Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ukma!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!eagle!data.nas.nasa.gov!wk207!uselton From: uselton@nas.nasa.gov (Samuel P. Uselton) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Printing on fabrics - how? Summary: Copier technology works - with a little help Message-ID: <1991Jun18.164152.9096@nas.nasa.gov> Date: 18 Jun 91 16:41:52 GMT References: <23571@shlump.lkg.dec.com> Sender: Sam Uselton Distribution: comp Organization: NAS Program, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA Lines: 38 In article <23571@shlump.lkg.dec.com> swatko@airbag.enet.dec.com (Mike Swatko) writes: >-- >In article , steve@bass.cc.utas.edu.au (Steve Andrewartha) writes: >>I'm interested in getting colour images from machine to fabric >>(linen, cotton, whatever). Are there any colour printers out there >>that can be used to either print straight onto the fabric, or at >>least create a transfer that could be ironed on? I have heard of >>"underwear ribbons" for dot-matrix printers, but never been able to >>track one down. Do they exist? Any help greatly appreciated. > >I have heard that there are t-shirt transfer kits that are used in the >following way. Starting with a color hardcopy (photo, printout, etc), >go to a copy shop and get a color photocopy made. The t-shirt transfer >material is then used on the photocopy - it picks up the "ink" from the >photocopy and then you transfer it to your shirt, probably by ironing >it on or something. I've never actually seen or tried it. > >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Mike Swatko ! swatko@airbag.dec.com >Digital Equipment Corporation ! swatko@airbag.enet.dec.com >Corporate User Publications Engineering ! swatko%airbag@decwrl.dec.com >Nashua, New Hampshire ! ...!decwrl!airbag.enet!swatko >=========================================================================== I first used this process in the late 1970's - I'm sure it is better now. Basically, there is a special t-shirt transfer thing that can go through the copier feed. (Finding this, or a copy shop that has it, is the hard part.) You generally make a copy of the original onto a transparency, then flip the transparency and copy the flipped image (with a backing sheet or background if desired) onto the transfer. The transfer, when ironed onto the t-shirt, re-flips the image back to original orientation. It was fairly expensive then, because color copiers were rare beasts and both the transparency and the transfer were non-standard too. We did it to make t-shirts for my Dad as gifts. Sam Uselton uselton@nas.nasa.gov employed by CSC working for NASA (Ames) speaking for myself