Proudly Canadian | Free Shipping for Provinces | Minimum order 6 units

Return to Film To Fabric

Film to Fabric Transfers Film to Fabric

Film to Fabric Transfers (also called Direct to Film or DTF Transfers) is the latest trend in garment decorating techniques. This is a process where the image is printed using inkjet technology, inverted and upside-down onto a translucent carrier film. Before the ink dries a glue is attached to the underside of the print.

Once the print is dry, we can flip the carrier film over and heat press the image onto the garment. The heat press process does two things. First, it fully cures the ink and makes it durable to last many washings, and second it melts the glue and bonds the print to the fabric allowing us to peal away the carrier film.

Advantages

The main advantages are that there is very little time spent getting the image ready to print. A few minutes in photoshop setting the parameters and then it heads to the printer. This means that small runs aren’t as costly as they would be with screen printing which requires colour separations and a screen stencil to be created for each colour. If you are thinking of printing a low quantity, this might be your best choice. The second advantage is that heat pressing can be done at low temperatures and thus can be placed on many garments that would be impossible to screen print - such as nylon jackets or baseball caps.

Disadvantages

The main disadvantage to Film to Fabric transfers is colour match. With screen printing we can match ink colours and pantones exactly. With transfers, as it is a CMYK print process, the colour spectrum is limited. As well, special inks like metallics and neon colours are not possible with this format. Another disadvantage is the inability to fade to nothing. All print edges must end abruptly in order for the glue to adhere properly.

How Film to Fabric feels

There is also a different hand feel between Screen Printing and Film to Fabric Transfers. They are both lightweight and easy to wear, however screen printing typically feels more part of the garment. Transfers feel like a thin vinyl glued to the garment. Which one you like better comes down to personal preference.