A sublimation paper is a specialty paper used to print on shirts, mugs, and other sublimation blanks. Many beginner and professional printers use sublimation printing because it’s cost-efficient and produces vivid prints.
You’ve landed on this page for one reason — you’re trying to find out what a sublimation paper is. If you’re a beginner in the sublimation printing industry, this ultimate guide will help you understand the ins and outs of a sublimation paper.
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You’ve landed on this page for one reason — you’re trying to find out what a sublimation paper is. If you’re a beginner in the sublimation printing industry, this ultimate guide will help you understand the ins and outs of a sublimation paper.
First of all, you need to learn what a sublimation transfer paper is made of. A sublimation paper is made of a special polyester coating on its print area. This special coating keeps the dye ink inside the paper which then transfers to the merchandise when exposed to heat.
To print on a sublimation printer, you’ll need an inkjet printer that contains dye sublimation ink. There’s no other way around it. You can’t use regular printer ink to print on sublimation paper because it won’t work.
Furthermore, you can’t print on a regular printing paper using dye sublimation ink and use it for sublimation printing. In a nutshell, for sublimation printing, you’ll need sublimation paper and an inkjet printer with sublimation ink.
The sublimation process works in a simple way. Let’s say you have a sublimation paper printed with a design, of course using dye sublimation ink. You’re about to press it into a polyester t-shirt under the heat press machine.
What happens is that the sublimation ink turns into gas. At the same time, the fabric of the polyester shirt opens up and absorbs the ink. Once you’re done pressing the shirt, and it cools off, the gaseous ink that transferred to the merchandise turns solid. This means the ink is permanently printed on the merchandise. For knowing about more information about how to do sublimation shirts: a complete guide check ou blog.
There are plenty of custom-printed projects you can do with sublimation paper. With a sublimation paper, you can print directly on polyester fabric or any polyester-coated sublimation blank.
You can directly sublimate on synthetic fibers like polyester, lycra, nylon, and sportswear. Furthermore, you can also print the sublimation paper over a heat transfer vinyl. You see, directly sublimating on a cotton shirt or a dark-colored shirt won’t work.
Direct sublimation printing on a garment is only recommended for polyester shirts. But if you want to print on a dark-colored shirt or a cotton shirt, you can print the heat transfer vinyl first on the shirt. Then sublimate over it.
As for the sublimation blanks, there are plenty of products available in the market now. This means you can custom-print on plenty of merchandise. For knowing about best sublimation paper for dark shirt you should be check our blog.
You can’t sublimate on random merchandise. It must be a ‘sublimation blank’ because it has a special polymer coating wherein the dye sublimation ink will bond. For instance, you can’t expect to sublimate on a regular mug bought at a craft store. It must be a sublimation mug. All of these sublimation blanks are in white colors.
As mentioned, for sublimation printing, of course, you’ll need a sublimation paper and a sublimation printer that contains dye sublimation ink. One more machine you need to invest in is a heat press machine and each one has its purpose.
Do you need to invest in all these heat press machines? The more heat press machines you have, the better! But if the budget does not allow it, starting with a flat heat press machine and mastering t-shirt printing first is a good way to start.
With sublimation printing, you’ll need other supplies like thermal transfer paper or tape, scissors, a Teflon sheet, and a silicone rubber pad. A bright desktop lamp on your workspace can also help you big time when printing. For knowing about sublimation temperature chart check our blog.
Sublimating merchandise is a simple process. Print and press! That’s it! Whether you’re printing on a shirt or a sublimation blank. Whether you’re sublimating on a shirt or a mug, the transfer process is fairly similar. To give you an idea, here are the steps.
You may have heard of another transfer printing method using heat transfer paper. These heat transfer papers are called dark transfer paper and light transfer paper. These types of special printing paper are coated with wax and pigment which transfers into the canvas.
Unlike sublimation paper where the dye-based ink turns into a gas and only the ink transfers into the merchandise. Sublimation printing and heat transfer paper printing are both different printing methods.
Heat transfer paper is available in laser heat transfer paper printed on a laser printer. There’s also the inkjet heat transfer paper to be printed on the inkjet printer only. Which printer do you use when working on a heat transfer paper design? Inkjet or laser printer?
Inkjet or laser transfer paper is commonly used as an iron-on print. But which printing method is better? Sublimation or heat transfer printing? This depends on your preference. If you don’t want the wax coating transferred onto the heat transfer paper garments, sublimation printing is preferred.
There are printers specially used for sublimation printing. However, you can use a regular inkjet printer with dye sublimation ink on it. If you intend to invest in a printer for sublimation printing, make sure to consult with the manufacturer if the printer is compatible with sublimation printing.
There are also printers you can convert into sublimation paper using a CISS Ink system. If you have a regular inkjet printer at home and it already has regular ink on it, you cannot use it as your sublimation printer. Just like any other printer, when you refill a different kind of ink, other than the original ink you used, it might ruin the printer. That’s a big no-no!
The best brands of inkjet printers for sublimation are Epson and SawGrass. Just a tip, most HP printers won’t print a sublimation paper. Also, generally speaking, laser printers cannot print quality images.
No, you cannot use regular ink on sublimation paper. Even though the sublimation paper will produce prints, it will not transfer to the merchandise. Sublimation paper is a special paper that contains a special coating that locks the ink and releases it into gas when exposed to heat.
The bottom line is, that regular printer ink is not made compatible with sublimation printing. The regular ink when printed onto a sublimation paper when printed on light-colored polyester fabrics or any sublimation blank.
In sublimation printing, you cannot use dye sublimation ink on regular paper. You can try to print dye sublimation on regular paper, maybe for your documents, but it won’t look too good. The colors will look pale on the paper, a bit too blurry, and oftentimes smears.
Don’t even think about using dye sublimation ink on regular paper if you intend to use it for sublimation printing. It simply won’t work! Sublimation paper works only for dye sublimation ink, and that’s about it!
No, sublimation ink does not directly print onto dark-colored shirts. If you want to print on a dark-colored shirt, there’s an indirect way to do it. What you want to do is print a white heat transfer vinyl on the dark shirt, then sublimate over it.
Sublimation print won’t be visible in dark-colored shirts like royal blue, dark gray, maroon and black. Also, one tip you should know — white ink does not print out in sublimation printing. White ink remains unprinted, in short, transparent.
The print side of the sublimation paper is the white side with a matte texture. Typically, a sublimation paper has one white side and a colored side. As for TeckWrap Craft’s sublimation paper, the colored side is colored light pink. in dark-colored shirts like royal blue, dark gray, maroon and black. Also, one tip you should know — white ink does not print out in sublimation printing. White ink remains unprinted, in short, transparent.
As mentioned, a tip when printing on sublimation paper is to always mirror the image on your computer. This tip was mentioned earlier because it is important. Once you press on merchandise, you have to press the printed image facing the merchandise, that’s why you have to mirror the image.
When you’re looking for a sublimation paper, what you need is a high-quality product. A sublimation paper must have a high transfer rate, at least 100 gsm, fast drying speed, ink-saving performance, and does not fade, smudge or crack.
When you’re looking for a sublimation paper, you’d want a product with a high transfer rate. A sublimation paper with a high transfer rate prints vivid images and is ink-saving. A sublimation paper with more than a 98% transfer rate prints higher quality images.
Some sublimation paper may have longer drying times. This means you have to wait several hours for the ink to dry before pressing the design onto merchandise. You can’t even touch the ink for hours as it may smudge. Why wait for the ink to dry if there is sublimation paper with a fast-drying speed? That’s what you should look for!
Who likes to waste ink? No one! If there’s any way you can save on ink or any additional overhead cost, you should! That’s why you should look for sublimation papers with an ink-saving performance. Sublimation papers with a higher gsm have an ink-saving performance.
For more Sublimation Paper For T-shirt Printinginformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.
One of the best sublimation papers available is from TeckWrap Craft. It’s fast-drying, waterproof, has great ink-saving performance, and does not fade, smudge or crack. Additionally, it’s affordable. You can use the TeckWrap Craft sublimation paper to print on shirts, mugs, tumblers, and all sublimation blanks.
Now that you’re aware of what a sublimation paper is, its uses, and the projects you can create with it, are you excited to start with your crafting projects? Surely, you are! Don’t forget — only use a sublimation printer containing sublimation ink and a high-quality sublimation transfer paper.
For your sublimation paper needs, don’t look elsewhere. A pack of TeckWrap Craft sublimation sheets comes in 100 sheets of A4 paper. It’s 100 gsm that’s why it dries fast, is ink-saving, and has a 98% transfer rate. Get your sublimation paper at TeckWrap Craft now!
There are many guides on the web for choosing the sublimation paper, but the selection criteria are not uniform. People are often confused about what criteria to use when selecting the sublimation paper. This article will describe this in detail. We will analyze and summarize the common methods of choosing thermal sublimation paper on the market. After reading this article, we hope that you will have a more comprehensive understanding of what kind of sublimation paper to choose for production.
As one of the most popular printing papers, sublimation paper has been used in various fields. If you look closely, the technology of sublimation paper can be found in offices, shopping malls, and homes. It can be found everywhere in our daily life. Therefore, the market for sublimation paper is huge and full of potential. Sublimation paper allows you to easily master transferring to garments.
Before introducing the sublimation paper for shirts, I would like to show you more about the main transfer paper for shirts in the market. They are all famous in the market of shirt transfer. When compared with sublimation papers, they also have their shortcomings.
The T-shirt transfer paper is starting to fade out of the spotlight. It is mainly used to transfer fabric products containing a high amount of cotton or man-made fibers and less than 30% polyester fibers. It is very breathable. Thus, there are many children’s clothing or underwear fabrics that choose to use T-shirt transfer paper. T-shirt transfer paper is also available to DIY at home. It is easy to use and only works with a printer and an iron. On the other side, this also means that T-shirt transfer paper has a disadvantage, which is that it is not widely available. And compared to most products on the market, T-shirt transfer paper is not the cheapest.
DTF film is a recently developed transfer paper. Compared to T-shirt transfer paper and sublimation paper, its main advantage is that there is no restriction on the use of fabrics. DTF film can be used on most fabrics regardless of the base color. And during the printing process, the top layer of DTF film is printed with white ink, thus preventing the base color of the fabric from covering the transfer pattern.
However, DTF film needs to work with a modified printer and powder shaker. These two machines are very expensive. If you don’t have a large order, you’d better not use DTF film. DTF film is more suitable for high-volume production.
Sublimation paper is the most common transfer paper on the market. It is easy to use and easy to learn. Both fabrics and hard substrates can be transferred through the sublimation paper. The events that need to be paid attention to are just that the polyester fiber content of the fabric must be more than 30% and the surface of the hard substrate must have a coating.
For clothing, the garments obtained by the sublimation transfer are breathable and do not lose color easily after rubbing and washing. It is the best choice for fabric transfer except for cotton and chemical fiber garments. Most importantly, the unit price of the transfer paper is very low, which can save a considerable amount of money for the manufacturer of the transferred garments.
The choice of sublimation paper means that the polyester fiber content of the garment is more than 30%. Except this, we recommend you use the sublimation paper on the fabric with a light basic color. These are the fabrics that can be sublimated. However, do you know how to choose the right sublimation paper for the shirts? Please read on to learn more.
The numbers 105g, 120g, and 125g reflect the weight of the paper per square meter(in grams) (before cutting), after being cut into a size suitable for retail packaging.
For example:
8.5 * 11 size paper, the difference between the three options of 105g, 120g, and 125g. is the weight. And because the dimensions are exactly the same, the difference lies in the weight and thickness of the paper.
The change in thickness is related to the paper itself and the amount of sublimation coating. Thicker coating and more saturated sublimation paper can more effectively deal with the saturation of thick ink. The thinner sublimation paper is very suitable for your light-colored ink saturation needs.
If your work is going well and your design is clear, then you must have the right paper. However, if any of the following problems occur, try to replace the paper as follows:
(1)My paper always curls-try to increase the weight: If you use 105g, increase to 120g, if you use 120g, increase to 125g. Also, it maybe means you need to pay attention to the storage of the paper. If there is no problem in the storage of the sublimation paper, just increase the weight of the sublimation paper.
(2)My paper always has wheel marks-go in the opposite direction: If you are using 105 grams, increase to 120 grams. If you are using 120 or 125 grams, please switch to 105 grams. If the problem persists, clean your printer thoroughly.
(3)Variable saturation design: If you often print a design that includes both light ink saturation and heavy ink saturation, please keep it in the middle of 120 grams. If you use 105g, the heavy part of the design may move, bleed or double-image.
(4)My hard/rigid blank is ghosting: The ink has nowhere to go, and there may be too much to deal with. Go to the lowest grammage.
(5)My T-shirt looks faded, but all the ink is transferred: The grammage has increased because it accepts more ink.
Of course, you need to find the most adjustable printer and heat press to work with the sublimation paper you chose before learning more tips and techniques for sublimating shirts. We usually choose Epson and Sawgrass printers because of their wide availability in the process of transferring.
Firstly, when printing the pattern, pay attention to the pattern that needs to be set up for mirror printing. Secondly, before heat transfer printing, the heat press should be preheated and the fabric should be laid flat. Finally, after the heat press is finished, we need to wait for it to cool down before we can remove the paper.
Here is the ultimate guide to choosing the sublimation paper for shirts. The vital standard is the weight and thickness of the sublimation paper. Different types of sublimation paper are available for different kinds of fabrics. By the way, the type of printer maybe has an influence on the sublimation, too. As a result, we recommend that you get free samples of sublimation paper to try on your printer to find the best sublimation paper for you.
For more information, please visit Large Sublimation Paper.