How to choose the best transfer papers…along with some tips and tricks

When choosing the best transfer paper, there is rarely one paper that will work well with everything. The type of transfer paper you should be using depends on the substrate you will be transferring to. 

T-Shirts:
My personal, all-around favorite paper that we carry (though it may not receive a lot of recognition) is Red Grid Inkjet Heat Transfer Paper. It may not be getting as much hype because “soft hand” transfers are all the craze lately. But, what a lot of people may not know, is that most hot peel papers can achieve a softer feel with a few small tips. 

You should always have a pack of RedGrid on hand.

Red Grid is a very easy-to-use inkjet paper with great color. And it too can have a nice, soft touch – almost as nice as more popular papers such as JetPro SofStretch. To get the best results with any hot peel transfer paper, especially with Red Grid, you should give the transfer a few small tugs and stretches immediately after removing it from the heat press and peeling the heat transfer paper. Tugging the transferred image while still hot and tacky will help the transfer wrap around each individual fiber and settle. This will give the transfer better elasticity, better long-term durability, and can also prevent any future cracking. 

Laser Heat Transfer Paper are is another type of paper people tend to shy away from. Laser papers may seem scary, but they actually have a lot of positive attributes. Once you get past finding a laser printer that doesn’t run too hot and you conquer finding all of the correct settings to run your laser paper through smoothly, you can expect to be very happy with the results. (TIP: If your laser paper is jamming in the printer, try slowing it down so the paper has more time in the printer allowing for the toner to completely adhere to the paper. To do this, just select a heavier mode. My Oki printer’s favorite is either “transparency” or “label” mode.  

Laser Transfer Paper is not nearly as scary as it seems!

Also, it’s important to feed your paper where the shorter side of the paper goes into the printer first. This ensures the printer runs with the grain of the paper.)

Being in tech support, I tend to hear a lot about bleeding when using inkjet transfer papers. Even when printing at a default mode on regular paper settings, it can still happen with some inkjet printers. This is because modern inkjet printers are intended for photo printing. Photo printing requires heavy ink coverage for best possible quality. However, transfer paper, unlike photo paper, can only soak up so much ink causing any un-absorbed excess ink to sit on top of the paper. And, of course, then it bleeds in the wash. 

When printing onto transfers, it is unnecessary to print with a lot of ink. Your transfer is being transferred onto fabric, which is textured. That texture is going to relieve some of that missing detail in the image, so it’s not noticeable. Laser printers use toner and are not created to be photo printers, so they won’t put down as much ink. This makes laser transfers great to avoid bleeding. Laser heat transfer papers are also very durable and are less likely to fade as quickly if washed correctly. 

Mousepads:
JPSS, a.k.a JetPro SofStretch by Neenah works phenomenally on mousepads. Mousepads are usually made up of a stretchy polyester material perfecting for letting SofStretch do its thing – STRETCH! Mousepads also get a lot of usage and need a good durable transfer to withstand a beating. SofStretch will do the job. 

Canvas/Puzzles:
Going back to the Red Grid again…its great, vibrant color will over power the canvas color material allowing for less color show through and eliminating the need for an opaque paper. A thick cold peel paper like Cold Peel also works great on all types of canvas materials. 

Home Iron:
A heat press is always recommended for best results, but not everyone has access to one. I suggest using a cold peel paper if you are using a hand iron. When having to hand iron your transfer, especially larger transfers, you cannot iron over the entire image at one time. This causes areas of the transfer to cool before you are ready to peel the transfer. This won’t work with a hot peel paper, so I would suggest to use a good ole’ cold peel transfers. I would recommend either Cold Peel or Iron Man for home iron usage. 

Hopefully, this gives some better insight on a few of our different heat transfer papers and helps you choose your papers a little easier. It is always good to have a selection of papers on hand for the different materials you will be transferring to. But, MY own rule of thumb – always keep Red Grid Inkjet Heat Transfer Paper in your inventory! Thanks for reading!

4 thoughts on “How to choose the best transfer papers…along with some tips and tricks”

  1. i`m new to the heat transfer business [ just a hobby really ] and the piece on red grid transfer paper was very helpful. i just bought a roll of heat tape and a dispenser from you and i was pleased with your service so i guess i`ll try some red grid paper. [ i have been using avery from wal-mart ] thanks for the info, allan b.

  2. I’m transferring pictures of family members onto wood. What transfer paper do you recommend for ink jet printers and wood? I bought some Pallissade transfer paper from France, but Office Depot cant get it to feed through their laser printer. I think it will work great with a successful laser print. I can get it to feed through my ink jet, but the quality of transfer is not good enough.

    1. Hello,

      There really isn’t a hard surface paper for inkjets unfortunately. Laser works based on the fact that it is just melting the toner onto the object, where inkjet relies on and adhesive carrier to apply to shirts.

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