We purchased the Printworks Dark T-Shirt Transfers so our writer could put it to the test. Keep reading for our full product review.

Family reunions are a great opportunity to get together and have fun. They can be even more fun with personalized gear made with every family member in mind. Everything from sweatshirts to baby onesies can be personalized using the right t-shirt transfer sheets. Most people don’t want to spend a lot of time and money on a do-it-yourself novelty shirt. Printworks Dark T-Shirt Transfers are a versatile, budget-friendly option. 

Image and Color Quality: Good color for great images

One of our favorite aspects of the Printworks Dark T-Shirt Transfers is their versatility. We used these transfer sheets on both light and dark fabrics. If you are planning a big event and want to make personalized shirts or other items on various fabrics, these are our top choice. We made t-shirts to use at a family reunion and loved that we could provide everyone with their choice t-shirt color.

When using the Printworks Dark T-Shirt Transfers with dark fabrics, it’s important to cut off any extra paper around your image before transferring it. The paper’s background is white, so even a tiny amount will be noticeable when transferred onto dark fabric.

We were hoping that the transfer paper’s white background wouldn’t be noticeable when the transfer sheets were used with white fabric. It wasn’t glaringly obvious, but up close, the white background from the transfer was still slightly different than the white of our cotton t-shirts. This cheapened the look and made it look like a DIY shirt. This may not be a big deal for your project, but we preferred image transfer sheets designed for light fabrics so that the white portion blended a little bit better into the fabric for these projects.

Ease of Use: DIY from start to finish

The colors were a little bit duller than we expected, but not enough that we didn’t like how the image turned out. We noticed the color depth issue on both light and dark fabrics. If you want a very bright image, adjust your colors on the computer before printing the transfer to account for the dulling during printing.

Printworks does not provide any design help, whether through templates or a library of images. We had to design our blue apple image from scratch using the shapes and text tools in our word processor. If you are tech-savvy, you can make some really cool designs on your own or find some online for free. This was not a big hurdle for us, but the lack of a design program may make others look for transfer sheets with access to a design program.

No matter which transfer sheets you use, we recommend printing a test sheet on regular printer paper to ensure that it looks the way you want before printing on the transfer paper.

After printing, we cut out our images and trim them very close to the image’s edge. Removing the backing was a little bit challenging. Printworks’ instructions told us to leave a pull tab that we would cut off after the backing was removed. When we did that, we had trouble trimming the pull tab to make sure that the extra white part didn’t show up on our final image. We ultimately found that it was easiest to make sure that everything was trimmed, carefully separating the transfer’s backing. Be patient; it can take a few tries, as it did for us.

The included tissue paper was a great convenience. We put it over the transfer and used our iron on the cotton setting to heat the transfer. It adhered well to the fabric using the recommended times in the instructions. We went back over the image a little longer to really make sure it set, paying particular care to the corners and edges. After a few washes, the image transfer is still holding up well.

The instruction manual stated that the tissue sheets could be reused, but we found that they curled too much during the ironing step to be used a second time. There is one tissue sheet included per transfer sheet. If you only use a portion of the transfer sheet, we recommend cutting the tissue sheet to match the transfer sheet.

Price: Best for budgets

One of the most appealing things about these transfer sheets is the price. They are half the cost of competitors for the same number of sheets. If you are making personalized items for a bunch of people, these are perfect. These transfers do not have an online design tool, but if you can manage to do the design independently, you can save a lot of money and end up with a great final product.

Competition: Specialized or general options

Avery Printable T-Shirt Transfers for Dark Fabrics: if you need extra design help, the Avery Printable T-Shirt Transfers for Dark Fabrics include access to Avery’s free Design and Print program. The program provides templates for every Avery product, so you know that your printed image will be just what you need. The colors came out a little bit brighter but were not as consistent in our final image.

Avery Printable T-Shirt Transfers for Light Fabrics: If you know that you will be using transfer sheets on light fabrics only, we like the Avery Printable T-Shirt Transfers for Light Fabrics. These sheets are less expensive than those used on dark fabrics and result in a great quality image. However, they aren’t designed to be used on dark fabrics, so make sure that you consider what kind of fabric and items you plan to use before purchasing.