Tips and tricks

This article provides all the information you need to get started with transfer paper. We explain everything step by step and offer helpful tips. Discover the crucial tips and tricks that make the difference between good and perfect results with your heat press.

Prevent press prints on textiles

After printing, the press surface may remain visible on the textile.
This is especially common with polyester garments, although it also occurs with cotton. After applying the transfer, a square of the heat plate remains visible around the design on the garment.
Fortunately, there are tricks to help prevent this:
Use a transfer media that can be applied at lower temperatures.
For Flex, for example, use MagiCut 123Premium and for transfer paper, for example, TheMagicTouch WOW 7.8. Both can be processed at 130°C. This makes a significant difference compared to the 160°C required by some other transfer solutions.
Cover the transfer on the garment with a thin cotton cloth.
For example, an old T-shirt, cut open. Because the soft cloth touches the garment instead of the heat plate, there is much less chance of the press plate print remaining visible.
Keep in mind that you will need to press for 2 to 3 seconds longer because the cloth is on top of the transfer and the garment.
Don’t use more pressure than necessary. HTV doesn’t require all the pressure some heat presses can generate. Of course, it does require some pressure, so be careful not to use too little, but more isn’t always better. It’s worth doing a small test to see if you can use a lower pressure and still maintain the desired washability.

Preventing a pressure shadow

When printing an area right next to a collar or seam, it’s possible that the thicker collar will absorb all the pressure, while the flatter area next to it, where your transfer will be, receives very little pressure. This is often called a print shadow.
If your heat press has a replaceable platen option, you can isolate the print area by switching to a smaller platen, leaving the thicker area next to the transfer area outside the press.
But what if your heat press doesn’t have a replaceable platen? No worries!
You can use a TheMagicTouch Application Support Kit.

A print next to buttons and zippers

Printing next to zippers and buttons (for example, on a polo shirt) can be tricky.
You don’t want to press the buttons or zipper directly under the heat press, as the metal can damage your heat plate and plastic zippers and buttons can melt.
You can solve this in the same way as preventing a print shadow, as described above. With a replaceable backing plate or an Application Support Kit from TheMagicTouch, you can ensure that the buttons and zippers are not pressed along with the heat press, but lie just next to the printing area.

The use of Teflon

Teflon sheets are often used to protect garments during the transfer process. For many applications, this doesn’t work as well as you might expect. Okay, that begs the question: When should I use Teflon and when shouldn’t I? Here’s the answer:
When is it better to use Teflon?
With sublimation, Teflon is important to prevent the color pigments from the print from contaminating the press plate and the press mat. Teflon is important here because TheMagicTouch Release Paper is too porous, allowing the sublimation pigments to pass through. Therefore, Teflon should be used for sublimation.
When is it better not to use Teflon?
In principle, Teflon is not the best solution for all other applications (Flex, Transfer Paper, DTF), and it’s better to use TheMagicTouch Release Paper. This is because Teflon reflects heat and can cause irregularities in the quality of your prints because the hot-melt adhesive of the transfer can become unknowingly too hot. With release paper, this doesn’t happen and you have a cash result.