All About Transfer Paper

Transfer paper allows you to create your own custom heat transfers that you can iron on or adhere with your heat press. It comes in a variety of sizes and is durable and completely washable.

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With no purchase minimums, you have the freedom to create custom t-shirt designs for a single customer, or a group, which is important for new businesses as well as those that are already established. Whether you need inkjet transfer paper for a standard inkjet printer, or you’d rather create your iron-on transfer designs with an inkjet printer, we have you covered.

The Jetpro Soft Stretch Inkjet Paper comes in 8.5×11 and 11×17. It produces soft, supple, vibrant, and washable ink jet printed transfers for white and light colored fabrics. It can be used to apply designs and photographs and can be trimmed to reduce the transfer of the background.

3G Opaque Paper comes in 8.5×11 and 11×17. This also produces vibrant and washable transfers but are suitable for dark fabrics. Like the Jetpro, you can use it for basic designs as well as photographs and the design can be trimmed to reduce the transfer of the polymer background. (This transfer paper is not recommended for Hewlett Packard and Dell Printers).

Lasersoft EZ Peel transfer paper comes in 8.5×11 and 11×17. It is the only laser transfer available that allows the inks to absorb into the surface of the coating of the paper. The coating then acts like a shield and later bonds the inks to the fabric fibers without using a plastic film offering a high quality, soft solution for laser transfers.

Clc Paper comes in 8.5×11 and 11×17 and works with both oil and non-oil laser printers. This paper is great for transferring high-resolution photographs and images onto dark materials. Garments with a tight weave work best.

CI Trimfree comes in 8.5×11 and works only on solid, light colors. This is the first single step transfer paper and has been developed to release the polymer coating only in areas that have toner coverage where the image is pressed to the fabric. This makes it so you don’t have to trim your design before pressing it to your garment. Images will stay bright and vibrant, even after continued washing and the paper will print on both oil and non-oil laser printers.

Image Clip Laser Paper comes in 8×10.5 and 10.75×16.75. It works best on light garments and handles full-color designs very well. This paper is self-weeding, so there is no need to trim the excess paper as there will be no background to your printed design, although this paper is a two-step process.

Image Clip Laser Paper for dark, solid garments comes in 8×10.5 and 10.75×16.75. Just like the Image Clip for lights, there is no need to trim the excess paper as this paper is self-weeding. But this paper is not designed for transferring photography.

Just keep in mind, since there are so many different makes and models of printers we cannot guarantee the results on any one printer. We suggest that you check with the manufacturer in regards to using transfer paper.

Are you a regular user of transfer papers? Which type is your favorite? Do you have any additional tips? Please share with us in the comments!

  • David C. Pyatt

    Here is a challenging question for you…

    HPLaser printed images using Ghost white toner (https://www.ghost-white-toner.com)

    Toner prints the same as other HP CMYK toners. Eliminates the need for “dark transfer” paper (I am guessing)

    What would you normally use for HP CMYK printing?

    • mattproworld

      When printing with an hp printer we recommend an hp inkjet printer to use our 601 jetpro paper for light color fabrics. The ghost printer you questioned about is a laserjet printer and is a combination between an inkjet printer and laser printer. We do not offer a paper that can work with this type of combination printer.

      • David C. Pyatt

        The GHOST toner is laser toner, just like CMYK toners… it is in a standard HP Pro400 series laser printer… it is NOT a hybrid printer. Ghost sells printers with the cartridge or you can buy the toner for your regular HP LaserJet.

        So since I can lay down white as well as full color I am guessing that I don’t need “Dark Transfer” laser printer and can use what others would use for color sans white laser printing…

  • Pretty Silhouettes

    Can some suggestion some of the printers that you use. I’m new to the business and I’m getting asked a lot if I can print photos onto t-shirts. My answer is no, because I’m not there yet. But if someone can suggest a good printer and the best transfer paper to print on that would be great. Most of designs are going on black shirts. Thank you in advance!

    • mattproworld

      The manufacturers recommend a few brands to work with their papers. When working with inkjet papers we suggest using an epson or canon inkjet printer. When workinf with the laser papers we recommend a canon, ricoh, okidata or xerox printer. Most models from these brands have been tested and will work great with the digital transfer papers.

      • Pretty Silhouettes

        Thank you Matt!