As the name suggests, this kind of printing requires a laser printer, and special transfer media which is made for laser transfer printing.
It’s a similar process to inkjet transfer printing, except you’ll be using a laser printer, not an inkjet printer.
CMYK laser heat transfer printing refers to the more traditional process of using a standard laser printer with Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black toners. As opposed to white toner laser transfer printing where specially modified laser printers are used, specifically for Tshirt printing.
This kind of transfer printing can be very simply explained as being the same as inkjet laser transfer printing, but via a laser printer.
So, as with inkjet heat transfer printing, there is transfer paper or light coloured garments, which has an opaque base, so you don’t need to contour cut and weed out the background.
You can do, if you wish – and weeding out any un-printed transfer media is a good way to improve the handle or feel of the transfer, but it’s not a necessity with laser transfer paper specifically for light colored garments.
There is also laser transfer paper for dark garments, which has a white base, so for this you’ll need a contour cutter, to be able to cut and then weed out the background.
Other types of transfer paper for CMYK laser printers.
As well as standard CMYK laser heat transfer paper, for light and dark garments there are other transfer papers which can allow you to achieve some really great looking Tshirts, and other transfer papers for various other substrates.
There are transfer papers known as self weeding flex, which allow you to print text and single colored designs by just printing onto the media on black via the laser printer, a great way to print single colour onto garments.
There are also laser transfer papers you can use for printing onto hard substrates, such as wood, glass, and candles, ceramics and card.
What kind of Tshirt printing businesses use CMYK laser heat transfer printing?
CMYK laser transfer printing can be a useful process for most Tshirt printing businesses, but particularly popular for personalization printing.
The relatively high cost of laser transfer paper does mean that it’s not the most popular method for bulk Tshirt printing, trade Tshirt printing or own brand printing, especially when it comes to large sized prints.
But, as there are a wide range of different kinds of laser transfer papers available for a wide range of different items including, but not limited to garments, it makes sense for most types of printing businesses to have the ability to print this way, given that all they would need in order to do so, is a relatively inexpensive CMYK laser printer.