A heat-transfer print (烫画) is a motif printed on a release film, then pressed onto the garment. It is the workhorse for photo-quality logos, names and short-run decoration when you do not want a screen on every colourway. It is not DTG, and it is not a woven label.
Prints are accessory knowledge for a growing platform. TrimGem University teaches CMYK transfers next to silicone badges and woven tickets because buyers mix them on one seasonal BOM. The Guangzhou one-stop catalogue will keep adding film types; peel and adhesive still decide wash life.
Flat versus raised
Flat, low-temperature transfers include:
- Offset / “Korean” CMYK transfers — four-colour process, photo depth, typically pressed in the 120–150 °C band for about 10–12 seconds in mill recipes. Wash- and stretch-resistant when the adhesive matches the cloth.
- Foil (metallic), glitter, pearl, matt or gloss fashion films.
- Foil stamping cousins at slightly higher heat for logos.
- Care-label transfers (TPU or print) as no-sew wash marks.
Raised transfers: puff, flock (velvet hand), bead, reflective, glitter. Flock is a cold-peel classic on knits and kidswear. Puff is a hot-peel kids and street story.
Dye-sublimation is a different physics: dye gas into polyester, high heat, no adhesive skin, no hand — and only on pale polyester. Do not spec sublimation on cotton and then complain about a ghost.
Peel: hot, cold, or pre-peel
Hot-peel — strip the PET as soon as the press opens (many CMYK, puff, some glitter). Cold-peel — cool first (flock, many foils, reflective). Pre-peel — place the motif then press (some bead transfers). The same CMYK job can be built either way; follow the printer’s sheet, not a memory of last season.
Glue-film versus inkjet film
Screen/offset glue transfers want volume (plate and make-ready cost). They hold fine photo work. Large areas feel like a patch and can be muggy. Inkjet transfer paper is for samples and onesies; weak on dark garments unless a white underbase system is in play.
Elastane cloth is the usual failure: the print cracks when the body moves if the adhesive is a rigid glue. Sample on the bulk fabric, stretched.
Press pressure, time and temperature are process parameters. A 4–5 kg talk in old mill sheets is a starting hint, not a lab method.
Bleed, trapping and colour management (CIELab, grey balance) belong to the print shop. The garment factory’s job is not to “make it pop” with extra heat. Extra heat glosses a matt film, marks a sensitive dye, or melts a flock.
Where the motif sits on a high-stretch panel, ask for a stretch-grade adhesive in the same sentence as the face (CMYK, flock, foil). A photo-quality offset on a rigid glue is a window display, not a legging.
TrimGem samples transfers as film + adhesive + fabric + peel. Artwork in RGB is not a print spec.