Your Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) Questions, Answered

You’ve just started your printing business, or you’ve added heat transfer vinyl designs to your offering—here are our answers to the top 5 questions people ask about HTV.

1. What’s the difference between HTV and adhesive vinyl?

Heat transfer vinyl

HTV or ‘iron-on’ requires heat to activate the adhesive backing, which then bonds to the surface when pressure is applied. It’s ideal for customising porous surfaces such as clothing, hats, bags, cardboard and more.

As well as a cutter you'll need a heat press, weeding tools and press pillows to get started. Our heat transfer vinyl is compatible with all vinyl cutters including Cricut.

Adhesive vinyl

Regular adhesive vinyl relies on an adhesive layer. It’s essentially a sticker that works best on smooth hard surfaces that can’t have heat applied to them—like mugs, walls and windows.

2. What material does HTV work best on?

Heat transfer vinyl is versatile and adheres well to many organic and synthetic fabrics including cotton, polyester, poly/cotton blends, acrylic, spandex, swimwear, nylon, canvas and denim.

It's also compatible with porous surfaces such as cork, cardboard, leather and more.

3. What HTV do professionals use?

In our experience, the best heat transfer vinyl out there is B-FLEX Italian-made HTV. Their HTV materials are known for their durability, vibrant colour options, ease of use during application and compatibility with different fabrics.

Their most popular product is the GIMME5 series, which can be transferred onto a garment in just 4 seconds—that’s an efficient workflow for scaling businesses.

4. What is the lifespan of HTV?

The longevity of your HTV designs largely depends on the quality of the HTV film, fabric type, application techniques and whether or not the customer follows recommended washing instructions.

However, when applied correctly and cared for appropriately, HTV designs can last for several years without fading or peeling.

If you invest in premium HTV, like B-FLEX, your designs can withstand over 100 hot washes.

5. What are the cons of HTV?

While HTV offers numerous benefits for businesses looking to create custom designs on fabrics, there are some potential drawbacks:

Weeding can take time

Intricate and complex designs may be more challenging to cut and weed with precision using HTV compared to other methods like direct-to-garment printing.

Breathability

Larger graphics can limit the breathability of fabrics, which isn’t ideal for clothing.

Slightly higher cost with larger runs

High-quality HTV materials may come at a slightly higher price point for large runs. However, for runs up to 100 shirts, we find HTV a cost-effective option.