Difference Between Heat Transfer Vinyl And Screen Printing

In this method you need actual screens.

Difference between heat transfer vinyl and screen printing.

Vinyl printing is all about heat transfer. A heat press is then used to transfer each vinyl color of the design onto the object being printed. See heat press machines on amazon. Think iron on transfer but with a really big really.

Vinyl printing depends on a combination of pressure and heat. Screen printing produces better quality printings than heat transfer. With the vinyl heat transfer process a machine is used to cut out designs and letters in pieces of colored vinyl. Common kinds of heat transfer printing include vinyl heat transfer and digital print heat transfer.

It was invented by a company known as sato but the heat press machine was only invented in the 80s. Since i shared my first screen printing tutorial many of you have asked why i prefer screen printing over heat transfer vinyl. Vinyl is well suited for very small runs which we would consider anything from 1 to 12 shirts this is because the set up time is much quicker than that of screen printing. We use vinyl printing here which is essentially cutting designs out of different colors of vinyl our multitude of vinyl rolls are pictured and then heat pressing them on to a garment.

For years i had been making heat transfer vinyl shirts with. If you ve been following me on instagram you may have noticed my new obsession hobby is screen printing with oracal 651 vinyl. With that being said let s look at the pros and cons of each of these methods. You use a machine to cut out letters and designs from colored vinyl and heat press them onto the t shirt to transfer the color to it.

No it s not because i needed another excuse to buy craft supplies.