can i use a regular laser printer and transfer paper to print designs on a shirt with a heat press?

or do i need a specific type of printer?

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2 Comments for can i use a regular laser printer and transfer paper to print designs on a shirt with a heat press?

1. amybeader | February 15th, 2011 at 9:10 am

It depends more on the paper. I don’t know if there is t-shirt heat transfer paper that is designed to be used in a laser printer. Most of the paper you can buy is designed for inkjet printers; since laser printers transfer toner using a heat fusing system and essentially a powder form of toner and ink, using paper designed for inkjet printers is a bad idea. The best thing to do would be to go to a store that carries t-shirt transfer paper and read what the package says about what printers to use it in. Another option would be to go to the website of the company that makes your laser printer and see if they offer such paper; some companies do. But either way you always want to make sure to use the paper designed for your printer.

Hope that helps.
2. smedrik | February 15th, 2011 at 9:22 am

For heat press printing you actually require a liquid inkjet printer.

This is becuase, a laser printer uses a heated fuser to melt the image onto the page, this would effectively destroy the heat sensitive substrate used in transfer printing.

You need an ink jet, I would recommend if you are doing a high volume of transfer printing getting an epson retrofitted with a continuous ink system and the ability to manage dye sublimation inks.

You can buy kits by only for a few hundred dollars which will get you started.