Here I want to give a quick overview of what these two printing methods are.
Heat Transfer Printing
Heat transfer printing is a two-step method.In the first step, the design is printed on clear transfer paper, then in the second step, you use a heat press to transfer the design printed on the transfer paper to adhesive paper.
Finally, you peel off the adhesive paper from the transfer paper and then use the heat press to press the design onto a substrate, such as a garment. After pressing the garment, you then peel off the actual paper and you have a design that is transferred onto the garment.
Heat Sublimation
Heat sublimation printing involves a similar process where you print a design on regular copy paper or special heat sublimation paper and then use heat through a heat press to transfer the printed design to a substrate, such as a garment.The key point is how heat sublimation works and the science behind it. In the heat sublimation process, when the actual printed design is heated through the heat press, the toner itself on the transfer paper actually changes from a solid state to a gaseous state and then it embeds itself into the fabric and when it cools it actually goes back to the mounted state and then becomes a permanent part of the fabric, which means that unlike heat transfer, heat sublimation actually does not add an extra layer of paper on top of the fabric and you don't feel the difference between the printed image and the rest of the fabric.