These are few factors to be considered while choosing the right sublimation transfer paper.
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Ink Capacity and Limits
This is an important factor, higher the ink limit (wet), the heavier the paper should be to accept moisture from the ink without any disturbances like curling and warping.
Ink Pattern
This explains the printing of a very complex design artwork that has mixed heavy and light ink input. This is faced with low-weight papers, with the occurrence of curling and shifting after pressing. To eliminate this the best solution is using 110gsm or more that accept heavy and light inks.
Roll to Roll, or Roll to Sheet
Calendar heat press prefers low-gsm papers. But in heavy ink, limit and capacity are to be considered wisely. Here we consider the limitations of high-capacity production and consequences like warping and curling.
Print Speed
The quality of the paper to be produced depends on what speed it is being printed. Fast printing produces lightweight paper, slow printing produces thick paper.
Low humidity: In the humidity under 45%, it’s better to choose 80gsm. When in low humidity, the paper shrinks, and the print side is hunched up. During the process, the paper absorbs ink, which leads to the “hunch-up”. 100g and 120g paper are harder than 80g, so the “hunch-up” damages the print head. 80gsm is softer, it could relieve the “hunch-up” and protect your print head from damage.
High humidity: In the humidity above 70%. It’s better to choose 110-120 gsm. Since the paper is very easy to become damp with high humidity, it will become softer and stiffness is weak at the same time. If low-weight paper is used, it will be hard to print smoothly because the stiffness and hardness go down. At this time, 110-120 gsm is the best choice.
Apparel: Lycra materials, cycling, Polyamide, Swim & Surfwear, 100% polyester (stretch), running, ice hockey wear, Sports and functional textiles.
Home Usages: Curtains, Blinds, Cushions, Table Covers, Towel Cleaners, etc.
Advertisement: Flags, Banners, Felts, Gaming tables, Home Textiles.
Sublimation paper applies to sublimation transfer, on which one can print images with mirror reversal through inkjet printing, flat printing, screen printing, and gravure printing. Then transfer the image onto the media by heating and pressuring, which makes the ink on the paper become a gaseous state and combine with the media.
Heat transfer paper is applicable to heat transfer, on which images can be printed through flat printing or gravure printing, and then combined with media by heating and pressuring to transfer the image onto media.
Ink and Media Ink: Sublimation paper is used with sublimation ink. Heat transfer paper is used with sublimation ink, pigment ink, solvent ink or others. Media: Sublimation paper can be transferred onto polyester, mouse pads, banners and hard surfaces, such as mugs, ceramic and aluminium plates. But heat transfer paper is usually transferred onto cotton.
Successful dye sublimation requires the following two-part process:
Small Format Heat Press
This device is used if you’re planning to sublimate on t-shirts and small items such as caps, mugs, plates, and shoes.
Calendar Heat Press
These heat presses are large format presses that are built for flags, large exterior banners, and other large soft-signage applications, as well as day-to-day soft signage and fabric sublimation. With the addition of a table attachment to your calendar unit, users can cut and sew apparel pieces.
Flatbed Heat Press
Although they can’t effectively manage the kind of rolls and fabric sizes that a Calendar heat press can, flatbed style heat presses are versatile presses that can heat transfer onto fabric as well as aluminium, hardboard, floor mats and other unique media.
3D Vacuum Heat Press
A 3D vacuum heat press is a compact desktop machine that allows heat transfer onto materials with a curved edge or shape. Sublimation blanks and pre-treated objects, such as smartphone covers, mugs, picture frames, sporting goods, buttons and others available for sublimation by this device.
If you want to ensure the brightest, most true-to-life sublimation transfers, your sublimation paper matters! We put three brands of paper to the test, plus tried using regular copy paper and cardstock in this sublimation paper comparison. We figured out which sublimation paper is best…and which you should avoid!
If you want to learn more, please visit our website Heat Sublimation Paper.
Today I wanted to do a quick test of several different brands of sublimation paper. This is a part of my newest series on sublimation printing. You can check out all of the posts in the series here:
So, let’s answer the question, “what is the best sublimation paper?” I ordered three packs of sublimation paper. All three were a medium weight and work with all sublimation printers:
I also had a request to test plain copy paper, so I added that in, along with a smooth white cardstock, because why not?
I tested all five on a piece of polyester fabric (do not use cotton). Remember that sublimation requires polyester or a poly-coating for the sublimation process to work. You’ll also need a light-colored material because sublimation ink is transparent.
I’ve found having a few yards of polyester fabric is SO helpful when doing sublimation crafting, since what you print is not what you transfer. This gives me the ability to do a test transfer on the fabric before using my more expensive blank/substrate. Highly recommend getting a few yards and using it for practice!
A caveat: I only tested this single color wheel image on a single substrate (polyester fabric) printed with my converted Epson printer. You may have different results with a different image, a different substrate (soft substrates like t-shirts and socks vs. hard substrates like tumblers and cases), or different sublimation printer (I just got a Sawgrass printer so I’m interested in seeing if there’s a difference!).
Sublimation printing is one of those crafts that can really change depending on these three factors. I suggest you run this same test yourself if you want to figure out which is the best for your particular set-up.
Join our Sublimation Made Simple Facebook group for tips, tricks, support, and resources!
I printed the same exact color wheel image on all five types of paper. I printed them all at the same time. All five were fast-drying and I didn’t have to wait long to press.
Right away, you can see right away that there’s a big variance between the printing on these five images. The smooth cardstock fared the worst—it’s lightest and the most mottled. The copy paper isn’t far behind, though I was kind of surprised it printed a bit better than the cardstock. I think the difference in paper weight between the two might matter here.
Then there are the three high-quality sub papers. I was actually really surprised at the difference between these three. I was honestly expecting them to be the same. But you can definitely see the difference—the TexPrint is much more bright and vivid than the other two. You can really see it when you compare the individual colors, particularly in the reds.
The next brightest is the Hiipoo, and then A-Sub was well behind that. I’ve had the A-Sub recommended to more than any other paper, so I thought that was a bit interesting. I was definitely interested in seeing how they transferred to the scrap of polyester fabric I had.
Not surprisingly, the transfer of each image mirrored the printed images:
You can see here that the TextPrint, followed by the Hiipoo, were significantly better than the A-Sub and then the non-sublimation papers.
Here are detailed shots of each, from my favorite to least favorite.
The first is the TexPrint paper. It’s nice and even and the tiny writing is the most clear of all of the versions. The color is the brightest and the most vivid, with almost no mottling. Going forward, this will be my go-to sublimation paper:
Next is the Hiipoo sublimation paper. It’s bright and even and vivid like the TexPrint, but not quite as saturated in some of the colors. The text is just ever so slightly less easy to read (compare the words “ANALOGOUS” on both). This is definitely a solid option.
Next is the A-Sub. I expected this one to be as good (or better, since it’s the one that’s often recommended) so I was a little disappointed to see that it didn’t turn out nearly as vivid as the other two sublimation papers. The color is more mottled and uneven.
Then there’s the copy paper. I was a little surprised that this wasn’t more terrible. I mean, compared to the others, it’s not great, but it’s also not as bad as I expected. There’s definitely less saturation and less definition between colors. Some of the colors (like in the bottom right) are lighter. Because the paper is thinner, I think it soaked up the sublimation ink a little more so the definition was lost.
You also need to be aware that because copy paper is so thin, it really bled onto the butcher paper I was using to protect my press. On the left is the paper I used for all four of the other transfers, and on the right is the copy paper transfer. This is something to definitely be aware of—you don’t want that ink getting on your press platen!
And finally is the smooth cardstock. This one was not worth it at all—the colors are the most faded and mottled and the text is the hardest to read. There is not a lot of color definition and overall you’re not going to be happy with your transfer.
Finally, I washed my piece of fabric with all five transfers just to see if there would be any difference. I didn’t think there would be and I was right. The washed transfers were pretty much identical to the pre-washed transfers.
So for me and my set up, I thought the best paper was the TexPrint dye-sublimation paper. I’ve been using it on many of my projects and it always produces beautiful, vivid results!
Since I originally wrote this post, I have tried two other types of sublimation paper: The Sawgrass TruePix and the PYD Life paper. Both of them did great—I will continue to use both of those as well. There are also other brands like Koala sublimation paper and Printers Jack sublimation paper which I haven’t tested. I’d love to know if you’ve used these and what you think!
Still looking for a printer? Check out my Best Sublimation Printers Comparison!
I hope you found this sublimation paper comparison helpful—let me know if you have any questions in the comments!
For more information, please visit Customized Sublimation Paper.