A good printer for heat transfer is a must if printing on t-shirts is your business or your hobby. Only a quality product can produce a high-quality design on the fabric. We researched and analyzed the top 30 products and consulted three experts to get to the list of best printers for heat transfer. Epson Expression XP-15000is our editor’s choice, Epson Artisan 1430 is our runner up, and is our budget pick. To get a detailed review, scroll down.
Our Top Choice
Best Printers For Heat Transfer
1. Epson Expression XP-15000 – Best For T-Shirt Business
If printing using the heat transfer method is all you require for your business, then look no further, this one is the best one for you. This one is a dedicated heat transfer printer for large borderless images. It is the best-recommended machine for businesses as it has high precision, great performance, and is sure to last for years.
Last but not least, it has wireless connectivity and wired connectivity through ethernet. You can connect it to your iPhone, iPad, tablet, and other smartphones.
- Produce ultra high-quality color prints
- Borderless printing
- Good printing speed
- Can print on both sides
- Wired and wireless connectivity both
- Wide-format
- We didn’t find any
Bottom Line
If you own a business that involves a lot of heat transfer work, then go for this one. We recommend it for its versatile functioning and ultra high quality prints.
2. Epson Artisan 1430 – Best For Wireless Connectivity
Epson printers are known for their color quality, and Artisan 1430 is the best one when it comes to professional performance. It is our runner-up pick as it offers high-definition vibrant color printing in comprehensive formats. Further, you can connect it wirelessly to almost all smart devices, and connecting to your network is a breeze setup. For heat transfer, it has everything from a short learning curve, to fast printing, and long life.
As per our testing, the device can take your business to the next level without breaking the band. Customers and other printing companies review it as one of the most heat transfer printers. Last but not least, like other top printers for heat transfer in the market, this one also has wireless and wired connectivity. You can use your smart devices to get wire-free prints from anywhere.
- Highest resolution for images
- Wide-format
- Easy installation
- Auto-correct feature
- Prints are smudge-proof, water-resistant, and fade-proof
- You might take time to get the hang of the different settings
Bottom Line
The Epson Artisan 1430 is an easy-to-use, high-definition performance printer with all sorts of features while still being moderately priced. It matches the professional printers in terms of quality, versatility, and printing capabilities.
3. Brother HL-L2320D – Best For Slogans
If you are looking for the best laser printer for heat transfer, then this can be the one. It is different from other options as it caters only to the need for black and white printing. The print quality is high in spite of the fact that they are monochromatic. You can easily make out what is on the image due to its high precision and clarity. We recommend it for businesses that have to suffice high volume and still maintain decent quality needs.
Last but not least, what we found more pleasing is that the toner ink lasts you pretty long, and it won’t dry up even if you use this occasionally. So, a good buy if you are fed up with refilling or replacing colored ink, which drys up pretty quickly.
- Economical in range
- Can carry high volume prints
- Decent print quality
- Easy to install
- Compact
- Lacks advanced connectivity features
Bottom Line
A good investment for startups and small businesses that have to handle a volume of work without compromising the quality. The only glitch is its connectivity but for the price, getting a laser printer like this is absolutely worth it.
4. Epson WF7710 – Best For Scanning Design
If you are planning to start heat transfer printing as a business, this can be one of the best heat transfer printers for you. It is because the setup and operation is extremely easy to handle and understand for a beginner. Not only this, it can be an integral part of printing and scanning work at your business place. This is yet another quality printer for heat transfer from Epson. This model is a good buy for the price without compromising its performance and functionality.
In addition to this, you can also do double-side printing, scanning, and faxing with this device. There is a small touch screen that works smoothly to handle all the different needs.
- Lightweight and compact
- It gives great quality prints
- Scans documents, photos, and artworks
- Flexible connectivity
- Give durable prints
- Sometimes have trouble shoot problems
Bottom Line
This one is a lightweight, easy to use, and low maintenance cost printer on the market. Many customers also recommend it as a large format heat transfer printer.
5. Epson Stylus C88 – Best For Budget Conscious User
This is the printer for home users and hobbyists, in our opinion. It works decently and has all the standard features that a printer should have despite the budget-friendly pricing. This printer can easily handle regular printing jobs and heat transfer paper printing. Be rest assured that it gives quality prints of good resolution up to 5760×1440 dpi.
Moving on to its connectivity, you can connect it via the built-in USB and parallel ports. In addition, you can also switch between ports automatically. Lastly, its compatible with both the widely used platforms Macintosh and Windows-based systems.
- Budget-friendly
- Standard quality
- Borderless printing
- Comes with quality pigment-based inks
- Easy to replace cartridges
- Limited connectivity options
Bottom Line
The Epson stylus is a budget-friendly printer that comes with four quality inks to give a superior quality print every time. Although it lacks modern-day smart connectivity options it really does not miss out on anything important in respect to quality and performance.
Things To Consider
You cannot go and simply pick any printer from the market. There are a lot of variants available and all of them won’t offer quality and performance. You should know the prime considerations that the product must have to get the worthy one. If all these seem tough to you, we have a solution. We have jotted down a detailed buying guide to help you purchase a printer that matches your need, requirement, and budget. So, let’s start with it.
1. Types Of Printers
Below are the three types of printers in the market meant for heat transfer work. They are described below in detail.
a) Laser Printers
With them, you can get the heat transfer job done pretty easily. They are the first choice for large-scale businesses but are higher on price so are not considered by most of small to medium scale businesses. You will find them in commercial printing presses only. Most small businesses opt for monochromatic laser printers for heat transfer and other printing work. It is because they can handle a high volume, works fast, and are quite durable. The best one in this category is Brother HL-L2320D.
b) Inkjet Printers
Inkjet printers are the best for heat transfer work. They are a good choice for hobbyists or small to medium scale businesses. They generally have dye-based inks and pigment-based inks. We prefer pigments-based inks as the prints produced by them are fade-resistant, scratch-resistant, and water-resistant. Furthermore, they also work the best to get prints on fabrics, mugs, bottles, and other artifacts via the heat transfer process. The best one in this category are Epson Expression XP-15000, Epson Artisan 1430, and Epson WF7710.
c) Dye Sublimation Printers
These are the rarest printers in the market. People generally don’t prefer it as they have the ability to print directly on a fabric only without using an intermediary heat transfer paper. Furthermore, they support only one kind of fabric, which is a downside.
2. Print Quality
This is very crucial. Whether you are planning to produce images on mugs, t-shirts, pillows, CDs, or anything else for your crafting projects or business, the quality should be the best. And you get the ultra-high HD quality only inkjet printers. We recommend only the best inkjet printers for heat transfer. The best in this category are: Epson Expression XP-15000, Epson Artisan 1430, and Epson WF7710.
3. Ink Quality/Type
Considering the heat transfer ink is also crucial, and people often get confused. Prefer considering the dedicated inks that cater to printing on a special types of papers like cardstock, plastic, fabric, sheet rolls, etc. Also, consider only the genuine ink from the designated brand(from the printer brand ) only as the quality of third-party alternatives is not very significant. In the market, you get three types of inks Dye-based inks, Pigment-based inks, and Sublimation inks.
Now, you must be thinking about which is the best ink for heat transfer printers. The sublimation ink is for only a sublimation printer known for its bright colors. You cannot use these links for the inkjet printers without buying the new cartridges. Inkjet printers come with cartridges. You need to flush the already present ink before pumping up the new ink, which is again a lot of work. So, we suggest you maintain two cartridges, one with sublimation in and the other with pigment ink. You can use the sublimation for regular heat transfers as they are cost-effective, and you can use the dye or pigment-based inks when you wish to get an ultra-high-quality image printer via heat transfer.
4. Printing Mediums
Most heat transfer printers transfer the prints on the paper before transferring the design to the final substrate. The exact process work for both sublimation and heat transfer printers. Nevertheless, it is worth to be noted whether the printer is compatible with other mediums or not, like cardstock, sheet roll, special paper, printable vinyl, etc.
5. Size Of The Paper/Medium
This is a personal preference. If you require large images, you will defiantly need a printer that can handle wide formats and vice-versa. We recommend you to go only for the wide-format printers as you never know when you have to do large format printing, even if you require only standard size printing. But, if you are very sure that you only standard size prints, then go for the standard size printers as there is no point in wasting money on the wide-format printers.
Final Talk
Getting the top printers for heat transfer can be cumbersome if you don’t know what you want. But luckily, whether you want a basic model for printing gifts or your hobby work, or an advanced model for your business, you will find one in our product review list. We paid close attention to the different needs of different customers and then came to a list of the top products from the market that fit in with all the common and special needs. Be rest assured that whichever product you pick from our list would be great in all three major aspects- quality, performance, and durability.
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