A transparent or translucent carrier sheet is provided with an alignment grid for positioning a decorative transfer.

The present invention provide a multi-layered heat transfer sheet comprising a plurality of distinct pieces forming one or more consecutive patterns that form shapes or objects having discontinuous peripheries, as well as a method for producing and/or making said item. The method for forming the heat transfer decorations includes ablating one or more layers of a heat transfer sheet using a defocused laser to define at least one plurality of discrete pieces that together define a heat transfer decoration. A single pass of the defocused laser may ablate the one or more layers of the heat transfer sheet so as to define the discrete pieces.

A decal assembly applied to a finished wood floor comprising a visible layer, a clear layer adhered to the visible layer, and a floor finish layer, wherein an outer surface of the floor finish has a coefficient of friction similar to the finished wood floor. The floor finish may be water-based or oil-based and the decal assembly may include an adhesion promotion layer disposed between the clear layer and the floor finish layer. The decal assembly may also include the clear layer having a roughened outer surface. The decal may be installed on a wood floor by laminating a clear layer to a visible layer, roughening an outer surface of the clear layer and applying a floor finish to the outer surface of the clear layer after the roughening step. An adhesion promotion layer may also be applied between the clear layer and the floor finish layer.

Methods of making artificial gemstones that include providing a base body having a sublimation surface composed of a sublimatable material. A transfer print composed of one or more sublimation dye inks is received. The transfer print provides, for example, a translucent multicolor gradation pattern or a simulation of visual surface characteristics of a finished natural gemstone. The transfer print is contacted with the sublimation surface and pressure is provided between the print and the base body and heat is applied to the transfer print and base body for an amount of time sufficient for the transfer print to sublimate into the sublimation surface so as to create a sublimation print in the sublimatable material. Finishing steps may be performed after creating the sublimation print. The base body may be, for example, translucent or opaque and/or a component of a multiplet gemstone. Artificial gemstones having sublimation prints are also disclosed.

A lettering film includes a lettering layer, a middle layer and a substrate layer. The lettering layer, the middle layer and the substrate layer are separably adhered to each other. The lettering layer has cutting stripes. The lettering film can be cut into characters and/or figures. The cutting marks of the characters and/or figures cut the lettering layer and the middle layer without cutting off the substrate layer. The lettering layer of the lettering film is adhered to an article and then the substrate layer and the middle layer are peeled off, whereby the lettering layer is adhered to the article and the cut characters and/or figures are adhered to the surface of the article.

Methods of making artificial gemstones that include providing a base body having a sublimation surface composed of a sublimatable material. A transfer print composed of one or more sublimation dye inks is received. The transfer print provides, for example, a translucent multicolor gradation pattern or a simulation of visual surface characteristics of a finished natural gemstone. The transfer print is contacted with the sublimation surface and pressure is provided between the print and the base body and heat is applied to the transfer print and base body for an amount of time sufficient for the transfer print to sublimate into the sublimation surface so as to create a sublimation print in the sublimatable material. Finishing steps may be performed after creating the sublimation print. The base body may be, for example, translucent or opaque and/or a component of a multiplet gemstone. Artificial gemstones having sublimation prints are also disclosed.

Method of manufacturing a substrate with a cut thermal film comprises obtaining an input digital image of a design to be transferred to the substrate; storing the input image in memory; rendering design elements of the design as a single output image; based upon a bleed size value, a maximum number of negative areas, a maximum number of positive areas, and attribute values: resizing the image to include a border for bleed; filling transparent areas of the image with the substrate attribute values; creating a cutting path; creating a mask image; inverting the mask image; modifying the mask image to adjust fill areas around details, to limit negative areas to be less than the maximum number of negative areas, and to limit positive areas to be less than the maximum number of positive areas; creating cutting path data in memory as a vector path outlining the mask image.

The present invention provides a restickable lettering film and a manufacturing method thereof. The manufacturing method of the restickable lettering film includes steps of: preparing a lettering layer having a first surface and a second surface; disposing a thermo-bonding layer on the second surface of the lettering layer; adhering the first surface of the lettering layer to a temporary adhesive layer. The lettering layer can be many times repeatedly removed from and adhered to the temporary adhesive layer. Accordingly, a user can easily use the lettering film.

Systems and methods for forming and applying decorations onto substrates are disclosed. According to some aspects, a decoration may be formed on a carrier web at a decoration forming station positioned along a web path. The decorations may be transported along the web path to an application station at which the decorations are applied to substrates from the carrier web.

Method of manufacturing a substrate with a cut thermal film comprises obtaining an input digital image of a design to be transferred to the substrate; storing the input image in memory; rendering design elements of the design as a single output image; based upon a bleed size value, a maximum number of negative areas, a maximum number of positive areas, and attribute values: resizing the image to include a border for bleed; filling transparent areas of the image with the substrate attribute values; creating a cutting path; creating a mask image; inverting the mask image; modifying the mask image to adjust fill areas around details, to limit negative areas to be less than the maximum number of negative areas, and to limit positive areas to be less than the maximum number of positive areas; creating cutting path data in memory as a vector path outlining the mask image.