Hey friends, Dave here with Transfer Express and today we are talking direct to film
versus screen printed transfers! We'll be covering the differences and similarities between each one
of these heat transfer types, we'll apply each and then compare. we'll chat about which one is right
for your project and then we're even going to jump into some pricing comparisons with a couple
different scenarios so you can be confident you're making the right choice for your next project. so,
are you ready to press it like it's hot? i am, so let's get right into it if you are
new to transfer express we are the world's largest supplier of custom screen printed and digital heat
transfers heat presses free customizable designs wholesale apparel and expert advice to help grow
your t-shirt business if you haven't already subscribe we're kicking out new videos like
this one every single week now for our screen print versus dtf showdown today we're going to
be comparing the goof proof screen print transfers with our brand new ultra color max direct to film
heat transfers from transfer express now while our ultra color max transfers are brand new and super
cool our goof proof plastisol ink transfers have been our most popular custom heat transfer for
over 30 years offering that same look feel wash and wear durability as a traditional screen print
without all of that mess with emulsions inks the chemical cleanup and that steep learning curve
right off the bat let's cover some similarities between both of these transfer types now both
of these offer free floating text with no clear outlines and they can print on cotton polyester
cotton poly blends and tri blends in pretty much any color light or dark they're going to print on
that and stay nice and opaque we'll show you an example of white on navy here today now to top it
all off both of these transfers feature a quick and painless buttery smooth hot peel from the
carrier sheet making application a breeze and we are going to show you that here just coming up but
where the similarities end these differences start and first up arc charges all of our transfers here
at transfer express can be ordered with your own uploaded raster or vector artwork or you could
design them from scratch using our online designer here at transferexpress.com now regardless of
where your artwork is coming from if your file is not print ready or you need any artwork fixes or
help our ultra color max dtf transfers do have a 22 proofing charge our designers will get your art
into tip top shape to ensure it prints great and we're going to send you a digital proof to approve
before we actually print your order now with any of our screen printed or hybrid transfers
any art services are completely free of charge and included in the price of those transfers now next
up let's chat color dtf transfers are produced using cmyk or cyan magenta yellow and key also
known as black now this is fine for most art but when you need to match color exactly you're
going to have some variants now screen printed transfers on the other hand are produced with
spot color inks or essentially a custom ink matched to the color of each color printing
in your design so this could be custom matched pantone colors for small additional charge or
you could select from over 70 plus standard ink colors that we have here at transfer express
now speaking of color the ultra color max dtf transfers can print unlimited colors and it
will not increase the price that's the benefit of cmyk printing now with screen printed transfers
for every additional color in your design your price will increase gradients and photo realistic
images are easily produced with ultra color max in cmyk where those elements are not easily
replicated with screen printing and spot colors so you're limited to more or less solid colors
with those goof proof screen printed transfers now with fine detail both transfer types are
able to achieve fine lines and small details with screen printing slightly edging out the dtf with a
minimum line weight of just .012 inches versus the .018 inches in our dtf transfers as for feel these
dtf transfers are lightweight and durable with a soft almost satin like finish screen printing on
the other hand feels like a soft hand screen print it might even be softer than many of the graphic
tees that you have in your closet it's durable and light with great stretch elasticity and
rebound in terms of stretch these ultra color max dtf transfers really rival the plastisol transfers
with just some incredible stretch ability before the print starts cracking now our ultra color
max transfers are definitely lighter on the fabric than many other digital transfers out
on the market today just slightly heavier than our goof-proof screen print transfer my favorite
benefit of the goof-proof screen printed transfers is the 4-6 second press time it makes printing
super efficient and quick allowing you to knock out those large runs of shirts in just about an
hour or so the ultra color max transfers feature a 12 to 15 second press so while it's not 30 seconds
and still relatively quick it's still three times longer than that screen print transfer now both
transfers are a single step process with no need to cover and re-press the print after you've got
it on the t-shirt now speaking of speed we have to chat turn time now the ultra color
max dtf transfers are a one business day turn time where the goof proof varies from one to three days
depending on the type of artwork that you submit and the number of colors in the design for example
a one color screen print designed online and our designer ships the next business day if ordered
before our production cutoff a two color design with your uploaded art would just be three days
all of that information is linked right here or at transferexpress.com our ultra color max direct to
film transfers are available at just six cents per square inch as a single image or gang sheet
from a quarter inch all the way up to 22 by 22 inches with no minimum quantity just a 25
order minimum on the other hand our screen printed transfers are available exclusively by the sheet
in two sizes an 11 and a quarter inch by 14 inch standard size sheet or 40 larger as a 12 and a
half by 17 and a half jumbo sheet our screen printed transfers do have a minimum of just
six sheets but have quantity pricing breaks with each increasing step in quantity so 6 12
18 24 36 you get the idea now where screen printed transfers really shine is the profitability and
low print cost at higher quantities if you're just printing off a few designs the ultra color max dtf
transfers are the way to go but you'll see in our pricing comparison here coming up in just
a minute that the tables turn pretty quickly once we start hitting those quantity breaks
now on the other hand if you have three or more colors in your design the ultra color max is going
to be the better option up to 18 or 24 quantity of course depending on the size of your image itself
before you are gonna see lower pricing by switching over to any of the other ultra color
transfer products but before we dive into numbers let's press a goof proof and an ultra color max
and compare now that we're back here at the heat press we're going to press our ultra
color max dtf transfer first we'll just go ahead and lay it down on our garment
now i'm going to do some weird placements here just because we're going to be printing these
side by side for a nice even comparison so i'm just going to place this one right here
and we'll go ahead we've already pre-pressed our garment so we'll press this for that 15 seconds
ultra color max is a hot peel so we'll peel the carrier away immediately when the press opens
nice and smooth
next up we're going to adjust our temperature right here we're going to bump this up to 365
degrees for four to six seconds for our goof proof transfer now that we have our ultra color
max transfer right here applied i'm just going to go ahead and move this off the heat press
and we'll make sure we don't have any wrinkles right there and we'll give this a pre-press
as well once we're all set we'll go ahead and grab our goof proof screen printed transfer
now this one is plastisol inks we'll go ahead and lay this one down right here
so here we have our ultra color max transfer and our goof proof they both feel very very smooth and
soft to the touch and as you can see they move with the garment as we move our print around
now let's see the stretch and how well these bolts stretch here a nice tug and it rebounds
nice and naturally onto our garment and we'll try the same thing with our goof proof
a little bit less stretch but you can see that it rebounds very very nicely
i don't know if you can see it too much in the camera but this is just slightly
less opaque than the goof proof nice bright and white
where this has just a very subtle blue tint to it printing on this dark
heavily dyed navy fabric but that you're not going to get any more dye migration or anything
on this and if it wasn't right next to the goof proof it would look nice bright and white as well
layering them over side by side
while very very light still the goof proof feels much more like real plastisol inks as a screen
print but the ultra color max is kind of a barely there nice soft hand feel as well so before we get
out of here let's just run some quick pricing comparisons so for apples to apples gang sheet
pricing we'll use the standard size of our goof proof transfers at 11 and a quarter inch
by 14 inches at six quantity with our easy prints pricing that's layouts and clipart from us here at
transfer express it's only 9.64 for each sheet and one color so for comparison at 12 quantity we'd
be even lower at just five dollars and 21 cents per sheet so you could see it's just over half of
what that 9.48 is with the ultra color max now if you're uploading your own art at 12 quantity our
goof proof is just 5.89 per sheet for one color and raster artwork is just eight dollars and seven
cents so still less expensive than the sheet size at that ultra color max now if you're not doing
full gang sheets or those larger images let's break it down to say like a five by five print
something more like what we printed here today for ultra color max and the square inch pricing we're
at one dollar and fifty cents for the five by five inch regardless of quantity to get over the 25
minimum we're looking at having a minimum order of 17 pieces now of course i just say 17 pieces
in a minimum order to break that 25 minimum you could order less you could order one if you want
but you're going to pay 25 for that one piece so why not just order more for the same price
at five by five inches we could fit four images on one gang sheet for our screen printed transfers so
with a six minimum for those sheets will be locked in for at least 24 individual images six sheets
would be nine dollars and sixty four cents per sheet divided by four is two dollars and forty one
cents each image however once we bump that to 12 sheet quantity our price drops down to just five
dollars and 21 cents per sheet and then divided by four we're looking at a buck 30 each so now
we're cheaper you can run all of these pricing scenarios right in the free easy view online
designer at transferexpress.com all you have to do is go to the bottom left switch your print method
from spot color over to full color and click that ultra color max you'll also see your turn
time adjust as well with your pricing over on the right hand side that's pretty cool just to recap
where the ultra color max dtf transfers are going to shine are really in those lower quantity orders
or with artwork with a lot of colors in it those gradients or the photo realistic prints now where
the screen printed transfers are going to be your go-to for that highly profitable limited color
designs that you want to mimic the look feel and durability of traditional screen printing
of course if you have any questions or preferences of your own just let us know down in the comments
section below we love both of these transfers for where they shine on their own and we just want to
be sure that you're going to be making the right choice for your project be sure you're subscribed
here to our transfer express youtube page stay up to date on all of the t-shirt business tips
that we're dropping every single week but until next time i'm dave happy pressing