Stencil paper - which one is right for you?

2023-06-01 08:26:00

Whether you print out your templates or prefer to draw directly on paper, you can't get around the right stencil paper. The paper is also often referred to as transfer paper, stencil paper or matrix paper. Which one is right for you and which advantages each one brings with it, we explain here.

The basics

Basically, transfer paper is divided into two categories. This is once the paper, which is suitable for the thermal printer and the paper, which one uses for drawing by hand. It is important here that the freehand paper is not suitable for the thermal printer or copier. When buying you have to pay special attention to this.

Classic Freehand Paper / Classic Carbon Sheet

Do you love drawing freehand and transferring your designs directly onto carbon paper? Then the Classic Freehand Paper is the right choice for you. You don't need a printer or copier, just a pen and your imagination. Thus, this paper is also perfect for on the go. You can not only simply draw your motif freehand, but also print an existing template on normal paper and then trace. For this purpose, it is best to use the Classic Sheet Carbon paper. Grab a template and place it on the blue-green side. Now simply trace it with a ballpoint pen or pencil.

For the best result, we recommend that you place a soft base under the Classic Sheet Carbon paper. If you then hold the paper up to the light, you can check whether all lines have been transferred or whether you need to trace lines again. The Freehand paper and the Classic Sheet Carbon from Spirit have been specially dyed with a purple dye. This ensures that the stencil is particularly visible on the skin. Due to the wax mixture used in the paper, the paper reacts very well to pressure and allows you as an artist to draw particularly detailed stencils.

Thermal Paper

Now we come to the transfer paper, which is suitable for the thermal printer and copier. If you prefer to draw your motifs on the tablet, this is exactly the right paper for you. You draw your design on the tablet and then you can print it in different sizes on the thermal paper and present it to your customer. This way you save time and can show your customer several sizes at once.
You like to draw spontaneously on normal paper and want to convert it to stencil paper afterwards?

Then you can also easily do this with the thermal paper. For this you only have to insert your drawn motif into the stencil paper (between the yellow and blue paper, the motif should point upwards) and pass it through the thermal copier. And voilà, you have your motif on stencil paper.
Be sure to read the instructions before using the printer or copier.

The Green Variant

Just the papers of Spirit have chosen a purple color for their stencil. However, this is just difficult to see on darker skin. Therefore, you can get all the above variants as a green version. This one does not have a purple color, but a green color, which is perfect on darker skin. Everything else is identical.

Summary

Which paper you ultimately choose depends on your personal preference. If you like to draw freehand and prefer to have it directly as a stencil, then the Freehand paper is right for you. If you love to let off steam creatively on the tablet and present your customer with different sizes on the stencil, then you should rather go for the Thermal paper.

And if you can't decide on a variant at the moment, then just try it out and see what suits you better. We've also done a blog post on the pros and cons of analog versus digital drawing. Maybe that will help you decide once again.
Digital vs Analog