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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!
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 phone 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.
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Sublimation Paper Comparison Set UpI 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.
Sublimation Paper Comparison ResultsNot 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:
TexPrint Sublimation Paper TransferNext 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.
Hiipoo Sublimation Paper TransferNext 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.
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A-Sub Sublimation Paper TransferThen 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.
Copy Paper TransferYou 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.
Smooth Cardstock TransferFinally, 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!
Get Sublimation BlanksHello fellow crafters! I am Corinne Blackstone, and I am so excited to share my 5 tips for sublimation for beginners with you today! I really love doing sublimation for a lot of reasons and I want to make it easy for you to love it too! You can find a lot of great tips and tricks for working with sublimation on my YouTube channel, so if this blog inspires you to dip your feet into the sublimation waters be sure to check those out!
1) ALWAYS USE BUTCHER PAPER
When sublimating the paper is thin and the ink is strong, so having butcher paper to cover your design is a MUST. This is going to protect your press from getting ink on it, which can transfer to other projects. The butcher paper acts as a very helpful barrier and will absorb the ink before it makes it onto your press. When heated, sublimation ink becomes a gas, and it can really cause issues if it gets onto your pressing surface. Every time it is reheated it will turn into the gas again and dye the next project you make. You can grab butcher paper at local grocery stores, Amazon, and craft supply stores. Make sure it is not coated butcher paper and never wax paper.
2) USE BLANKS MADE FOR SUBLIMATION
This is probably the number one thing I see people who are new to sublimation having issues with. This is often an issue with ceramics like coffee mugs that are not polyester coated. Sublimation must be done on items that have a polyester coating or are made of a polyester fabric. The sublimation ink actually dyes the coating or the fabric making it permanent. The mugs you buy from The Dollar Tree or Walmart are not coated and, while great to add vinyl to, they will not work for sublimation. Even if you pressed them with a sublimation image nothing would transfer to the mug because there is no polyester surface for it to dye. This is true for cotton shirts, glass plates, bags and more. You need polyester in all those products for it to adhere. With shirts, you can do a cotton/poly blend but note that the higher the polyester content, the brighter your designs will be. Also note that sublimation needs to be done on light colored items for the most accurate color result.
3) PRINTER SETTINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT FOR EVERYONE
It is extremely common to have some color issues when you first start with sublimation. The printer, even if it is a sublimation printer, may need to have some settings changed in order to produce the best color and image. Many of us use Epson printers with sublimation ink and run into issues with lines in our design. The best way to handle this is to go into your printer preferences and change your print quality to high, then go under "more" tab at the top and find the "high-speed" print option and turn that off. If you do not have these settings, you will need to reinstall the drivers for your printer by simply going to the manufacturer’s website and searching for your printer model and drivers. Once you reinstall those you should have all the settings you need to make beautiful prints.
4) PRINTING YOUR SUBLIMATION DESIGN
Now that you’ve tweaked your printer settings, you need to think about where you are printing your design from. Meaning what program are you using? I will caution you to stay away from printing any sublimation designs from Cricut Design Space. Printing from Cricut Design Space wastes a lot of ink, material and in my experience, the color is actually more muted. There are many great programs you can print from, design your own images on or combine images to make your own unique design. I like using Inkscape, Canva, Adobe Illustrator or even Procreate if you have an iPad. These programs are designed to work with vector and high DPI PNG images for the best quality prints. DPI refers to the number of printed dots contained within one inch of an image. Higher DPI images are going to print with a much higher quality so you will have good clear designs that are not pixelated or blurry.
5) KNOWING HEAT TIME AND TEMP IS A MUST
Sublimation, much like using HTV/ Iron-On, does require specific time and temperature settings. These can be different based on your sublimation blank and also the way you are pressing them. There are many ways to press sublimation including a clam shell or swing away heat press, a mug or tumbler press or even a convection oven. Typically, the best place to find the recommended settings for your sublimation blanks is on your heat press manufacturer's website. Overheating your blank can cause burning which can make your blacks appear brown or leave yellow marks along the edges of your blank. Under heating can cause light colors, ghosting, and your print may not last long.
6) BONUS TIP - BE KIND TO YOURSELF!
This might be the most important tip when it comes to crafting! Be kind to yourself! We are all going to make mistakes, ruin projects and just generally have failures. That's ok and that's how we all learn. I cannot tell you how often I still mess up and I have been doing this for years! Whether you burn your project, forget to mirror it, press it upside down or even make it perfectly and then drop and break it, it's ok! Remember nobody's perfect and mistakes help us learn. Take a step back and forgive yourself!
Happy Sublimating!
Written by Corinne Blackstone
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