If you’re into t-shirt printing, you might know that prints with poor contrast can ruin a shirt. Especially in dark colors, the image always stays dull and dark. That’s why we use a particular type of printer, a white toner transfer printer.

In this article, we’ve listed the top three white toner transfer printers for t-shirts:

1. UniNet iColor 560
2. OKI PRO9541
3. OKI C920WT

Also, we’ve mentioned a brief buying guide. 

If you're interested in high-quality print-on-demand t-shirts and valuable printers, just keep reading this article, and you won't regret it.

Are you ready?

Let’s dive in!

What Is A White Toner Transfer?

White toner printers are just like regular t-shirt printers. They use inkjet sprayers and PVC-based inks to print t-shirts or other particular items. However, if you’re into t-shirt printing, you might know that contrast is one of the main technical problems. 

Printing on bright and light-colored t-shirts is fine. However, on dark-colored t-shirts, the print will always look dull, and the colors will always be inaccurate. It’s just like getting bright colors on a dark-colored wall.

This is due to contrast. If you know basic optics, you may know how contrast overlapping works. 

That’s why the “white toner transfer printer” was invented. It uses white toner at the end of the print, which works as a primer.

The image is printed on it, and, in this way, that bright white cuts the dark, dull colors of the t-shirts. Consequently, you get colorful prints even on dark-colored t-shirts.

Now that you know how a white toner transfer print works let’s focus on the top three printer models for t-shirts.

We’ve hand-picked and reviewed them accurately for you.

1. UniNet iColor 560

It’s not incorrect to say that the UniNet iColor 560 is one of the most expensive printers, but it’s 100% value for money. The machine works at a speed of 40 ppm, equal to FHD 1920x1080p, on digital displays. Many other printers only offer 20–33 ppm, similar to HD 1280x720p in digital collections. 

UniNet iColor 560 uses a state-of-the-art laserjet sprayer capable of printing images with 2 mm precision. It means the minor count of this printer is + or -2 mm. 

Moreover, it has wireless networking features that support Wi-Fi for personal printing, LAN printing for server-based printing, and Bluetooth when you don’t have access to Wi-Fi.

The printer comes with five toner cartridges, which are:

• Cyan
• Magenta
• Yellow
• Black 
• White

The white toner is compulsory, and the printer will not work without it as it works as a primer to prevent contrast issues with the black t-shirt. 

Talking about detailed specs, it offers a 4.3-inch TFT touch screen from where you can control and manage your prints. Moreover, it also supports USB and SD cards to print out the design. The design must be in JPG or PDF format for SD or USB card printing.

The current price of the machine is about $3,650.

2. OKI PRO9541

If you’re a regular user of white toner printers and want a budget-friendly machine, this one might be a better option for you. OKI PRO9541 is always popular for offering unique and out-of-the-box features that no other brand offers. First of all, the printer is cloud storage ready and supports the integration of OneDrive and Google Drive.

It means you can directly print your designs from the signed-in cloud account from anywhere around the world.

The printer offers a 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution, close to 1366 x 668 in the digital version. Moreover, the machine also supports an Ethernet port to connect it with your server and LAN network.

OKI PRO9541 can produce white and non-white toner prints for different print-on-demand purposes, such as mug printing, paper printing, cardboard printing, PVC printing, and other printing services. They don’t require a white toner as a primer, so you can remove it if you want.

The printer uses CMYBW, the most common color palette among t-shirt printers. The white toner is compulsory if you print t-shirts, as it uses that white toner for the primer to prevent contrast issues.

The printer would cost you about $500, which is awesome if you’re on a tight budget.

3. OKI C920WT

OKI C920WT might be one of the most budget-friendly white toner transfer printers that also offer the best efficiency. It can make about 500 prints on a single cartridge, which is ideal for commercial and home usage. However, the printing speed is not the fastest on the market, but still, it’s value for money in this price range.

The printer uses typical analog inkjet sprayers, which convert digital signals to analog with a converter. That’s why it prints only two pages per minute. It’s one of those exclusive machines for which OKI provides three years of warranty, covering the mechanism, software, and inkjet sprayer.

OKI C920WT offers 600x600 dpi resolution, which might be the lowest but is still appropriate for casual printing, such as t-shirts and mug printing. 

The cartridge uses a standard CMYBW kit in which the white toner is compulsory as it’s used as a primer to prevent contrast issues. 

You can connect the printer to your local network through LAN, or you can use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth for wireless printing. It doesn’t offer cloud printing but still offers wireless printing in this price range.

OKI C920WT would cost you about $300-$400 but has been discontinued and is only available in the offline market.

How Does White Toner Prevent Dark Color Contrast Issues?

If you study basic optics, a bright color will always cut through the dark colors. That’s what a white toner transfer printer does. It uses bright white as a primer, which cuts through the dull base color of t-shirts.

The overlay reduces the dark contrast, preserving the top’s print without lowering its quality.

What’s The Difference Between White Toner And Sublimation?

We will see now the main differences between white toner and sublimation printers.

• A white toner transfer printer is a typical inkjet printer that uses a sprayer to sprinkle the electromagnetic ink on the item. The sprayer in this printer isn’t as regular as you think. It’s a particular state-of-the-art sprayer with a 1–5 mm precision. The white toner is used as a primer in the print base to avoid contrast issues on darker objects.
• A sublimation printer uses a thermal transfer process to transfer the ink to the paper. The ink used isn’t similar to the white toner transfer printer one. The white toner printer uses electromagnetic ink, while the sublimation printer uses thermal-sensitive ink. When that ink is heated, it’s converted into liquid and sticks to the desired object. When the ink is cooled down, it’s permanently attached to the surface, and that’s how the sublimation printer works.

Sublimation printers are usually much faster and offer lower pricing than white toner printers. 

They use thermal printing and not an inkjet sprayer, which implies mechanical movement and consumes time.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a white toner transfer printer, this article might be helpful to you. We’ve hand-picked and reviewed three of the best white toner transfer printers on the market for your t-shirt printing needs.

Each one is good and valuable for money. However:

• If your budget is exceptionally tight, you might consider going with the OKI C920WT.
• If you want a mid-range white toner transfer printer, consider the OKI PRO9541. It provides all the basics and some advanced features at reasonable prices.
• If you have a high budget and are looking for a professional, commercial white toner transfer printer, consider the UniNet iColor 560. You can expect a premium printer with flagship features from a $3,600 white toner transfer printer.

And that’s it!

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