Write a review

Finance and Leasing options on all our products over £1000  

View reviews

Sales: mon-sat 9am-9pm

What is Dye Sublimation Ink?

Sublimation ink a special type of ink, that under heat and pressure, transforms from the solid state on paper to a gaseous state immediately and bonds with any polymers that are present in the final product to give a permanent image. The final products, called substrates, must have a high percentage of polyester to them otherwise the sublimation cannot bond permanently. Sublimation printing can be used to print onto all sorts of products from Mugs (the image appears to be inside the glaze of the mug and is impossible to feel), to T-shirts (the image bonds with the polyester content of the T-shirt and can be washed, ironed, stretched), mouse mats, jigsaw puzzles etc. etc.

What type of printer do I need for Sublimation printing?

An Epson printer is required and we can offer advice as to which printer may suit your needs best. Most people tend to go for an Epson D92 (A4 printer) or the R1400 (A3 printer which can also print A4 size). The R1400 is technically an 6 colour printer . The 6 cartridges in the R1400 have light cyan, , cyan light magenta,magenta , yellow, This printer produces excellent colour printing and good speed of print as well. The D92 is an A4 printer and also produce

excellent colour reproduction, if not a little slower. Generally budgets play a large role in printer choice with the R1400 costing a lot more than the D92.

How does the printing work?

The whole sublimation process starts by you printing whatever you want onto paper. We recommend dye sublimation paper as this is designed to work best with the ink and withstand the high temperature, but we know of people that use a good quality laser paper which works. We offer more advice on papers below. The profile that we supply prints the picture in reverse format so that when you transfer it to the final item it comes out the correct way around. When you first print the picture you may feel that the colours are not very vibrant, but this is perfectly normal as the richness of colour comes through when the image is transferred to the item you are transferring it to. Once you have the image, you place it face down on the sublimation printable, e.g. mouse mat, jigsaw etc. (or wrapped around a mug) and place it in the heat press. The pressure of the heat press and the temperature transfers the image from the paper to the final item and this transfer is permanent. We recommend the use of a small amount of heat tape to hold the paper in place either on the flat item or around the mug you are printing onto. We provide all the temperature settings and dwell times for all the substrates that you can print onto.

What paper do I need?

two types of paper. One is designed for hard surfaces (TruPix) and the other for textiles (Rotech). The hard surface paper also works on textiles but the main difference is that the textile paper holds more of the ink on the surface of the paper and therefore transfers a more vibrant image onto the final substrate. Whilst the hard surface paper will also transfer

images to textiles, the final image may not be so vibrant.

Can I only print onto polyester garments?

The sublimation ink bonds with polyester, but the garment doesn't have to be 100% polyester. We would recommend a high polyester component for best results. Sublimation t-shirts for example are cotton t-shirts with a micro weave of polyester in the upper layer of the fabric to enable the inks to bond permanently and vibrantly. We do offer a paper for

printing onto cotton products, but this is for use with a colour laser printer and is not the same as sublimation.

Can I only print onto white T-shirts and polo shirts with sublimation ink?

The sublimation process works best on white or light colour garments. It will not work if you try to print a yellow onto a black T-shirt as you simply will not see the printed item. You cannot print in white ink so you cannot print white text onto a dark garment. There are specialist papers that allow light colours to be transferred to dark garments and these transfer the white of the paper onto the final product. The downside of this is that is is difficult to cut out complex patterns to avoid transferring lots of whiteness of the paper as well as the image. This tends to work best when you have a square, rectangular or straight edged image that you are transferring. The white of the paper will sit on top of the fabric and not inside the fabric like sublimation ink.

I want to print light colours onto dark garments - what other systems are available?

Assuming you want to print white lettering onto a black T-shirt then sublimation is not the way forward. To do this you would need to consider using either flock (a material that has a slightly raised soft feel to it) or flex (a smooth material) or other type of materials that can be cut using a cutter (a printer that uses a blade instead of an ink cartridge) to cut out the

shape of the letters or image. This is then applied onto the garment with a heat press. Flock is a fabric that has a brushed finish so you can feel the softness of it when it is adhered to the garment, whereas other materials, such as flex, will lie flat on the garment and would be smooth to the touch. These materials are washable, iron able and permanent when applied to the garments and can be applied to 100% cotton garments as well as other blends of material.