Transfer Printing

Transfer printing produces the design first and applies it to the garment second. The artwork is printed onto a transfer, then bonded to the fabric under heat and pressure. Separating those two stages is what makes the method so useful: the print is finished before it ever meets the garment, so it can go onto almost anything and be applied one piece at a time.

We run transfer printing at our Leicester site alongside screen, digital, hybrid and sublimation printing. It produces a vibrant, sharp, full-colour finish and handles intricate detail cleanly, which makes it the right answer for custom orders, small runs, personalisation and promotional merchandise.

What Transfer Printing Is Good At

High-Definition Detail and Colour

Sharp, vibrant designs with accurate colour. Because the transfer is printed before application, fine detail and small type survive in a way they often do not when ink is pushed through a mesh onto moving fabric.

Almost Any Fabric

Cotton, polyester, blends and performance wear all take a transfer. That is a genuinely wider range than most methods manage, and it makes transfer the fallback when a garment will not take anything else. Technical and waterproof fabrics that cannot go through a conventional press can often be transferred.

Durability Through Washing

Applied correctly, a transfer holds its colour through repeated washing. Application is the whole game here: temperature, pressure and time have to be right for the specific fabric, which is why transfers applied properly last and transfers applied casually do not.

Small Placements, Names and Numbers

Sleeves, cuffs, hems, collars and small chest marks, where setting up a screen would be disproportionate. Personalisation is the classic case: names, numbers and squad details on team kit, staff names on uniform, individual details across an otherwise identical batch.

Mixed Batches and Variants

If an order is fifty garments across a dozen different designs, screen printing means a dozen setups. Transfers are produced together and applied as needed, which makes short, varied and mixed runs practical.

Where Transfer Printing Fits Against Other Methods

Transfer sits between digital and screen in most decisions. Screen printing is cheaper per unit at volume, gives a heavier deposit and produces specialty finishes such as puff, metallic and foil, from 25 pieces per design. Digital printing goes softest into the fabric with no minimum and unlimited colour. Sublimation is the choice for polyester and all-over designs. Hybrid handles detailed full-colour work at volume.

Transfer wins on awkward fabrics, small placements, personalisation and mixed batches, and it wins when the garment cannot go through a press but the design still has to look sharp. Tell us the garment, the fabric, the design and the quantity and we will say which method we would use.

Transfer Printing Minimums and Turnaround

Minimums for transfer printing depend on the job and are confirmed when we quote. Standard production turnaround is 5 to 10 working days from approval of artwork and payment, with artwork preparation in front of that. If you are working to an event date, a tour or a season, say so at enquiry stage.

Artwork for Transfer Printing

Send the highest resolution file you have. Vector artwork such as AI, EPS or PDF is ideal for logos and type; high-resolution raster at or near print size is fine for photographic work. If the artwork needs redrawing or preparing, our apparel graphic design team handles that on the same site.

Who Uses Transfer Printing

Clubs and teams needing names and numbers on kit. Businesses personalising uniform and workwear. Promotional suppliers running mixed batches to a deadline. Brands adding small placements to garments already printed by another method. Bands and promoters with variant runs, through our band and tour merch printing. And anyone with a fabric that has defeated every other method.