This piece was first written in the mid-1990s, and was last updated in 2001. It still contains information I consider valuable, although a couple of points should be noted:
- Color copiers have substantially changed, and few now use the resins that made the early color copier transfers so permanent and beautiful.
- Ink-jet printing now dominates the printing on fabric market. (Though this is not the case for T-shirts and other fabric items that will not lay flat to pass through an ink-jet printer.)
Transferring photographs to fabric
with transfer paper: the pros and cons
(probably more than you ever wanted to know…)
Finding out the directions, so you can follow them correctly?
What are the differences between thick and thin transfer paper?
Why is all this crankiness about putting transfer paper in color copiers, anyway?
Why are some places willing to put pictures on transfer paper when some won’t?
Other ways to transfer: computers and printers
I did all this just right and my transfers still look lousy!
There are many brands of transfer paper available for people who want to transfer photographs to fabric themselves. Transfer paper is, so far as I know, the only safe method, which does not use a computer, to try at home.
Some persons have described using solvents to transfer the toners from color copiers, but I would highly recommend against this approach. SOLVENTS are incredibly DANGEROUS and require a high level of safety precautions. They are definitely in the DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME category.
Transfer paper is, therefore, the medium of choice for transferring color copies at home. There are many brands of transfer paper available, and I am not going to talk about specific brands. Anyone can buy transfer paper in bulk and market it themselves. Just because it comes in a package from the XYZ Quilt Boutique doesn’t tell you a thing about what kind of transfer paper it is. (Believe me, the XYZ Quilt Boutique is not manufacturing transfer paper in their back room.) To figure out what kind of transfer paper you are using, it helps to know the manufacturer, not the distributor. Some distributors tell you what brand of transfer paper they are selling and pass on the manufacturer’s instructions verbatim. Others rewrite the instructions.
Why is knowing the transfer paper manufacturer important?
By knowing who manufactures the paper you can get some idea of the paper’s actual specifications. What you really need to know is the paper’s heat sensitivity range. I’ll explain the importance of the heat range below in talking about color copiers. (All transfer paper is, actually, is paper with a coating of plastic on it. The coating of plastic is lightly bonded to something like a silicone base, so that it will peel away when heated to a certain temperature.) Most transfer papers today describe themselves as “thin.” The “thin” papers were especially designed to go through color copiers more easily. The older transfer papers which have been on the market for years and years can be considered “thick,” and it still possible to purchase them.
What are the differences between “thick” and “thin” transfer paper?
For practical purposes, the thick transfer papers make a stiffer, thicker transfer than the thin ones. If you think about what transfer paper is actually doing, it is easy to understand why. The transfer paper is making a sandwich. The bottom of the sandwich is your fabric. The middle stuff in the sandwich is the toners or ink from the copier or printer. The top stuff on the sandwich is the plastic from the transfer paper. The thicker the layer of plastic from the transfer paper is, the more plastic or stuff there is to hold the whole package together. The thicker the transfer paper is, the better it will stand up to washing (although there is a point of diminishing returns here, for, if the transfer paper is too thick, it will start to crack under stress).
Historically speaking, the early transfer papers were thick and fairly low temperature. The low temperature meant that some of them could be ironed on at home, although even pressure has always been a tricky issue with transfer paper. This lower melt temperature for the plastic, however, presented problems for the color copiers (CLC’s) that came on the market in the late 1980’s. The newer, thinner, higher temperature transfer papers were specifically developed to meet these problems.
What is the problem with transfer paper in the color copier anyway? (or why can’t I get that done here?)
Color copiers use resin toners to make the image. Resins are plastic, and they are fused to the paper with heat. The last stage when the color copier makes a copy is that the paper passes underneath a fuser roller. The fuser roller is HOT. It is so hot that many transfer papers melt and jam, or at very least leave a gunky residue which will eventually mean extra maintenance for the copier. The transfer paper manufacturers face a two-edged sword here: if the transfer paper is made so that it melts at a higher temperature (and messes up the color copier less) then it is much harder to get the image to release from the paper onto fabric at home. If the transfer paper is made to melt at a lower temperature, and is thus easier to iron on at home, they face the wrath of the color copier maintenance folks.
Why is color copier maintenance such a big deal?
(Or, why I use my sewing machine to sew leather when the instruction book says it wasn’t designed to sew leather and why does the needle keep breaking… or, when was the last time you took apart your computer mouse and cleaned it? )
These may not be perfect analogies, but they will give you an idea of what is going on. Color copiers are notoriously temperamental machines. They cost anywhere from $1000 (used) to $60,000 (new with bells and whistles) and up. The “purchase”of a color copier is usually done by a lease/buy out agreement. Very few folks just pay cash for a copier. Part of the initial lease contract includes a maintenance agreement, and it is obligatory. (You don’t own the copier yet, and you won’t, fiscally speaking, actually own it for a few years. The lease company still owns it, and they can call the shots.) The maintenance agreement means that in addition to the money paid each month to the leasing institution for the copier, the copier user/owner also pays a monthly service fee to a local copier service organization. In this maintenance agreement, the copier service folks can specify many things, and one of them is that only a certain kind of paper be put through the color copier. Now, why would they do this? Clearly, it saves the service people labor and parts and money.
What will happen if a user/owner puts transfer paper through the copier anyway, in violation of their maintenance agreement?
The usual consequence, if the maintenance folks locate the source of the problem, is that the monthly maintenance fee is increased substantially, and the person is warned not to do it again. If they do it again and get caught, the service contract can be terminated. That means that the color copier service is then on a per call basis, at upwards of $100.00 per hour (Yes, that’s one hundred dollars an hour, and I’m told that’s cheap.) The out of pocket costs for “per call” service on a color copier can be astronomical compared to a monthly service contract. So this is a big incentive to NOT put transfer paper through your color copier.
Why then are some copier places willing to use transfer paper and others won’t?
A lot depends on the copier place’s volume, the age of the copier, and other variables. Some Mom and Pop and other independent copy places do not carry service contracts. They may have someone on the staff with a copier repair background. The volume is important because service contracts are tied to it. A very large volume copy store which may be part of a national chain (which shall remain nameless), may have sufficient color copy volume so that a few sheets of transfer paper every month are not going to be noticed in the overall maintenance pattern.
A number of years ago the large chain which shall be nameless started doing T-shirt transfers in a big way. My personal theory is that the transfer paper people convinced them there was a fortune to be made in T-shirts. Anyway, with so many stores and so much volume, the thinking may have gone: who cares if our maintenance goes up, we’ll make it up from the profits on T-shirts. Well, they apparently didn’t, and now only a few remaining stores in the chain will do T-shirt transfers. I haven’t a clue what they have based this decision on.
I have also known of some places which approached the issue in other ways. One Mom and Pop store is always careful to run twenty or so sheets of blank paper through the copier after every transfer paper job to clean out
the gunk. Another place, in an amusement arcade, and specializing in T-shirt transfers, found that their T-shirt volume and profit was sufficient to allow them to negotiate a higher priced service contract to keep the copier clean and running. And now, back to transfer paper…
With all this going on, it is no wonder that people using transfer paper get frustrated. (And we haven’t even touched on the issue of getting a decent quality image on the transfer paper itself!) As I said, most of the transfer papers available today are of the thinner variety. The problem with the thinner ones, from a washability standpoint is this: Remember that the top layer of the sandwich is a thin layer of plastic. When these are washed, the plastic cracks ever so slightly. What then happens is that loose fabric fibers migrate up through the tiny cracks. Think of grass growing through cracks in the sidewalk. After these transfers are washed, they look fuzzy. That’s why many of these thin papers recommend ironing the transfer after washing it! In all fairness, these papers were designed for the T-shirt industry, but imagine having to iron the transfers in quilt after washing it!
Irons and dry mount presses
Most transfer papers are designed for commercial use rather than home use. They therefore assume that you have a heat press or dry mount press. Heat presses and dry mount presses are the presses you see in framing shops and T-shirt transfer places. There are many varieties which will work. They are pretty expensive new, so I wouldn’t recommend buy one just to do transfers for your quilt, but you are likely to find them sitting around unused in community center crafts or photo workshops, libraries, high schools, etc. They are built to last forever, so they can be cleaned up and used very easily. These presses make doing it yourself almost fool proof. If you can get past the copier issues, and have a good looking copy on your transfer paper (this is pretty much a “what you see is what you get” process), and find a heat press to use, you are home free. Using your iron at home is really the major technical glitch in home transfers.
Heat presses deliver an even amount of heat and an even amount of pressure for a specified length of time. Even heat and pressure is the key to a lasting and good looking transfer. For larger transfers (bigger than say, 3″ x 5″), the heat press becomes more essential. Think of how small the base plate of your iron is. It can only deliver even heat and pressure to an area that fits on the base plate. Every time you move the iron you are changing the heat and the pressure. Most people, pressing down very hard on their irons deliver about 8-10 lbs per square inch of pressure. A heat press delivers about 30 lbs per square inch of pressure. Therefore, the plastic is going to be more thoroughly pressed into the fabric by a factor of 3! The reason that the pressure is so important has mostly to do with the heat and pressure exerted by the color copier’s fuser roller. Those toners are really bonded to the paper, and it takes comparable heat and pressure to get them to release onto the fabric.
How do I tell how hot my iron is?
Most irons do not have thermostats, but fabric settings, like, cotton, wool, etc. This is a serious problem. I understand there are temperature strips you can buy to test how hot your iron is. It is most important that you are confident that your iron stays at the same temperature once you set it. (I’ve had irons that seem to cool and reheat, even though they are not supposed to.) Experimenting with transfer papers at the settings you do have, and writing down what you use, is one way to go. Most transfer papers work in the +300 degree (F) range.
Hasn’t anybody figured out any other ways to do this?
There are really lots of transfer systems. There are pastes you paint over the color copy and then iron or scrape off. There used to be a home transfer method called “Picture This” which used a plastic about as thick as a credit card. I heard that product was discontinued due to some legal issues, but it was easy and foolproof and very permanent if you didn’t mind the thick plastic surface.
There are also a number of “two step” systems. The “two step” systems were developed to avoid to plastic-in-the-copier issue. Basically, they insert an extra stage in the process. You make the copy on plain paper; then you press the copy onto the transfer paper; then you press the transfer paper onto the fabric. There are folks who have happily been using these “two step” processes for years. When the CLC’s first came on the market, Canon attempted to market its own two-step system, but it never seems to have gotten off the ground, and now they seem to have put their marketing emphasis on the home bubble jet transfer paper.
Can I use my computer printer instead of a color copier?
First of all, we need to distinguish between two basic kinds of color computer printers. If your printer has a fuser roller which is hot and the print comes out hot, you have a printer which uses toners. These are very high end (expensive) printers, like the Apple LaserWriter, and the Lexmark Optra C.
If you have a print which comes out cool and/or wet, you have an ink jet type printer. These are also called bubble jet, and (somewhat deceptively) laser jet printers. The first important consideration, aside from transfer paper and everything else, is that only the computer printers which use toners make permanent colors. All of the ink jet and bubble jet inks are fugitive *, that is, they fade in the light. Spraying a fixative spray on an ink jet transfer may make it more washable, but it does not change the nature of the light fastness of the inks. I know there are companies working on the issue, but, as of this writing the most light fast, commonly available ink jet inks will only last about 18 months. (There has been a whole to-do in the art world about the permanency of the “giclee” prints, and one of the companies which had claimed to have a permanent ink, has now backed down and is doing the equivalent of recalling the prints they made…..) The more permanent inks which do exist are mostly available for the high end ink jet printers, like the Iris series. Toners, on the other hand, are extremely permanent.
Given the printer you have, there are most likely transfer papers available for it. All the heat issues that apply to color copiers also apply to computer printers which use toners, and even more so, because computer printers can be even more temperamental than color copiers. Since the transfer papers which go through the ink jet printers are not exposed to heat, they can iron on very easily because their overall melt temperature can be lower. Be sure to use a paper designed for your printer.
A recent product has come on the market which promises to make the computer printer a very viable method of putting your images on fabric. It is a product which you use to coat or soak the fabric Then you dry the fabric, iron it to freezer paper, then print to it directly. Caryl Bryer Fallert markets this product, called Bubble Jet Set on her Web site at http://bryerpatch.com/faq/bjs.htm.
In addition, there are still more transfer systems. One is thermal wax transfer, the second is sublimation transfer. Thermal wax comes from specific computer printer ribbons in Fargo (and possibly other) printers. Sublimation transfers have generally been avoided by quilters because they only work on polyester, but this process gives very soft transfers, with wonderful detail. (My thanks to Barbara McKie for reminding me of these methods)
What about the fabric?
If you are using transfer paper, fabric you want to transfer onto has to be ableto stand the amount of heat you will have to use to transfer the image.Some synthetics start to melt at about 250 degrees, so they would not be good candidates for high temperature transfer papers.
In transferring at home with your iron, there is often a certain amount of image size distortion because you are pulling the transfer paper away from the fabric, usually at an angle. Thus the print turns out some sort of diamond shape, rather than rectangular. Most transfer papers can be ironed on (or should be able to be ironed on… Don’t use one you can’t iron it….) You can easily iron the image square again.
Some people like to transfer onto fabric that has not been washed because it is stiffer and seems to distort a bit less than pre-washed fabric. The only issue of concern here is that the sizing in the fabric be able to withstand the heat you need to transfer without scorching. In general, the cheaper the fabric, the more sizing and the more likelihood of scorching. Almost all fabrics which can withstand the heat can be transferred onto. I have done some wonderful transfers onto open weave fabrics like exotic linens.
There are certain aesthetic issues involved here too. If you want a transfer that is stiff and remains stiff, use a thick transfer paper and an unwashed fabric with lots of sizing. Poly-cotton polished broadcloth makes a transfer that has a sheen like satin and is quite wonderful for certain projects. If you want a transfer that is soft and drapes like fabric, start with a softer fabric and use the thinnest possible transfer paper.
You can transfer onto colored or print fabrics. The thing to remember is that the background color of your fabric is going to be the background color of the photo. (To have a white background photo on colored fabric is a whole other kettle of fish… silk screeners do it on T-shirts with a layer of white paint first. I know of no easy way to do it with transfer paper on fabric.
You also need to be careful about using those overprinted, tone-on-tone fabrics, (i.e. little white designs on a beige fabric). I have found that the ink/paint/dye on these fabrics is often very low temperature and melts, making a mess. Hand screen printed fabrics can do this as well, so test them first.
I did all this just right and my transfers still look lousy!
The color copier is a marvelous machine, but it is only as good as the technician operating it, and it is also only as good as the service level at which it has been maintained. A good color copy should really look a lot like your original photograph. It should be focused as sharply; the color should look the same; and all the colors should be in register. There is really very little loss of image quality with a well working color copier, except at very extreme enlargements (say over 200%). In general, the transfers will look darker than the copies. If you prefer lighter transfers, start with lighter copies. If your copies on transfer paper don’t resemble your original photos, don’t bother to try to iron them on. They aren’t going to improve much in the transfer process…
A good color copier technician should have lots of experience with the color copier. A background from the four color printing or photographic printing fields is a bonus. The color copier itself is maintained by the service people to copy photos within an “average” range. If your photos are the least bit unusual (old and faded, for example), the color copier has to be adjusted by hand to accommodate them; its “average” settings won’t work well. If the copier technician has no sense of how to make these adjustments, you are going to get yucky copies. Ask the technician to run tests on your photos before they actually put the transfer paper in the copier. You may have to pay for these tests, but it is better than wasting transfer paper. Talk to the tech or store owner/manager before you start, to make sure you both understand their policies on tests, color correcting, special settings, etc. Mirror image is one setting that always has to be used with transfer paper and some shops charge extra for it.
Suppose you have four photos to copy onto transfer paper. The technician will hopefully find an average setting which is a compromise to accommodate all four photos. If two photos are very dark and two photos are very light, the tech will copy them at a setting somewhere between the two photos. Thus the dark photos will transfer on the light side, and the light photos will transfer on the dark side. If you want each photo to transfer at its very best, you will probably have to use at least two, maybe four sheets of transfer paper, and put each photo on its own sheet of transfer paper. You will also probably have to pay for each photo as a separate copy. This can sound pricey, but it may really be worth it in the long run. Think of it as an investment: you are going to put dozens, if not hundreds, of hours into your photo quilt project, and you don’t want to stint on the quality of your images. There’s an old farmer’s saying, “You don’t dig a two-bit hole for a two dollar tree…”
Good luck with whatever method you choose!
* The longevity of some ink-jet inks has improved since this was written, but be sure to check this issue thoroughly before you invest a lot of money and time in a large project.
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