How To Use Avery Transfer Paper

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Avery Transfer Paper is the easiest way to start making printed heat transfers!

Using transfer paper gives you a lot more design freedom compared with other heat transfer methods. Screen printing and HTV are good methods in certain circumstances, but using a product like Avery transfer paper allows you to do full color, detailed, photo quality shirt designs!

Avery InkJet Transfer Paper

avery fabric transfer

The great thing about transfer paper? Whatever you can print, you can then press on a shirt!

You are not limited to a few colors or certain types of design – you can do anything. Of course, there is Printable HTV, like Siser EasySubli, but that's a more advanced product beyond most home crafters.

There are different types of transfer paper for different inks. For example, sublimation paper is for sublimation ink, another paper for plastisol inks, and so on. Avery Transfer Paper is for use with inkjet printers.

What's so good about Avery Paper?

Can be applied with an iron
Print with home inkjet printer
Don't need a cutting machine
For cotton or poly/cotton fabrics

Free online design software
Easy to use
Creates lasting transfers
Will not crack

These transfer designs do fade over time through use, washing, and drying, but in our experience the transfer has outlived the t shirt.

Avery Transfer Paper Printer

avery dark fabric transfer instructions

Any inkjet printer should be perfectly fine for printing on Avery Transfer Paper for heat transfers.

We use the Epson WF-2630, but any brand will work, be it Brother, HP, Canon, or an alternative Epson model. If you want some further recommendations, please see these recommended heat transfer printers.

Our main recommendation before printing on Avery paper is to do a print head clean (especially if your printer isn't used often). This will help prevent any lines or blemishes from occurring, and give you a clearer print.

The other big Avery Transfer Paper tip we have is to set your printer to print on a high quality setting. The default is usually a standard or regular print standard. The high quality setting takes longer to print and uses more ink, but it's well worth it for a permanent t shirt design you'll be wearing out-and-about.

Remember, Avery transfers will not work with a laser printer, it needs to be an inkjet printer.

There are two types of Avery transfer paper for t-shirts:

transfer paper for light fabrics
transfer paper for dark fabrics

Avery Light Fabric Transfer Paper

heat press temperature for transfer paper

Avery Light Fabric Transfer Paper is used for light colored t-shirts and garments. It is a high quality transfer paper that applies accurate, vivid images onto your surface of choice.

This paper is designed for use on light 100% cotton or cotton/poly blends. It can be applied with an ordinary household iron, heat press, or Cricut Easy Press.

How To Use Avery Light Fabric Transfer Paper:

Create a design in Cricut Design Space or using Avery's free online software
Reverse the image so that it will print in reverse
Print out the reversed image onto the transfer paper with an inkjet printer
Cut out the image leaving a narrow margin around it
Place the transfer onto the garment with the image facing down
Iron directly over the backing paper – up and down, left and right
Allow to cool for 2 minutes and remove the backing paper

We have a tutorial below on how to make a shirt transfer with this product.

Avery Dark Fabric Transfer Paper

avery transfer paper heat press

Avery Dark Fabric Transfer Paper is the same type of product as above, but for dark colors.

The transfer paper for dark t-shirts actually lays down a light/white background underneath the image you have printed. This prevents the dark color of the fabric washing out the design. The big difference when printing on dark shirt transfer paper is that you do not need to reverse the image!

How To Use Avery Dark Fabric Transfer Paper:

Prepare your garment by washing and drying it
Create a design in Design Space or using Avery's free templates
Print out the image the normal way around with an inkjet printer (no need to reverse)
Cut out the image
Place transfer onto the garment with the image facing up
Place tissue paper (comes in the pack) over transfer
Iron transfer – up and down, left and right
Allow to cool for 2-3 minutes and slowly peel away the tissue paper

If you want to see full step-by-step instructions on how to make a shirt using Avery Dark Transfer Paper, please see this t shirt clipart project!

Avery Fabric Transfer Paper Tutorial

avery design and print

A lot of people want to know if they need to use a specific software when using a product like Avery Transfer Paper. Avery have a set of free templates on their website that you can use to create your design and perfect your image.

Visit Avery's Template page to set up an account and begin designing. It is very easy to use and you'll have the hang of it in no time. Their online software also allows you to mirror or reverse your image before printing, which you will need to do if you are using the transfer paper for light fabrics.

If you have a Cricut machine, you can also use Cricut Design Space to customize, print, and cut out your design. We'll show how to do that now.

Upload your clipart of choice in PNG format to Design Space. This LOVE design can be found here. Mark it as a complex image, and then use the eraser tool to delete the outline of the graphic. Once that's done, save it as a print and cut.

Bring the image into a new project and then work out how big you want the finished print to be. Once done, click 'Make It'!

can you use avery transfer paper with a heat press

You will see the mat preview on the next screen.

Because we're using Avery Light Fabric Transfer Paper, we need to mirror the mat. The printed transfer will be applied face-down and appear right way up. If it doesn't matter which way your image is applied this isn't super important, but if you have text in the design it sure is!

avery iron on instructions

Next, send the design to the printer, and make sure the bleed is OFF – unless you have a contour cutting machine.

You don't need a cutting machine to complete this project, it's totally fine to cut out the finished transfer with scissors, but you can use one if you like! Check out this Cricut Print and Cut project for more info on how to use your machine to do the cutting!

avery tshirt transfers instructions

Now we can cut the image out. It does not need to be a perfect cut because it's a white background being applied to a white shirt. No one will see where the transfer ends and the shirt begins!

avery light fabric iron-on heat transfers