Ever seen someone heat pressing designs onto garments and thought – “Wow! That must be so easy!”?

Well, as much as it’s good to be optimistic, we have to tell you that the process is a bit complex, needing careful planning if the results are to be great.

The careful planning we’re talking about here especially concerns the time and temperature of the heat press.

For the transfer to look good, the temperature needs to be set correctly, and the amount of pressure applied needs to be right.

Apart from that, you need to know whether to remove the carrier paper hot or cold.

Deciding on all these factors can be a bit overwhelming particularly when you want the results to be faultless.

But, with this handy heat press temperature setting guide, you don’t need to worry at all. We’re going to look at the correct heat and temperature when applying a heat press to different materials.

Let’s jump in.

Vinyl

Vinyl comes in two different forms, which are known as Adhesive and Heat Transfer Vinyl (HVA).
To activate the HVA, you will need to use some source of heating equipment like Iron or in this case, a heat-press machine!

Since the Heat Transfer Vinyl offers several different types of varieties for you to choose from, we are going to discuss the ideal temperature for the most common ones down below:

Matte PU Vinyl

Metallic PU Vinyl

Hologram Vinyl

Glitter Vinyl

Sublimation Paper- Transfer onto Polyester

About polyester you can set temperature of around 225 °C  and set the time to just about 30 seconds.

Peel the sublimation paper when warm or cold.

Sublimation Paper-Stretchy Materials

If the material you’re heat pressing has a lot of stretch, for instance, swimming costume, set the temperature to around 180°C and apply the heat press for around 40 seconds. Peel the sublimation paper while cold.

Heat Transfer Paper for Cotton Dark

Cotton is one of the most widely-used fabric because, in fact, 75% of men’s clothing are made of 100% cotton. When applying transfers to a cotton apparel with dark color, you need to use more time as shown in these guidelines:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What temperature should I set my heat press to?

It all depends on the sort of fabric you’re printing. Generally, you want to set a heat level of around 185°C when dealing with light-colored fabrics and a temperature of about 165°C when dealing with dark-colored fabric. Less than 20 seconds pressing time should be fine.

2. How long does heat transfer vinyl need to be heat pressed?

10 to 15 seconds are enough, but there’s something else you need to know. You need to adjust the temperature to around 150 °C, and prior to applying the heat press, the fabric has got to be preheated for three seconds.

3. What fabrics can I heat press?

Almost all the fabrics you can think of, actually. You can heat press cotton, polyester, nylon, lycra, spandex, leather, and the blends of these materials.