Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is Dye Sublimation Ink?
A. 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. The list of products is large and we supply an extensive range of these online at www.printerowners.co.uk
Q. Do you have a price list of your sublimation products?
A. Yes, if you type "price list" in the search field you will be taken right there.
Q. What type of printer do I need for Sublimation printing?
A. An Epson printer is required and we can offer advice as to which printer may suit your needs best.

We support a large range of Epson printers and the current models that are available with sublimation inks are the Epson D120 and the Epson Photo 1400.

Most people tend to go for an Epson D120 (A4 printer) or the Photo 1400 (A3 printer which can also print A4 size).

The 1400 is a 6 colour printer. This printer produces excellent colour printing and good speed of print as well. The D120 is an A4 printer and also produces excellent colour reproduction, if not a little slower. Generally budgets play a large role in printer choice with the 1400 costing a lot more than the D120.
Q. What is a colour correction profile?
A. As the sublimation ink colours are slightly different to the ink that the Epson printer would normally use then the way in which the printer interprets the screen image to print it out needs some adjustment. We can supply a small file which will configure the printer to print a closer match of colours using sublimation ink and this is free of charge when we supply the sublimation ink. Please note that colour profiling software is different depending on the type of sublimation ink you use and the profiles we supply are configured for the Sawgrass
(Artainium) sublimation ink that we supply.
Q. How does the printing work?
A. 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.
Q. What is the cost of printing with sublimation ink?
A. This is always a difficult question to answer, but this may provide some guidance when printing with the D88 A4 printer. This guide includes the cost of paper as well and is take from Sawgrass Technologies website...

• Heavy colour coverage: 7.5"x10" image with the Epson D88 - with cartridges £2.08, with a bulk feed system £0.58
• Medium colour coverage: 7.5"x10" image with the Epson D88 - with cartridges £1.26, with a bulk feed system £0.36
• Light colour coverage: 7.5"x10" image with the Epson D88 - with cartridges £1.05, with a bulk feed system £0.30
Q. Will a continuous printing system work out cheaper? (Called an EasyFlow System)
A. The data below refers to the D88 printer, but the principle is the same for the Epson D120, R265, Photo 1400, R1800 and other printers.

Yes there is a substantial saving on inks. With the continuous ink system you get 125ml of each colour ink and the ink is much cheaper per ml when bought in this form rather than prefilled in a cartridge. Our systems come ready primed and all you have to do is insert the
cartridges, connect one end of the tubes to the bottles and start printing. When you need more ink, simply unscrew the cap of the bottle and inject more ink into the EasyFlow container. We supply ink in 125ml, 250ml and 500ml. Look at the cost comparison above to see the difference in printing costs between cartridges and the bulk feed system.
Q. What paper do I need?
A. We offer 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.

Papers are available on the roll as well as in sheet format for the larger printers.
Q. Can I only print onto polyester garments?
A. 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 microweave 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.
Q. Can I only print onto white T-shirts and polo shirts with sublimation ink?
A. 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 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.

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