Dark Fabric Transfer vs. Light Fabric

[krbmorris]

Is it possible to use the dark fabric transfer paper on light colored t-shirts (white, pastels, etc.)? Or do you need to keep dark with dark shirts and light with light? I thought I read somewhere on this board that the dark fabric transfers work better (look sharper) on the white t-shirts. I appreciate any advice.

 

[M_I_C_K_E_Y]

You can use any transfer on any color. The difference is the paper itself.

A dark transfer is a white sheet so all white areas (or anything lacking color, including transparent) WILL be white. Then you would need to trim off any areas you would not want on your shirt. They are designed for colored shirts so that the white is white. I use dark transfers for all my shirts, including white. They do seem to me to be more vibrant that the light transfer paper.

A light transfer has a clear sheet. So anything white (or lacking color) will be clear. Which would be your shirt color. You could use them on any colored shirt if either you have no white in your design or do not mind if all white areas are your shirt color. They are designed to be used with white shirts. Even if you used them on a light colored shirt, let's say light pink, then all white areas would be light pink. So a design of Mickey would result in light pink eyes in this example.

I hope all of this makes sense.

 

[clynngibson]

You can use any transfer on any color. The difference is the paper itself.

A dark transfer is a white sheet so all white areas (or anything lacking color, including transparent) WILL be white. Then you would need to trim off any areas you would not want on your shirt. They are designed for colored shirts so that the white is white. I use dark transfers for all my shirts, including white. They do seem to me to be more vibrant that the light transfer paper.

A light transfer has a clear sheet. So anything white (or lacking color) will be clear. Which would be your shirt color. You could use them on any colored shirt if either you have no white in your design or do not mind if all white areas are your shirt color. They are designed to be used with white shirts. Even if you used them on a light colored shirt, let's say light pink, then all white areas would be light pink. So a design of Mickey would result in light pink eyes in this example.

I hope all of this makes sense.

Thank you for explaining this!!! I have just started doing iron ons and was wondering the difference myself!

 

[krbmorris]

THANK YOU!!! This is just what I needed to know!

 

[M_I_C_K_E_Y]

Just some added tips:

A dark transfer has a matte finish and normally does NOT need to be flipped or rotated before printing.

A light transfer has a shiny finish and DOES need to be flipped.

These are generalizations and may not be the case with ALL but as a general rule, these are accurate.