We’ve produced lots of articles about different aspects of garment decoration. As the list grew, it became apparent to us that we needed a quick reference guide readers could use to sort through the articles and find the one they need most. And, we thought it would also be helpful to have them all in one place so you can read through all the related articles at your leisure to deepen your understanding of a particular field.
Since the index has become quite extensive, we’ve now broken it up into four categories; Heat Transfer Film (aka “T-shirt vinyl”), T-Shirt Printing, Laser Transfer, and General Interest. We’ll be combining product and process articles into these new categories. We hope this makes it easier for you to quickly find what you need. If not, please feel free to make suggestions or ask questions in the Comments field below.
This is a dynamic resource. The index has been updated to include articles about the newest T-shirt printing solutions, including the Sawgrass Virtuoso and iColor and OkiData laser transfer printers. Bookmark this one and refer to it whenever you have a garment decoration question.
General and Miscellaneous Articles. These articles focus on general topics such as the different kinds of garment decoration methods, heat presses, and rhinestone decoration. These will also include specific tips that may apply to different decoration methods, like cost control and pricing.
- Basic Guide to T-Shirt Vinyl and Fabric Imprinting. This is one of our most basic and comprehensive introductions to decorating garments with heat-applied film and a plotter.
- How to Choose the Right Heat Press. If you’re going to use a vinyl cutter and thermal transfer film, you’re going to need a heat press. This article provides an overview of the various levels of performance and quality in heat presses from simple starter units to fully featured high volume models.
- Calibrating the Temperature Display on Your Heat Press. How to calibrate the digital temperature readout on a Geo Knight heat press, and why you should.
- Digital Decoration 101 Webinar with Jimmy Lamb. A summary of and link to our archived webinar hosted by Sawgrass Manager of Consumer Education, Jimmy Lamb. The webinar presents a broad overview of various digital decoration technologies.
- What do I Charge? Summary of and link to our archived webinar by Jimmy Lamb about how to price and market garment decoration wisely and profitably.
- Basic Guide to Rhinestone Decoration: An introduction to the process of rhinestone decoration with a vinyl cutter using Graphtec i-DesignR software.
- Introduction to LXI Rhinestone Wizard Software. A basic explanation of the process of using LXI Rhinestone Wizard with a Vinyl cutter to add hot fix rhinestones to apparel.
Heat Transfer Film: Everything you ever wanted to know about T-shirt Vinyl, but were afraid to ask.
- Basic Guide to T-Shirt Vinyl and Fabric Imprinting. This is one of our most basic and comprehensive introductions to decorating garments with heat-applied film and a plotter.
- Solve the Most Common Problems with T-Shirt Thermal Transfer Material: A general trouble-shooting guide to fixing common mistakes with heat-applied CAD T-shirt film.
- Logical Color WarmPEEL Universal: Introduction to our most flexible flex film.
- Logical Color GlitterSOFT: The softest ‘blingy’ glitter Heat transfer vinyl on the market.
- HotMark 70 Primer: Features, benefits, and applications for HotMark 70, our original and softest thermal transfer “T-Shirt Vinyl”.
- Under Pressure: The Secret Ingredient to Satisfactory Thermal Transfer Applications: This is one of our most practical articles because it addresses one of the most common mistakes made by new garment decorators.
- Cuttable and Printable Iron-on T-shirt Vinyl Options: Here’s a handy guide to all of our T-shirt transfer products that are suitable for use with a household iron.
- Basic Guide To Layering EnduraTex Garment Thermal Transfer Film: Most of our EnduraTex heat transfer products can be safely blended and layered. What kinds of materials can be layered and how does it work?
- Layering EnduraTex Bling: Yes, this intense, glitter-flake film can be applied in layers, washed, worn, and washed again.
- Layering Siser Heat Transfer Films. Here’s the same information for the Siser Easy Weed product family.
- Basic Guide to Performance Apparel Decoration: Examination of the specific thermal transfer films and digital processes best suited for decorating performance apparel products like Under Armor and Lycra Spandex.
- Dealing with Anti-Microbial Coatings on Performance Apparel: This is a growing problem. Here’s how to tackle it.
T-Shirt Printing: These articles focus on various methods of printing transfers or appliqués for garment decoration. These include dye sublimation, Sawgrass ChromaBlast cotton decoration, heat-applied inkjet printable films and papers for desktop inkjet and solvent, or eco-solvent inkjet printers.
- Logical Color Printable Vinyl – How-To-Videos: Essential info on how to use Logical Color solvent printable heat transfer film
- Introduction to Virtuoso Printers: All you need to know about the new Sawgrass desktop sublimation solutions.
- Basic Guide to Dye Sublimation: Start here for a good basic understanding of the processes, pros and cons of dye sublimation.
- Don’t Use Teflon Sheets with Dye Sublimation: An article illustrating the dangers of transferring ghost images in dye sublimation and ChromaBlast processes caused by Teflon sheets.
- ChromaBlast 101: Answers to Cotton T-Shirt Decoration Questions: An overview of printing on cotton apparel with Sawgrass Technologies’ ChromaBlast ink and paper.
- DarkJET and DarkJET Solvent: Comparing the features and advantages of the solvent printable and inkjet printable varieties of EnduraTex DarkJET heat transfer print media.
- EnduraTex HotMark Print: A super-soft PU film for solvent-based inkjet printers
- Decorating Dark Garments with EnduraTex SubliTex: Introduction to a new sublimation printable heat transfer film for decorating garments of all colors and fabrics using dye sub inks.
- Transfer Tape for T-shirt Graphics: Explanation of the purpose of using pre-mask tape with printed heat applied apparel graphics and recommendations for which tapes to use with what print media.
- T-Shirt Printing Solutions Under $5,000: Start-up packages using different print & transfer methods are compared
- T-Shirt Printing Solutions Under $10,000: Packages for printed T-shirt transfers in the $5,000 – $10,000 range
Laser Transfer: One might expect laser transfers to be included in the T-Shirt printing category. It is a method of T-shirt printing, but there are enough specific aspects to laser transfer process that we felt it would be easier to sort through all the information if we put them all together. Here you’ll find all of our articles about the iColor 500, and OKI WT white toner printers, self-weeding transfer papers, and all the related processes, including tips for getting the best possible results from your printer and paper combination.
- Introduction to the iColor 550: The most affordable white toner laser transfer solution.
- iColor Webinar: Video presentation of the features and applications of our five-toner LED Laser transfer solution
- Using LXI RIP 12 software with OKI WT laser transfer printers: How to create the white underbase layer in LXI.
- Laser Transfer Troubleshooting Tips: How to solve the most common problems with GO UNO, OKI, iColor Series printers and self-weeding papers for light and dark garments.
- OKI C831-TS: Tabloid size t-shirt transfers made easy
- How to Make Foil T-shirt Transfers with the laser printers: guide to creating soft, metallic foil T-shirt appliqués with PrestoSoft no-Cut hot stamping foil paper.
As indicated in the introduction, this index is not static. It will be updated -and perhaps reorganized again – as we add more garment decoration content. In the process of compiling or updating this index, we may have overlooked something. If you see an article that you think should be added to this archive, please feel free to use the comments field below to bring it to our attention.