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Guide · UPrint Design RIP · DTF

How to print DTF transfers, step by step

A DTF transfer is printed on film, with white ink behind the colour. Powder goes on the wet print, heat cures it, and a heat press puts the design on the garment.

Here is each step, and what the RIP does in it.

The steps at a glance

  1. 1Get the artwork readyIn the RIP
  2. 2Set the whiteIn the RIP
  3. 3Mirror itIn the RIP
  4. 4Lay out the sheet or rollIn the RIP
  5. 5Print on filmThe printer, through PrintExp
  6. 6Powder the wet printAfter the printer
  7. 7Cure the powderAfter the printer
  8. 8Press it onto the garmentHeat press
  9. 9Peel the filmAfter the press

First time on this printer? Set it up once, from one small print: Set up your DTF printer and copy your colour.

The RIP steps

1Get the artwork ready

White prints wherever any other ink prints. So a box of background colour around a logo prints as a box, white and all.

Take the background off first, and keep a see-through background (PNG).

Both editions take a background off. Design RIP also traces a logo to clean vector, and its pen tool fixes it.

A logo on a blue square, and the same logo with the background taken off
The background taken off, before and after. UPrint Design RIP 1.3.55

2Set the white

Press Print and pick DTF roll in Print to. Then, under White:

  • Amount: how much white goes down.
  • Where: Everywhere or Under colour.
  • Edge: the white stops this many pixels inside the colour, so no white shows at the edge.
White: Amount 60%, Where Everywhere or Under colour, Edge 0 px
UPrint Design RIP 1.3.57

3Mirror it

The film goes face down on the garment, so the print on the film is mirrored.

Leave Mirror on. The app says it: Reads right on the shirt.

Job: Mirror on, Reads right on the shirt
UPrint Design RIP 1.3.57

4Lay out the sheet or roll

Under Sheet, pick Page or Roll. Put as many designs on the film as fit.

On a roll, Fill the roll repeats a logo down the whole roll: Build a DTF gang sheet.

Sheet: Page or Roll, Length, Fill the roll
UPrint Design RIP 1.3.57

5Print on film

Press Print.

On the Windows PC that runs PrintExp, UPrint sends the job to PrintExp and checks that PrintExp got all of it.

Sends to PrintExp on this PC

On a Mac, UPrint saves the job and PrintExp prints it on the PC: DTF on a Mac.

Printer: XP600, DTF roll, Sends to PrintExp on this PC
UPrint Design RIP 1.3.57

After the printer: powder, cure, press, peel

  1. Powder: cover the wet print with hot melt powder, and shake off what does not stick.
  2. Cure: heat the powder until it melts onto the ink.
  3. Press: lay the film face down on the garment and press it with a heat press.
  4. Peel: take the film off, hot or cold, as your film says.

Use the temperature, the time and the peel that your film and powder maker gives. They change from one film and powder to the next, so we do not give one number for all.

The RIP has no part in these steps. Its job ends when the print on the film is right.

Which DTF printers

UPrint drives roll DTF printers on a Hoson board, run by PrintExp: the DTF printer list. Moving from another RIP? Bring your Maintop settings.

Try it on your own printer

7 day free trial, no card. Every tool, on your own computer. Download Design RIP and pick DTF printer when it starts. Install it on the Windows PC that runs PrintExp, or on a Mac that saves the jobs for that PC.

Download the free trial

On day 8 the app locks until you buy. Pay with the same email and it unlocks by itself. One free trial per computer and per email.

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