DIY thermal transfer paper for inkjet printers. Transferring an image to fabric or how to use thermal transfer paper How to transfer a printed design to fabric

Needlewomen often have the question of how to transfer a drawing from paper to fabric with maximum efficiency and preservation of important details. Drawing the contours of the image will be required for embroidery - manual or machine. There are many ways to transfer a picture to matter, it is worth considering them in more detail.

Required materials and preparation

Depending on the methods in which the drawing is supposed to be translated, different devices and additional materials may be required. Here's a rough list:

  • carbon paper or tracing paper;
  • thin cloth;
  • simple pencil, chalk;
  • needle;
  • transfer pencil;
  • pins;
  • iron;
  • lamp;
  • glass;
  • a printer;
  • fabric and pattern.

In preparation, you should print the image. You can draw a drawing in any program on a computer that makes graphic images and prints them. If the pictures are small, they are printed on one sheet.

All borders should be clear, bold, clearly visible - this will make it easier to transfer the pattern to the fabric. You can even artificially increase the contrast and saturation of the lines, if possible, remove light details from the picture.

Translation of drawing into matter

Below are the main methods by which the image is translated to the base.

Copy paper

The easiest way to translate a picture is based on the use of carbon paper. It comes in different colors:

  • black;
  • White;
  • color.

It is necessary to select the color of the carbon copy taking into account the shade of the matter. It is easier to find dark paper on sale, white paper is rare. To translate a picture, put a carbon copy, on top - a printed blank. A simple pencil is drawn around the drawing, carefully clicking on the contours. You can prick the contours of the pattern with a needle - colored dots will remain on the fabric, copying the drawing.

A clear result cannot be achieved if the details of the drawing are small: they turn out to be blurry. The technique is suitable only for smooth fabric or burlap. On fuzzy, fluffy fabrics, the image will not be clear.

The disadvantages of the method include the high "staining" ability of carbon paper - usually ugly marks are visible on the fabric.

Cigarette paper

Tracing paper or tissue paper helps transfer the design onto the fabric without carbon paper. The method is used for thick fabrics - velvet, velor, shiny bases.

First, you need to transfer the drawing to tissue paper. Then the paper matrix is ​​placed on top of the fabric, secured with safety pins (instead of them, you can take office clips). Then the drawing is stitched right on the tracing paper with neat stitches, the paper is torn off so as not to damage the threads. The embroidered drawing is ready.

Sprinkling

The decal technique is suitable for all types of fabrics - linen, cotton, silk, smooth or nap. There is no difference in the shade of the fabric - the base can be dark, light. Using the method, you can simultaneously translate a picture into several cuts of matter.

The order of work is as follows:

  1. Prepare the matrix. To do this, you need a board, which should be covered with felt and the required number of tracing paper sheets. Their maximum number is 6.
  2. Pin the drawing to the top tracing paper. Puncture the holes in the drawing with a needle as often as possible. The needle should be thick and the spacing between the holes should be equal. To work comfortably, a sewing needle reverse side stick into a pencil, leaving a sharp tip. The pencil is much more comfortable to hold than a regular needle.
  3. Separate the matrices, lay them out one by one (fabric plus tracing paper), pin them off. Wipe each matrix from the side of the tracing paper with a solution of blue, kerosene, tooth powder. The solution will leave an imprint of the pattern on the fabric through the holes.
  4. Dry the fabric for an hour, remove the tracing paper before that. The matrix can not be thrown away, but the remains of the solution can be brushed off and saved.
  5. Draw the appeared outline of the picture or stitch it with a thread.

The solution for light and dark fabrics is prepared differently. In the first case, mix 100 g of purified kerosene, 10 g of blue, 2 g of tooth powder. For the second recipe, combine 100 g of kerosene, 10 g of powder without blueing. It is necessary to mix the product in a ceramic bowl.

Instead of tooth powder, you can use chalk for dark fabrics, and activated carbon for light fabrics. Some needlewomen simply sprinkle light-colored materials with blue without the use of kerosene.

Transparent fabric

On sale there are thin, transparent fabrics - non-woven, marquise, silk, veil, nylon, georgette, organza. They can also be used to translate a picture if you intend to make the main product from them.

To work, you need to put a drawing, secure the fabric with pins on top. The contours of the picture will be perfectly visible, so you can immediately draw from the front side on the fabric acrylic paints without a rough sketch. It is better to work on a thick wooden board, plywood.

Laser printer

For this purpose, you will have to purchase freezer paper. It is usually used to freeze food, but the material has long been adopted by needlewomen. On one side, the paper is smooth and can be easily ironed onto the fabric, leaving prints on it. You should prepare the main fabric on which the drawing will be made (preferably linen, cotton).

Operating procedure:

  1. Cut a sheet of freezer paper equal in size to A4.
  2. Iron the sheet with the shiny side to the fabric, iron all the corners well so that the freezer does not come off.
  3. Cut the fabric along the edges of the sheet so that no threads stick out (they can ruin the printer).
  4. Put the workpiece in laser printer making sure the drawing comes out on the right side.
  5. Send the image to print (the printer may fail at first, then the procedure should be repeated).

Important! Always apply a preview before printing an image.

Solvent

You will need to print your design on heavy, glossy paper to prevent ink seeping through it. Then attach the corners of the drawing to the paper with needles, buttons. Prepare a cotton swab, wrap it with a cotton cloth, moisten it in solvent. Saturate paper lying on fabric with solvent.

To improve the result, attach the bottom of the spoon to the drawing, press well along the contour. The ink will seep onto the fabric, which will produce the same image.

other methods

If there is no carbon copy at home, you can try to translate the picture on the window - through the glass. Fix the fabric and the pattern with adhesive tape, then circle it with acrylic paints, a marker. A more "advanced" variation of the method is the use of a light plate.

Some craftswomen trim the outline of the drawing through tracing paper on a sewing machine. This will require some skill and experience, otherwise the image will be uneven. The process is complex and time consuming.

Another option is to use a pencil for translations. They transfer the mirrored drawing onto tracing paper, then apply it to the fabric, iron it with a lot of steam. Such pencils usually do not fit on synthetics, so you will have to use only linen or cotton fabrics.

An easy way to transfer your design is to use thermal transfer paper. It is bought in specialized online stores. The drawing is printed on a printer directly on such paper, then applied to the fabric, ironed with steam. The result will be much better if the printout is done in the workshop - the drawing will turn out to be juicy, it will not smear even after washing.

Resizing a picture

Sometimes you need to change the size of the picture for the fabric - to make it larger or smaller. To do this, the image is divided into approximately equal squares, and a grid is made on clean paper from the same number of squares, but of a larger (smaller) size. Then the drawing is transferred by hand along the lines that are taken from each square.

As a result, you will get a picture with the required parameters. It is best to break the drawing into many squares - this is how the finished drawing will be the most accurate. Then it can be transferred to the fabric in any convenient way.

Many owners of inkjet printers do not even suspect that with the help of these devices it is possible to print images to decorate various fabric products..

Printing images for transfer to fabric is perhaps one of the least known and rarely used capabilities of printing devices. In this article, we will tell you how you can decorate your T-shirt, shirt or other fabric product with a unique pattern or original lettering. Using the methods described below, you can transfer the image to products made of cotton and blended fabrics that can withstand prolonged heating.

Equipment and materials:

A printer. You can use your home inkjet printer or MFP to print the image, which is then transferred to fabric. Since in this case high resolution is not required, not only modern, but also quite old models of inkjet printers, which have long been discontinued, will successfully cope with this task.

Iron or ironing press. It is best to use an ironing press to transfer the printed image to fabric - it will provide the most durable fixation of the design. If you don't have a press, you can also use a regular iron. In the latter case, it is necessary to prepare a work table with a flat and hard surface that is resistant to heat (an ironing board for this purpose, unfortunately, will not work). In the process, you will need a piece of clean matter.

Special media. To transfer the image onto fabric, special media are used - (thermal transfer paper for light fabrics) or (thermal transfer paper for dark fabrics). The structure of such media includes a dense paper base and a thin elastic layer, which is attached to the fabric when heated, and it is on its surface that the image is applied.

Preparing and printing an image:

The preparation of the image or lettering can be performed in any program that supports the printing function. Several small images can be placed on one sheet, leaving 10-15 mm between their borders.

It should be borne in mind that printing on fabric has a number of features. The translated image may differ markedly from the print produced on the same printer on a sheet of plain paper, mainly due to lower contrast, narrower gamut and poorer reproduction of light colors. For optimal results (especially when printing photographs, reproductions, etc.), it makes sense to artificially increase the contrast and saturation of the image, as well as, if possible, exclude areas filled with the lightest shades from it.

An important point: in order for the image on the fabric to be read normally, it must be printed in a mirror image. To do this, activate the option to mirror the printed image (Flip or Mirror) in the printer driver window or in the print settings of the program from which the image is output. It is best to use the preview mode to check if the settings are correct.

Transferring an image to fabric using an iron

The image printed on the sheet must be cut out, leaving 5-6 mm of free space around the perimeter.

The iron regulator must be set to the maximum power position. If you have a steamer, you must turn it off. Before starting work, the iron must be kept for some time so that it warms up to the maximum temperature.

Since the temperature conditions of different iron models may differ, it makes sense to pre-select the optimal time for the transfer, experimenting with several small images and an unnecessary piece of fabric.

When the iron is ready to use, place it on the worktable surface in advance.

Prepare a piece of fabric and smooth it thoroughly so that no wrinkles or folds remain. Then place the product on which the drawing will be transferred onto the fabric. Prepare the translation surface by ironing it with an iron. Place the cutout print facedown where you want it to be.

The sequence of actions when transferring large format images to fabric using an iron:

For the best possible fixation of the image on the fabric, it is advisable to use the widest part of the working surface of the iron. When translating a large image, it is best to smooth the sheet in several passes, slowly moving the iron tightly pressed against the table along the long side of the drawing. The time for one pass should be about 30 s.

Turn the iron 180 ° and repeat the above procedure, starting at the opposite end. After that, it is necessary to carefully smooth out the edges of the translated image by moving the tightly pressed iron along the perimeter of the picture.

After completing the translation procedure, allow the product to cool for one to two minutes, and then remove the paper backing by taking it from any of the corners. It must be borne in mind that it will be much more difficult to remove the base from a completely cooled product.

When transferring several images to the same product, it is necessary to place them in such a way that they do not overlap each other.

Have you seen a friend's T-shirt with an exclusive design or with their own photo printed directly on the fabric? Do you want to do something unusual for yourself, but do not know how such a sticker is made? For this, special thermal transfer paper is used. With your own hands at home, you can easily make an exclusive unique T-shirt, T-shirt, bag and other thing.

Materials and technology

If you have never worked in the field of design or manufacture of souvenir products, but only saw T-shirts, T-shirts, pillows, mugs, plates and other products that are offered to be made in an exclusive design, for example, with a photograph of the future owner, in the shop windows, read the brief description the essence of the manufacturing technology of such things.

For any transfer of an image to an object, an intermediate material is used. In this case, thermal transfer paper. With your own hands at home, you can easily apply any image to fabric (white, dark, colored, natural or synthetic).

In order for the desired image to appear on this intermediate material, of course, you must first create it or find a ready-made one, and then print it. To execute the layout, template (the picture itself), various graphic editors are used - computer programs designed for creating and editing images. If you already know how to use Adobe photoshop or a similar graphics package, you can assume that you have created the image.

The next stage is printing. It is performed on the usual just on special sheets. Then, using the iron, the image is transferred to the prepared fabric. At home, you can only apply the image to flat things lying on a flat surface. Of course, you won't be able to make a mug. For them, special heat presses with a cylindrical surface are used. In fact, the work is not difficult.

With your own hands

If you are going to make a lot of products, purchase packages with the appropriate number of sheets. In this case, the unit price will usually cost you less. If you just decided to try yourself as a designer and make original souvenirs for yourself or your friends for some holiday, buy a pack with a maximum of 10 sheets. If you find a company that offers sale by sheet, take the required amount, for example, a couple, by the way, it is better with a margin (if you print it incorrectly for the first time). Be sure to ask for instructions for the paper and first specify which fabric, light, dark, natural or synthetic, it is intended for.

Working with light-colored fabrics

If the thing that you are going to decorate is white, any thermal transfer will do. You can easily make any image on this type of fabric with your own hands. The type of sheets that are intended directly for light fabrics is cheaper, but in this case the image will have to be printed in a mirror image.

Thermal transfer paper for dark fabrics

If your T-shirt is dark (blue, green) or, in general, black, then you need to buy the appropriate type of sheets. This is necessary for the best and highest quality result. If you print the image on a sheet for white fabric, it will take on the color of your T-shirt after transfer and the photo will not look natural.

For example, a4 sublimation thermal transfer paper for dark fabrics is suitable, however, it requires special sublimation ink that sticks only to synthetic fabric, and for natural ones, you will also need a special substrate.

Cheaper to get by with a more budget option - inkjet sheets for dark fabrics. In this case, the image will have a kind of white background, the color will not change and additional costs will not be required. It is advisable to leave a white border around the picture. This will give the thing a finished and beautiful look.

Now you know what thermal transfer paper is. With your own hands, you can easily make any image for a T-shirt or other fabric object right at home. Create exclusive items for yourself, friends and family.

Pictures for a bag. thermal paper or ... acrylic

You can buy such paper at stationery, as well as where everything is for computers and printers. Thermal transfer paper is called, there is for light and dark fabrics, in a pack of 10 sheets - written for inkjet printers, but also suitable for lasers. The technology is, in principle, simple - print the drawing and iron it with a hot iron.

This instruction is attached to EPSON Iron-On Cool Peel Transfer Paper:

Translators onto fabric using thermal paper.
If you haven't tried using it yet, be sure to try it and you will love it, because:
* The thermal image transfer process will allow each member of your family to easily create their own images based on fabric materials!
* Excellent image quality and a high resolution!
* Images and factory textures remain intact even after washing in the washing machine!

For thermal transfer, you will need the following:
* Thermal transfer paper
* Any of inkjet printers
* Iron
* Smooth, hard, smooth non-porous heat resistant table or other surface. Do not use ironing boards, wood, metal or glass surfaces.
* A piece of pure matter
* The fabric where you want to transfer the image (T-shirt, napkin, etc.)

You can use any program to create the image. If your image contains text, remember to "flip" the image.

Print image
* Insert one sheet of thermal transfer paper into the printer with the print side correctly positioned. Make sure the thermal transfer paper label is in the upper right corner and that the paper is not curled or folded.
* Set the paper thickness adjustment lever to the "0" position.
* Print the image.
* After you have printed the image, cut it out with scissors, leaving about 5-6 mm at the edges of the image.

Check your iron before proceeding with the thermal transfer procedure. The heating rate of irons is different. If your iron is not hot enough for thermal transfer, you can increase the time it takes for thermal transfer. If you have never tried transferring images to fabric with an iron before, we recommend that you practice thermal transferring small images using old unnecessary items. This will help you prepare for transferring large, high quality images.

* Preheat the iron to the maximum temperature and do not turn it off until after the thermal transfer procedure. The iron must be very hot. Do not use steam for thermal transfer.
* Take a piece of any fabric and place it on the table so that its edge hangs off the table. Smooth it out to remove wrinkles. Make sure there are no seams on the work surface.
* Place the thermal transfer product on a cloth.
* Iron the product with an iron.
* Place the printed image face down on the fabric where it will be located.

Be very careful not to touch the work surface of the iron or thermal transfer paper. When you are not using the iron, put it in a safe place and do not let children touch the iron or the thermal transfer area.
For best results, choose a thermal transfer technique that is convenient for you.

Thermal transfer of large images
Step 1-6: Securing the Image When using thermal transfer, use only the "wide" part of the iron as much as possible. Using a "narrow" section of the iron will not give the best results.
Starting at the top left corner (Step 1), slowly slide the iron along the transfer sheet, pressing firmly against the surface (this should take about thirty seconds).
Repeat this procedure for the middle (Step 2) and bottom (Step 3) portions of the thermal transfer sheet.
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 about 30 sec. about 30 sec. about 30 sec. After you have completed steps 1, 2 and 3, turn the iron.
This time, start at the bottom left corner (Step 4), slowly move the iron along the image sheet, pressing it firmly against the surface.
Repeat this process for the middle (Step 5) and top (Step 6) portions of the thermal transfer sheet.
Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 about 30 sec. about 30 sec. about 30 sec.
After you have completed step 6, iron the surface as described in step 7.
Step 7: Iron the surface of the sheet with the image, without lifting the iron from the table, performing about 30 circular motions. Make sure to iron all edges of the transferred image with each circular motion. Each movement should take about 4 seconds. Press the iron firmly to the surface.
Step 8: Remove paper from the thermal transfer product. After you have made the last circular motion, put the iron in a safe place and turn it off. Wait one to two minutes for the thermal transfer area to cool down. Starting from any corner, peel off the paper from the product. Removing the paper can be difficult if the transfer area has been cooling down for too long.

Thermal transfer of small images Small images (4 "x4" or 10x10 cm) transfer to fabric much easier.
1. Start ironing on one side of the image. Move the iron slowly along the thermal transfer sheet for about five seconds. This will anchor the image to the surface.
2. While firmly pressing the iron, without lifting it from the surface, slowly move it over the image for 45 seconds - 1 minute. Be careful not to overheat the thermal transfer product.
3. Place the iron in a safe place and turn it off when finished. Wait one to two minutes for the thermal transfer area to cool down. Starting from any corner, peel off the paper from the thermal transfer product. Removing the paper can be difficult if the transfer area has been cooling down for too long.

Tip If you are transferring more than one image to a product, make sure that the thermal transfer does not overlap with the printed images.

Your product using the EPSON thermal transfer process is machine washable, but you can protect the colors and image quality by following the steps below. simple tips:

* Wash in cold water only and use a special detergent for washing colored items.
* Wash colors and whites separately.
* Remove items from the washing machine immediately after the end of the washing process.
* Dry items in a dryer under normal conditions.