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[davebaileys]

Hi!  New to the forum, and to transfers, and in the UK.  I'm trying out some Kisscut self weeding paper at the moment, and have also ordered a sample pack of Jet-Pro paper (a couple of sheets each of: Sofstretch, Active Wear, Iron Man, Jet Opaque, 3G Jet Opaque).

Up to now I have been doing only screenprinting, mainly for T-shirts, and using waterbased ink.  Mix of own designs and to order.  Short runs (less than 10 shirts) I often have to refuse as my price is not economic.  Transfers seems the way to go.  I do though want to keep a very soft hand on the print, good colours, durability, etc.  Very important, I don't like transfers that leave residue or frames around the image - oh, and I don't like the idea of weeding by hand!

So far, the Kisscut paper seems to transfer OK, feels soft on the shirt and self weeds very nicely - but I am having difficulty with colour management, e.g. orange prints pink, grey prints brown!  Haven't tried wash tests yet. 

Has anybody else had any experience with Kisscut?
Has anybody tried any other self weeding inkjet papers?

I know the Jet-Pro papers are very well respected, and are not self weeding.  I'm thinking of using a Craft Robo to cut around the image for me.  Is that reasonable?  How close to the image border can/should I cut?

Great site, much appreciate any help you can offer.

Dave

[gprockhill]

I had 'color shifting' when doing transfers. I was using jpss, but I think it's an ink and profile issue rather than a paper issue. The tricky part with my color shifting was that I did not see the shifting until after I heat pressed. I was seeing greenish overtones. I went into the print driver and set a profile where the yellow was reduced  -25 , cyan +5, magenta +5. This corrected that issue.

[davebaileys]

I had 'color shifting' when doing transfers. I was using jpss, but I think it's an ink and profile issue rather than a paper issue. The tricky part with my color shifting was that I did not see the shifting until after I heat pressed. I was seeing greenish overtones. I went into the print driver and set a profile where the yellow was reduced  -25 , cyan +5, magenta +5. This corrected that issue.

Gprockhill,
I think you're right if it was a different paper.  The Kisscut process requires that you put a lot of ink down.  They recommend, and my tests seemed to prove it, that you switch off Colour Management, otherwise the ink does not transfer reliably.  It might be a Catch 22.  I'm using some compatible ink cartridges rather than Epson's own ink or Kisscut - perhaps those inks would give better colour matches.
Dave 

[MonkeyMeMe]

WElcome DAve,,,

[MXRacingDad]

To answer you Craft Robo question I use mine to contour cut very successfully. I cut right to the edge without problems. Welcome to the forum.

[heatpressvinyl]

Welcome Dave,, yes it does sound like you need to tweek your color profiles

[knifemaker3]

Welcome to the forums.  Like everyone else stated, you probably need to adjust your color management on your printer.

[davebaileys]

Welcome to the forums.  Like everyone else stated, you probably need to adjust your color management on your printer.

Thanks everybody. 

The consensus is that I need to adjust color management on the printer.  The trouble is, if I do any colour management it also limits the amount of ink that is put down, and then that causes many of the colors not to transfer. 

Does anyone knows how to control the amount of ink put down? 

In Photoshop, on the Color tab, do the CMYK slider controls allow you to control the amount of ink?

Meanwhile, can anybody recommend any other self weeding transfers?

Dave

 

[Lnfortun]

Check Imageclip for inkjet. It is a two step self weeding inkjet transfer paper.

[COCHISE]

I published these before, but they can help adjust colors in printer outputs.









Are you using CMYK or RGB when creating your files??

ken

[ww1aero]

Hi Dave,

Any further trials of KISSCUT? I contacted them today to see if they have any USA retailers yet. The US T-Shirt transfer suppliers I've spoken to all seem reluctant to carry it...but they haven't even tried it. So it leads me to believe they have agreements with other manufacturers of transfer sheets not to carry other brands (like the 2 step ImageClip papers).

[roxanneupnorth]

Sounds like a business opportunity for some folks.....

[ww1aero]

For sure...if they're good. I hope to hear back from KISSCUT soon.

There were some "China made / Philippine sold" versions available back in 2007 on eBay, and their how-to YouTube videos are still there...but the reviews from actual users weren't good, very inconsistent. The only ones that could get them to work seemed to be the people connected with selling them...and they did look good on the videos. They required a lot less heating time than regular transfers (about 10 seconds, peel, then reheat 60 seconds). A lot of people were heating it too long before the peel...maybe that's why it was screwing up.

[COCHISE]

Sorry, I didn't see this post earlier.

Good concept, fail paper. There is a good reason why nobody stocks it. I used a half a pack and the best equipment/ink, followed the directions to the letter and made notes. After failing many times I modified the steps (this ain't my first rodeo) and still never achieved a marketable print.

If you have access to a laser printer, the Laser M Prints marketed by Conde is by far the best there is for white, gray and pastel colors. I'll link you to the laser paper for darks in another post.

 I am not sure what you mean by aligning the images, you don't align any image, just press the the paper.

This link is a 17 minute step by step setup. If you don't have a laser printer and don't want to invest in one, most likely someone here could make your light colored shirt prints for you.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/-63akglEQj0&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/-63akglEQj0&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0</a>

ken

[ww1aero]

Hi Ken,

     I've been using an Epson R1800, and I don't want to go to a color laser. (If anything, I might farm out some pieces to a DTG printing company).
Most cartoons I would be doing would already have a "single cell drawing style", like Farside used to do, so the format is a square with an outline, so no problem to trim those. But there are some free standing boarderless drawings that I wanted to do in black ink on red, blue and other colored shirts that can't use the "light fabric" transfers (the part of the background that can't be trimmed away is slightly visible as a milky transparent). I don't want to screen them either because I wanted more freedom in offering style and size ranges, and don't want to print that many in advance. Also, when used for fine line drawings on cotton, where there isn't a lot of screen ink laid down in one area, the silkcreened images seem to start to wear off pretty quickly in washes (I had a well known local commercial place do some shirts years ago, and the screened fine line parts wore away while the transfer parts were still looking pretty good after a lot of washes). Although some antique photo images they silkscreened did hold up well.

Did you use the actual KISSCUT brand or did you use the other paper that was available a couple of years ago? Because there is a guy (forum name icon9a) that used KISSCUT this month and really likes it. Maybe they've changed it?

(The alignment thing refers to ImageClip papers for inkjet, which require a second step, using a laser B&W negative copy of the image that has to be aligned with the positive image when pressed.)

Thanks for the reply..............Pete

[COCHISE]

I used the actual product purchased from the factory rep.

I sent another post to reply to you else where about the Laser Dark paper.

The investment in a laser printer is $7800 but the rewards are excessive.
Both papers will perform very well in the wash.

I use several Epson WF1100 with Cobra ink for all my heat transfer work on hard and soft goods. I either have CIS systems or refillable carts. My multi cart printers are all retired or used in photographic prints.

IMHO, the trick to lasting screen print with small detail is to press the image with a heat press after flash cure. It adds time but the results are worth it and the customer will return for more work.

Whatever path you take, best of luck. We will always be here to offer opinions or give answers based on experiences we have had.

Ken

[ww1aero]

Thanks for all the advice Ken,

       I'm only using my own artwork and cartoons for the shirts I'll be printing. And even though I'll continue to add more designs (once I get the quality up to where I want it), it will be a pretty small scale, side line operation for me for now. So, I'll have to stick with real low budget procedures for a while. Some of the designs are "photographic" as far as details, and color graduations are concerned, so the laser printers would be limited to the simpler cartoons / ink drawings for my stuff.

The place that did my silkscreening that wore off quickly, probably didn't heat set it, like you said. Because another company did some antique photo reproductions for me on 100% cotton shirts, and they held up very well...so I guess the second company probably did heat set theirs.

Thanks again......................Pete