Toner Times: A free email newsletter with the latest helpfull tips and tricks for success

Prices and purchasing
T-Shirt BIZ Deals

Information about the heat transfer business: business tips, how to info, paper prices, testimonials and more

Whats New at Alpha



The Heat Transfer Business: Specific and General Methods
Heat Transfer Paper Types: Hot Peel, Cold Peel, and Opaque for colored T-shirts and Alpha Gold Hi-Gloss
TransMagic Heat Transfer Inks
Epson Bulk Systems
Canon Bulk Systems
The type of ink that you use is more important than the printer



Graphtec plotter cutters
Essential tools for your Vinyl business
ThermoFlex T-Shirt Vinyl Media
CADtex T-Shirt Vinyl Media
Pre-cut Flock Transfers
Plastisol Transfers



Top Ten Heat Presses
Heat Press Basics
HIX Heat Press for the Heat Transfer Business
Stahls Hotronix and Mighty Press Heat Press Machines
Geo Knight Heat Press for The T-shirt Business
Heat press accessories



Starting A T-shirt Business: Planning, Selling, Producing and Profiting
Hanes SublimationMaker and Hanes T-ShirtMaker: Easy to learn and use template programs, for T-shirts and other items
Heat Transfer Tips and Tricks
Testimonials About The Quality of Our Heat Transfer Paper
Contact Alpha Supply Company: Phone, Fax and E-mail
Help and Support

Alpha Supply Web Map: Index page of links leading to all 12 of our teaching web sites

Click here for package deals Click here for a printable version
Starting A T-shirt Business: Planning, Selling, Producing and Profiting
Click here for prices and purchasing


Tee Square It! Logo It!
Hanes® T- ShirtMaker® Deluxe i-DesignR
PhotoClean Photo Restoration PhotoZoom Pro Photo Enlarging

Tee Square It! ™

Beginners and even the experienced can benefit from using Tee Square It™. This simple to use tool takes all the guesswork out of lining up your transfer and shirt correctly.

The below simple tutorial shows how you first use Tee Square It!™ to get your shirt centered correctly and then again, to get your transfer “spot on”. (the actual instructions will be more detailed)

Assemble Tee Square It!™ using the supplied screws.
Use Tee Square It!™ to align the shirt up with the heat press.
Align the transfer under Tee Square It!™ to get the space you want under the collar.
Use Tee Square It!™ to center the transfer using the left and right side measurements.

Remove Tee Square It!™ and press as usual.

At only $43, Tee Square It!™ can save you time and money.

$43.00 - Purchase


Logo It! ™

Easily place your design in same place on every shirt!!

This simple to use tool takes all the guesswork out of lining up your transfer correctly every time.

The below tutorial shows how you first use Logo It!™ to get your transfer centered on the left chest area correctly. (the actual instructions will be more detailed

Check collar size inches across.Using either top markers or side markers.
Center LOGO IT! on collar

Place logo where you wish. Each logo goes in same spot each shirt.

$20 - Purchase


Hanes® T- ShirtMaker® Deluxe

Now you can make custom designed T-Shirts and other personalized gifts just like the pros. Hanes® T-ShirtMaker® Deluxe is perfect for kids' projects, birthday parties, team jerseys, fund raisers, grandparent gifts, vacation souvenirs, and even business promotions. Hanes T-ShirtMaker Plus offers the latest in photo editing tools, clip art, pre-made designs, and more.

Includes Everything You Need for Personalized T-Shirts and Gifts

  • Over 20,000 clip art images categorized by subject and project
  • Over 2,500 ready-made designs for any project
  • Over 1,000 fun font special effects

Create Great-Looking T-shirts and Personalized Gifts
Choose from simple, ready-made designs and get started quickly. Just pick a template and add your photos and words. Apply warping shapes to bend your text and art items. Choose from included fonts and styles, or experiment with photo filters and embossing effects. Create personalized, professional results in minutes.

Quick and Simple - Easy as 1-2-3
Your Imagination, Your Words, Your Designs. Place your design on t-shirts, caps, aprons, tote bags, visor caps, sweatshirts, shorts, and tank tops. Create decals, signs, and stickers to place on windows and mirrors. Produce labels for gift tags, bottles, jars, lunch boxes, and more.

Everything You Need to Get Started
Includes over 20,000 clip art, images, 2,500 ready-made designs and thousands of fun font effects.

All sales are final, refunds are not available on this software.

Hanes T-ShirtMaker Deluxe (included in some of our Heat Press/Paper Deals)
Only $29.95 - Purchase (comes on a CD)

System Requirements
Pentium® 166 PC or Higher
Microsoft® Windows® ME, XP, 2000, 98
60 MB (run clip art from CD) 512 MB (full install w/ clip art)
64 MB RAM (256 recommended)
CD-ROM Drive
800x600, 16 bit or higher display
Color Ink Jet Printer
Mouse



Graphtec i-DesignR dedicated software program ($349.95)

i-DesignR™ is Graphtec’s new exclusive vinyl cutter software for the 24” CE-5000-60 and 15” Craft ROBO Pro vinyl cutters.

The boxed program includes the software CD and a separate Training DVD. It also includes a USB Flash Dongle that goes into your USB port before using or installing the program (this is the “Open Sesame” key that lets everything work).

Yes, this dedicated software program cost more than using the free software and CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator, but it also has some tremendous advantages.

The FREE Training DVD teaches you how to use all of the functions in the program, step by step, and best of all, in plain English! Even better…all of the functions are specifically designed for use with the Graphtec cutters; see it, do it!

Here are just a few pictures of the really neat things i-DesignR™ does for you…

This is a fraction of what i-DesignR™ can do.

Click Here for a full spec sheet - Purchase


PhotoClean 2 - Photo Restoration

While you may never need to enlarge a photograph (unlikely, but possible) you will almost certainly need to edit, restore and enhance them, especially if you deal with customer supplied photographs.

PhotoClean 2 is a niffty little program, that doesn't take rocket science to learn

PhotoClean 2 technology allows you to quickly correct discoloration in photographs, repair damaged images, remove interfering scanning or JPG patterns and restore detail and focus. A combination of superior tools (self-adjusting, advanced filters and interpolation methods) and a very simple user interface allows you to repair or enhance an image to perfection in no time at all.

The PhotoClean 2 software editing program works. It is fast. It is easy to learn. At $49, it is much cheaper than other programs that don't work as well.

The example below, took only one minute to do.

Before
After
Graphic design and lay-out courtesy of Robin Ingraham Jr.

Click here for a scanned photo example

You can download a full version of this program for a “test-drive”

Click here to download PhotoZoom Pro, PhotoClean 2 or the manuals.


PhotoZoom Pro is a fast, and simple enlargement program that enlarges photographs and graphics, virtually distortion free.

Anyone who works with photos and graphics will occasionally need to enlarge them. At best, this need often produces a pain in the "tushy". Even experts using complicated graphics programs often find the process slow, tedious and quite often, the results are not very good..

On the bottom line, PhotoZoom Pro provides a novice with an expert's ability and...it's fast!

  • PhotoZoom Pro digital photo enlargement software professionally enlarges photos.

  • PhotoClean 2 photo editing software professionally cleans up photos.

This page provides easy to understand information and examples about what PhotoZoom Pro does. Links on this page provide more detailed information and examples, for the technically orientated.

Here is a "nuts and bolts" explanation of how the program works.

A digital photograph (including ones that you scan) is made-up of "pixels". These are like the dots produced by inkjet printers, except they are square.

On a normal picture you don't see these squares because there are enough of them that everything looks smooth.

Enlarge your photograph 200-400% and you will immediately see the familiar saw-tooth edges, around objects in the picture. Enlarge it even more and the picture becomes blurred, in addition to "ragged".

It is easy to understand what has happened. Pixels always stay the same size. When you enlarge a photograph, your program must create new pixels. Most programs don't do this job very good.

PhotoZoom Pro is excellent at this task.The below picture is a typical photo at 100%. The other pictures display a close-up section of a 200% enlargement. Note: The picture labeled "bicubic" is the enlargement method used by most standard graphic programs.

Soccer Pro

The quality of PhotoZoom Pro program is obvious, when looking at the hair and the designs on the boys T-shirt. With standard graphic programs, even the hair looks less shiny, because of the detail lost in the shape and lightning. The PhotoZoom PRO enlargement maintained clarity.

Notes: The displayed sample images have been reduced to fit the web site dimensions. Comparison pictures below are close-ups of a 200% enlargement of the original.


Pixel
Bicubic
PhotoZomm Pro

On the bottom line, this means that your enlargement looks as good as the original. As a test, we enlarged a 3x5 picture, 1,000%. Details on the enlargement looked just as good as on the small 3x5.


Here is what two our customers had to say:


"I fooled around with trace programs for about three days, trying to turn a poor jpg image into something I could use. I tried the PhotoZoom Pro demo and it did a beautiful job in about 10 seconds, so I bought it".
Charlie Hotchkiss, Intelligent Products Inc.


"I was looking for a simple program to enhance digital images and art for enlargements, PhotoZoom Pro has enabled us to enlarge even the smallest of files to full size enlargements with little pixilation or any at all. Thanks for the tip and a great program!!"
Jack Reynolds, Designer Creation


The picture was an 8"x10"
and was blown up to 4'x4' 600meg

Click here to see a screen preview of PhotoZoom Pro.
Click here to download PhotoZoom Pro, PhotoClean 2 or the manuals.

The program works. It is fast. It is easy to learn.At $129, it is much cheaper than other programs that don't work as well

Even with these benefits, however, we still don't want you to spend your money, without trying the program. We have made taking a free "test-drive" very easy.

All sales are final when purchasing this program.
Please do download the "test-drive" (it is a full version), before purchasing.
That will help us all.


Teflon Pad - This slips tightly onto the bottom platen of a heat press, like a mattress cover. The pad provides two useful benefits when imprinting garments.

First, it is very easy to slide garments on and off the press. It is very difficult to slide fabric across the heat resistant rubber on the bottom of a press. Second, the porous rubber on the bottom of a heat press has a tendency to collect dust, inks from colored shirts and other grunge.

Over time, this buildup can cause the backs of white shirts to look dingy. While it is difficult to clean the rubber, it is very easy to wipe off the Teflon pad.
Purchase

Teflon Sheet - A single sheet of Teflon is used to place on top of your transfer and garment and is sized to completely cover everything on your lower platen. An upper Teflon sheet is one of those things that is much better to have and not need it, than it is to need it and not have it.

First, the sheet keeps any possible dyes from colored garments and residue from your transfers from getting on the upper heater block (and then transferring to your next garment). A heater block can be wiped off, but it is much easier and simpler to wipe off the Teflon sheet. Second, some transfer times and temperatures are very close to the scorch point of fabrics. A Teflon cover sheet helps to prevent possible scorching.
Purchase


Giving yourself the best chance for success requires
more than just buying the right tools
.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

Updated: Friday September 10, 2010

Starting A T-shirt Business: Planning, Selling, Producing and Profiting