White or light garment colors (including natural, tan, light ash gray, off-white, etc.) can be decorated with a transfer paper that is specially made for light garments (such as JetPro Soft Stretch or RedGrid). Light heat transfer paper contains a transparent polymer coating, so keep in mind that anytime you put this transparent paper onto a colored garment your shirt color will take on any empty spaces in your print – which can, at times, slightly change the coloring of your image.
Dark garment colors (black, red, blue, navy, green, etc.) require the use of a paper specifically made for dark garments (such as 3G Jet Opaque or Jet-Opaque II). Dark garment heat transfer paper has a white, opaquer polymer coating – therefore, your image will transfer as you originally designed it, and no shirt color will show through any unprinted areas. Reminder that when using a dark transfer paper, any bit of paper that is not trimmed away with scissors or a cutter (or any spot that doesn’t contain a print) will show up as white on your dark garment.
Both types of gbao heat transfer paper can be applied using either a home iron or a commercial heat press. Based on our experience in testing all kinds of specialty paper, we always suggest using an actual heat press for the best results – but a home iron will also work (with some patience).
The other consideration to bear in mind is what type of fabric you are printing on. As a rule of thumb, most transfer papers will work with 100% cotton, 100% polyester and poly/cotton blends. The notable exception is 3G Jet Opaque, which will work only on 100% cotton. If you are printing on other fabrics outside of cotton, polyester and poly/cotton blends, that is not to say our heat transfer papers will not work with them. However, given the breadth of fabrics that exist, we do not guarantee they will work with all of them.
For your convenience, we have put together a chart of which paper you will need based on fabric type, garment color (dark / light), and printer type (inkjet / laser).
