A heat press is the most important piece of equipment to decorate apparel. If you don’t already own a heat press, you’ll need to purchase one to heat apply designs that you’ve created with your vinyl printer cutter. Refer to our Heat Press Guide: How to Choose a Heat Press for help getting started with a heat press.

Heat Press Comparison Chart

A vinyl printer cutter can take your apparel decoration business to the next level. With this equipment you can print full colour graphics in-house and expand your production potential. Create vibrant, full colour heat transfers on demand and set yourself apart from the competition.

Vinyl Printer Cutter Benefits:

• Expand decoration ability: Produce full colour items from apparel to signs, decals, and more.
• Increase sales: Offer on-demand printing, small quantity orders, and add-on items.
• Save time: Eliminate weeding and multiple application steps for detailed designs with two or more colours.
• Dual functionality: Vinyl printer cutters can also double as a regular vinyl cutter for increased production on time-sensitive orders.

Getting Started with a Vinyl Printer Cutter System Checklist

A vinyl printer cutter system allows you to cut any heat transfer vinyl, as well as print and cut full colour designs. Once artwork is printed onto printable HTV material, the machine cuts around the design and can be masked for heat transfer application. The Roland® DG TrueVIS™ SG3 and TrueVIS™ VG3 series are the latest generation of vinyl printer cutter equipment and are extremely user-friendly.

You may already be experienced with Corel® or Adobe® software; if not, consider one of the following options for ready-to-use artwork:

CadworxLIVE™

CadworxLIVE™ features an online design studio and Easy Teams® creator for generating cut-able artwork, fast and easy. There are hundreds of predesigned layouts that feature editable text and clip art.

Great Dane Graphics

Full colour raster images that can be customized and used with a vinyl printer cutter system are available from Great Dane Graphics. Monthly and annual subscriptions available.

The material choice is typically based on the type of fabric of the garment/piece being decorated. 

Be aware of polyester fabrics; they tend to bleed through. When decorating polyester fabrics, select SuperTEK™ Sublistop™ to inhibit dye migration. 

For help with selecting the best material for your project, review this chart of popular material and fabric combinations.



Popular CAD-CUT® Heat Transfer Materials & Fabric Combinations