered by TheMagicTouch have a Quick Change System for the bottom heat plate.
Also known as fast drying, refers to an important property of the coating on a sublimation transfer paper. On a quality sublimation paper, the coating should be designed to allow the liquid of a sublimation ink to dry quickly after the ink has been applied by the printer. This accelerated drying time helps to reduce the overall production time, as the next print can be placed on top of the first in the printer output tray without the risk of smearing. This makes for a more efficient workflow. The paper is specially coated to allow for fast ink absorption and evaporation, without compromising the quality of the printed image.
Small plastic tool for pressing a self-adhesive foil. Very useful when applying application foil to a lettering or rubbing the lettering when applying. Possibly provided with a layer of soft flock to prevent the squeegee from causing scratches in the lettering.
This refers to a type of transfer paper that only requires one heat press application to transfer the printed image to the desired material. So in one step directly from printer to product. A good example of a Single step transfer is TheMagicTouch TTC 3.1.
This is in contrast to two step transfer paper where the toner must first be pressed to adhere to an additional white adhesive layer before being applied to the final substrate.
The advantage of a single step transfer paper is that it is currently the fastest way to print a T-shirt!
Cutting foil refers to all media that can be processed with a cutting plotter. This can be media for textile printing, usually called Flex foil or Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV). Or it can be self-adhesive vinyl for cutting lettering and stickers.
A cutting mat is used with a cutting plotter to cut media that is not on a carrier itself, such as cardboard. The cutting mat functions as a temporary carrier. A cutting mat is often also used to more easily process small, narrow leftover pieces of flex foil or vinyl foil.
A cutting plotter can cut media on a carrier with a small, precise blade. After cutting, the excess material can be removed, leaving the design cut by the cutting plotter as a sticker or as a transfer for textile printing.
The cutting strip is a thin strip of soft plastic in a cutting plotter, directly under the cutting head of the cutting plotter. The cutting strip ensures that when the plotter cuts completely through the media, the blade is not damaged directly but cuts into the cutting strip. In itself this is undesirable, but it can happen due to an incorrect setting and in that case the cutting strip ensures that the head and the blade are not damaged. The cutting strip is available separately and can be replaced if it is damaged too much.
Also called “Mirror Image” or “unreadable”. You mirror your design before printing or cutting. This is because after printing or cutting, the transfer is turned around and has to be placed on the product with the image facing down so that it can be printed. This makes the end result “readable” again, or non-reflective.
The standby temperature and the press temperature are the two temperature settings that a good mug press is equipped with. The standby temperature is set slightly lower than the press temperature. When printing a mug, the mug press must first bridge the difference between the standby temperature and the press temperature before the set time starts counting down. The advantage of this is that a colder mug automatically stays in the press longer than a warmer one.
The driver, also called the driver, is a small software program that belongs to a printer. The driver is needed to “translate” a print job in the right way so that the corresponding printer can print the print job properly. It literally sends the print job to the printer, hence the name.
The term stretch is used in relation to Flexfolie where this property is crucial for printing fabrics that often move or stretch, such as swimwear, children’s clothing or specific types of sportswear such as leggings or cycling clothing. In short, all clothing with a lycra content to make it more stretchable. These types of garments require a more elastic Flex layer, specially made for maximum stretchability. MagiCut offers a special Flexfolie with extreme stretchability, especially for these types of garments: MagiCut Stretch.
The defining feature of a Swing Away Heat Press is that the top platen (the heated part that presses onto the garment) swings away from the bottom platen on a hinge at the back of the heat press. This is in contrast to a clamshell press, which opens upwards from the back, like a clamshell.
The swing-away design offers several advantages:
It allows for easy insertion and removal of garments, making the process more efficient.
Also, the open space created when the top plate is swung away provides better access to the transfer material, allowing for precise positioning and easier removal of the carrier.
This type of construction also makes it possible to create a heat press that delivers high pressure values, which is not possible with a clamshell press.
The construction also significantly reduces the risk of burns compared to clamshell heat presses, where the heat plate is directly above the operator’s hands when inserting or removing products and transfers.
Sublistop, also often called a BlockOut or subliblokker, is an extra layer in (printable) Flexfolie that prevents the dye from the polyester textile from penetrating the transfer. This process is often called “bleeding”. Polyester is usually colored with a special dye that adheres to the fabric and penetrates the fibers because it turns into a gas when heated. This process is called sublimation. Bleeding occurs when the same dyes become active again because they are reheated during printing. The active color elements penetrate the transfer and this causes unwanted discoloration. The darker the garment in contrast to the transfer color, the greater the risk.
You can prevent this discoloration by using a special sublistop Flexfolie, also called Sublibloc. This type of Flexfolie can also be transferred at a lower temperature, which further reduces the chance of bleeding.
The term sublimation comes from physics, where it is used to describe the direct phase transition of a substance from a solid state to a gaseous state, such as ice on a winter day when the sun is shining, where the ice changes into moisture, without first melting into a liquid state (water).
In printing, sublimation is a specific type of transfer printing where solid ink particles printed onto a sublimation paper are converted directly into a gas without going through a liquid state by applying heat. This is combined with the fact that polyester has the property of opening the molds when heated, allowing the sublimation dyes to penetrate into the polyester when pressed together in a heat press. This creates a printed image on a white polyester surface or in a white polyester garment. The result is vibrant, durable and high-quality prints. In the genius of the process lies its greatest limitation: to create these vibrant colors, you can only print on white polyester surfaces or garments. The process will not work on any other type of material or garment such as cotton.
Sublimation paper is a specialized type of paper that is coated with a special layer that ensures the optimal printing result by a sublimation printer. In order to enable a good transfer of the image during the transfer process, the dye used in the sublimation inks must be absorbed in such a way that the print dries, but has the dye ready to be transferred to the surface of the paper when it is heated during the transfer process. It is therefore important for a good quality transfer paper to have a good so-called quick-drying coating, this is most important so that the prints do not come out of the printer. At the same time, the paper cannot absorb the dye in such a way that it can no longer be released after heating. Of course, the paper must be able to withstand the relatively high temperatures during the transfer process without warping or melting.
A sublimation printer is a printer with inkjet technology that is specially designed for sublimation. Due to the special properties of these sublimation inks, which are quite different from normal inkjet inks, the printer must be optimized for use with these inks in order to provide reliability and good quality prints on sublimation paper. Also, a solution for color profiling must be provided with the printer, since the colors on the sublimation paper will change during the transfer process. This means that the print on the sublimation paper must be composed in such a way that the colors are correct on the end product after transfer instead of on the paper as with a normal printer. For a good end result, it is important to have good color correction software.
Transfer media that allows you to create a temporary tattoo. TheMagicTouch offers a unique tattoo transfer paper that does just that: TheMagicTouch Tattoo 2.1 is a two-step process to create your personalized temporary tattoo. You can print your tattoo design onto the transfer paper using a suitable color laser or color LED printer. Then apply the included adhesive sheet to the paper, cut out the design and then apply to the skin. Once the design is applied to the skin, the backing paper can be removed by simply soaking it with a wet towel. Once removed, the transfer liner will remain on the skin. Durability will vary depending on individual skin type.
Where ink is the component that creates the image in inkjet printers, toner is the image-creating component for electrostatic printers; Laser and LED printers. Toner consists of tiny pigment particles of a polymer structure with various added components that determine the color and ensure that the toner particles can be charged with static electricity without unintentionally clogging each other.
A laser or LED printer creates the image with static electricity. The exact location of the electrical charge required for this process is precisely applied by a laser beam or a series of small LED lights, so that the toner sticks exactly where it is needed on the image drum to create the image.
The term toner transfer refers to a special type of Transfer Media for colour laser and LED printers, where, as the name suggests, the transfer paper only transfers the toner image. This is in contrast to many transfers that also transfer a layer or coating onto the product together with the toner image. The properties of the toner are used to make it adhere to the surface of the product. To do this, the product must fit under or in a heat press and be able to withstand heat and pressure. In order to get the best results on as many products as possible, TheMagicTouch has developed clever Application Tools, such as the Application Sponge.
TheMagicTouch offers two types of toner transfers: TheMagicTouch RST 9.1 for wood and similar materials (e.g. cork) and TheMagicTouch CPM 6.2 for all other materials that fit under a heat press and have a surface that is smooth enough for the toner to adhere to. This includes glass, acrylic paint, magnetic foil, PU leather and much more.
Textile film is another word for Flex film. The English term Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) is also often used.
It is media in which a transfer layer in a specific color is on a carrier. A cutting plotter can then cut the desired design from the color layer, whereby the plotter only cuts through the color layer, but not the carrier. This allows the excess film to be removed after cutting and the design to be pressed onto textile.
This is a transfer medium, specially designed to create a design on garments and fabrics that are usually printed by a printer or in a screen printing process. After the transfer media is printed, the design is transferred to the fabric by means of heat and pressure with a heat press.
The textile transfer media is made in such a way that it provides a special layer that ensures good adhesion of the image to the garment. This layer can be transparent or white, depending on the color of the garment and the transfer system that is used.
Many different types of printers are used for this, each of which has its own type of specific textile transfer media.
TheMagicTouch Software is a special printing software for printing transfer paper. This software helps you to print your designs with exactly the right color and printer settings.
Because transfer paper is very different from normal printing paper, you need special settings for the best result in color, fixation (how well the toner sticks to the paper) and, if your printer can print white, the right amount of white toner in the right place on the image. TheMagicTouch software is designed to help you with all these settings in a very user-friendly way. It is available as TheMagicTouch Software Basic for selected printers with the traditional Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black setup, and TheMagicTouch Software Pro for OKI printers with Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and White toner.
This is a brand name for a special type of plastic that is known for its exceptional non-stick properties. Its molecular structure gives it unique properties such as heat resistance, chemical stability, and low coefficient of friction. These properties make Teflon an ideal material for use in combination with a heat press. Most heat press plates are coated with Teflon, to prevent anything from sticking to it. It is also used in sublimation, as a Teflon plate. This is used to keep dye in the transfer process, preventing it from contaminating parts of the press during the transfer process.
Also often referred to as a Blowout sheet. An essential application tool for sublimation, as you need to place and cover your blank product during the pressing process. This ensures that the pigments do not enter the bottom platen or stick to the heat plate of your heat press, where they can contaminate the next product you press.
This is especially important because sublimation dyes are transferred as a gas, which can easily pass through the rubber mat of your heat press or reach the top platen of your heat press. Placing a Teflon sheet under the product and transfer, and a Teflon sheet on top of the transfer, prevents this from happening.
The transfer belt is a type of conveyor belt in the printer and has two main functions. To transport the paper into and through the printer and to transfer the toner from the image drums to the paper to create the image.
It does this by using a static charge which serves to stick the paper to the transfer belt so that it can be transported, and the static charge also causes the toner to be pulled from the image drums onto the paper to form the actual image that is printed. After the toner image is received, the paper is transported to the fuser unit to ensure that the toner on the paper is fused (melted) into the paper. The way the transfer belt works in OKI printers is one of the reasons why these printers are so compatible with transfer media.
Special plastic coating on a sheet of transfer paper. The transfer layer ensures that the print is transferred to the product during processing with a transfer press. In some cases, the transfer layer is also transferred to the product, for example to ensure a good washable end result, and in some cases the transfer layer remains on the transfer paper. An example of this are the applications with the transfer paper TheMagicTouch CPM 6.2, where only the toner is attached to the product.
“Media” refers to the physical material on which a printer creates an image. This includes paper, of course, but can also include envelopes, labels, transparency films and of course: transfer paper.
The term media is also used for materials that can be cut by a cutting plotter. This usually includes adhesive vinyl for lettering and Heat Transfer Vinyl for printing T-shirts, but can also be paper or even fabric in specialized cutting plotters.
The term transfer media is therefore used for all types of media that can be used to transfer the printed or cut image from the media to another product or material.
Also often called a heat press. This is a specialized machine used for transfer printing.
It applies heat and pressure to a transfer on a substrate, with the aim of permanently printing the design on the transfer onto the product or material. Printing on garments is the most well-known application for a heat press, but there are many more applications where an image is transferred to a material by means of a transfer, heat and pressure. A heat press obviously plays an important role in the transfer printing process. There are different variations of heat presses for special applications such as a cap press or a mug press.
A two-step transfer paper requires two applications on a heat press to print an image onto a product, usually colored garments. The first step is to apply a white layer to the image that also acts as a glue to create a good bond between the image and the garment. During the first step, this white layer is applied by pressing the two sheets together. After pressing, the two are separated and a white layer is attached to the image, because the white that was on one of the sheets only sticks to the image, not to the surrounding areas.
In the second step, the image is adhered to the garment thanks to the added white glue on the image. This creates a free-form design with as much white as possible behind the color for optimal opacity of the final image on the garment. In most cases, this is done with transfer paper for white toner printers, such as TheMagicTouch WTT.
Ultra high tack literally means ‘very high adhesive strength’. This term is used to indicate that a material, such as an application tape, adheres extremely strongly to a surface.
Application tapes with ultra high tack are ideal for attaching materials with a difficult-to-adhere surface, such as certain types of printable flex foil (for example MagiCut 2Print Glitter White). These tapes provide a very strong bond, even on smooth or porous surfaces.
In addition to ultra high tack, there are other levels of adhesive strength: low tack, medium tack and high tack. The choice of a certain level depends on the specific application and the material you want to attach.
In short, Ultra high tack offers the strongest adhesion of all types of tapes. It is the perfect choice for materials that are difficult to attach or that are used under heavy conditions.
Pre-pressing can be beneficial to the transfer process to remove moisture from cotton garments, as moisture can frustrate the adhesion of a transfer during transfer.
This is not strictly necessary for polyester, as it absorbs less moisture than cotton. Another reason not to pre-press polyester is to prevent migration of the dye into the fabric (called bleeding), which is caused by heat.
In the inkjet printing process, some ink is used to clean and prime the print head. To do this, a small amount of ink must be sent through the print head. This ink is fed into a waste bottle, which can be replaced or emptied over time, depending on the specific type of printer. Similarly, the printing process in a laser or LED printer can generate some excess toner that is fed into a waste bottle. In a printer with toner, this is often called a Waste Toner container. This waste toner container is sometimes incorporated into another consumable, such as the conveyor belt, and sometimes it is a separate consumable, usually in larger printers.
In a transfer process, the carrier must in most cases be removed after pressing the product. The carrier can also be referred to as Liner or Backing. Removing the carrier after pressing is called “Peel”.
When it is necessary to cool the print slightly, but not completely (cold peel), this is called a warm peel.
An example of a warm peel is TheMagicTouch T.One transfer paper for white and light-colored textiles.
The term removable is often used for vinyl foil to indicate that an adhesive layer leaves no or minimal traces on the surface it was stuck to after removing the lettering. This is ideal for temporary lettering, for example for temporary advertising campaigns.
The alternative is a permanent adhesive layer that is designed to remain in place for as long as possible.
For some transfer jobs it is very practical to be able to exchange the bottom plate of the heat press for a smaller one. For example for baby clothes or when you want to print the pocket of a Polo T-shirt. If your heat press is equipped with an interchangeable plate, you can easily replace your bottom plate with a different size plate. This can be very practical for decorating breast pockets, sleeves, bags, shoes and other odd, shaped products. An example of a heat press equipped with an interchangeable plate is TheMagicTouch HTP123Pro.
it is a term used to describe an image that is not rectangular and has no background, so completely freestanding. Printing textiles with a completely freestanding print requires a special transfer process. This can be done with DTF transfers and with TheMagicTouch transfer paper.
For the transfer paper types that can do this, a printer with white toner is required for printing.
These are the transfer paper types from TheMagicTouch that have these special properties:
After printing transfer paper onto a product, the carrier, also called Liner or Backing, must be removed. With some transfer papers, the paper carrier must be moistened with water to dissolve the layer on which the image is printed. An example of Transfer Paper with this process is TheMagicTouch RST 9.1.
Once dissolved, the carrier can easily be removed and the image remains on the product. This process is often called “Wet peel”.
The great advantage of this process is that it is not a problem when the transfer layer itself adheres to the product, because it dissolves after pressing. Only the print remains on the product.
Cyan, magenta, yellow and black toners are used in the printing process to create images. Traditionally, toner has always been designed for printing on white paper. When a transfer paper print is used to transfer the image onto a product, and the surface of that product is not white, one is faced with the fact that the color of the surface mixes with the color of the design. This is because the colored toners (Cyan, Magenta and Yellow) are transparent.
To solve this problem, a white background behind the image is required to maintain the colors of the image as intended when printing or transferring onto a colored or black surface.
That is why white toner was developed. OKI, the forerunner of white toner printers, has the OKI Pro8432WT which comes with white toner printing capabilities. Together with a smart software program, TheMagicTouch Software Pro, this makes it possible to use transfer paper for freestanding designs on textiles and full color designs on many products and materials, regardless of the color of the product.
For most transfer paper applications, a white toner should print white last, after printing cyan, magenta and yellow. So the white toner is printed on top of the colours. This is also called White Last Mode. There are exceptions, such as TheMagicTouch DCT 4.5C and TheMagicTouch SPF 10 Clear Gloss sticker media where it is desirable to print white first and then the colours cyan, magenta and yellow. This is then called White First Mode. In TheMagicTouch Software Pro you can set the OKI Pro8432WT to print white first. (White First Mode) For this, the white and cyan toner/drum unit in the printer are swapped.
White is printed last on a white toner printer, after printing cyan, magenta and yellow. This is also called White Last Mode. The white toner is printed on top of the colours. For most transfer paper applications this is also the desired printing method. There are exceptions, such as TheMagicTouch DCT 4.5C and TheMagicTouch SPF 10 Clear Gloss sticker media where it is desirable to print white first and then the colours cyan, magenta and yellow. This is then called White First Mode. In TheMagicTouch Software Pro you can set the OKI Pro8432WT to print white first. To do this, the white and cyan toner/drum unit in the printer are swapped.
Wrapping is a term used when an object is completely wrapped with self-adhesive vinyl. This is often done with furniture panels and vehicles. By applying a layer of vinyl to the entire surface (the Wrap), a completely new look can be created. With vehicles, the original state can also be restored because a wrap is removable, albeit with some effort.
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