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Ever wonder how to get those gorgeous, multi-colored designs on your t-shirts, mugs, and more? It&#;s a process called sublimation printing and is becoming popular in the crafting community. Here is everything you need to know about sublimation crafting!
Crafting trends go in cycles, and right now sublimation is HOT! I let a lot of crafting trends pass me by (hello resin!) but I got hooked on sublimation printing and now it&#;s evolved into a full blown hobby for me!
Join our Sublimation Made Simple Facebook group for tips, tricks, support, and resources!
I recently converted an Epson Eco-Tank printer into a sublimation printer I use for all my own designs. Now that I&#;ve done a ton of my own experimenting, I feel ready to answer all of the sublimation questions that come my way. If you&#;re curious about getting started with sublimation printing or perhaps have a few questions, I&#;m sharing everything you need to know to get started today! Then in the upcoming weeks, I&#;ll be sharing tons of tutorials, troubleshooting posts, and more to help you become an amazing sublimation crafter. (See all new posts listed below)
Full disclosure: I do not plan to get super technical in the ways of sublimation technology, large professional printers, specialized heat presses, etc. I&#;m here to help you make an adorable photo mug for grandma or that perfect gift for a friend. You can likely run a small online or craft fair shop using my tips and tricks, however I am not going to be able to help you run a big, professional sublimation shop. There are amazing companies that provide great support if you&#;re looking for that kind of thing. Sublimation Summit is a fantastic resource!
That being said, I hope you find this post helpful and informative. If you have questions you don&#;t see here, feel free to let me know in the comments. I&#;m always happy to help!
You can check out all of the posts in my sublimation printing series here (this list is updated as more posts are added):
Sublimation for Beginners VideoStart by watching my introduction video, then read on for even more details!
What is Sublimation Printing?This is the most commonly asked question, and for good reason! Sublimation printing can be confusing and it has its own language and can be quite scientific.
If you want to get scientific (and feel free to skip this section if you&#;re like, &#;OMG Cori, I just want to make a t-shirt&#;), we most often think of matter states in two ways:
But there&#;s also another way. You can go from a solid directly to a gas in a process known as sublimation. (You can also go from gas to a solid, in a process called deposition&#;which is how frost forms on your car on a cold morning).
In simplest terms, you print a design using a sublimation printer, and then use high heat (a heat press, which we&#;ll talk about later) to turn the solid ink into a gas which infuses the design permanently onto your substrate. I&#;ll walk you through your first sublimation printing project in a future post!
If you&#;re on my blog, you may be familiar with Cricut products. Cricut Infusible Ink is sublimation product. Read more about Cricut Infusible Ink. It starts as a solid ink transfer sheet and then is heated to sublimate the ink onto the substrate, like with this mug:
The beauty of sublimation printing is that you can print and transfer nearly anything! You are not limited to the colors of iron on vinyl or Cricut Infusible Ink. Have a photo you&#;d like to turn into a keepsake? You can print and use the sublimation process to transfer it! You can also use your own design programs or download free or paid designs.
Can I Use My Current Inkjet Printer?Unfortunately, no. The inkjet printer you&#;re already using in your home or office will not work for sublimation printing. However, many crafters are converting Epson EcoTank inkjet printers into sublimation printers! I&#;ll be sharing how I converted my Epson Eco-Tank printer to a sublimation printer in an upcoming post (all of these photos were taken before my conversion). (See all new posts listed above).
You will want a NEW printer&#;specifically an Epson EcoTank printer&#;to do this. While it&#;s technically possible to clean an existing EcoTank printer, the process is difficult and results are hit or miss. So my recommendation is a new printer, all the way.
You can also purchase a specialized sublimation printer, however, they cost more and are geared toward those running sublimation businesses. Swing Design has a bunch of Sawgrass printer bundles, if you&#;d like to go the more professional route.
Do I Need a Cricut Machine?No, you actually don&#;t need a Cricut machine! Yes, I know most of my tutorials here are for Cricut crafting, but all you need is a design, a printer, and a heat source, which we&#;ll talk about in the next section. You can, of course, use your Cricut if you&#;re using Infusible Ink specifically.
What Materials Do I Need for Sublimation Printing?In order to successfully transfer an image from your printed design to substrate (i.e. blank), you need three basic items. I&#;ll review them below and provide you with a few options.
1. A Printer with Sublimation InkAs I mentioned before, you can&#;t print with just any old printer. The most popular option is to purchase an Epson EcoTank printer and convert it to a sublimation printer. You will also need specialized sublimation ink. The inks I use are fairly inexpensive and work well with the converted Epson printer.
That being said, you can purchase a fancy sublimation printer. However, there are more costly and ink typically costs hundreds of dollars to replace. These printers come with their own software and are geared more toward the professional sublimation printer, rather than a hobby printer. I&#;m really focusing here on sublimation printing for crafting.
2. A Heat PressSublimation ink is transferred through high heat. Unfortunately, your household iron won&#;t do the trick. It doesn&#;t get hot enough.
Here are a few that I have used:
There are other options as well, like using mug wraps in a convection oven or SubliShrink and a heat gun. Depending on interest, I can do posts on those things as well!
3. Sublimation PaperYou need a special type of paper for your sublimation printer. Regular printer paper just won&#;t do the trick. Sublimation paper is meant to withstand high temperatures and release the ink during the transfer process. I will compare different brands in a future post, but I&#;ve been using Hiipoo and have good results.
How is Sublimation Different than Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV / Iron-On) or Printable HTV?Heat transfer vinyl simply sits on top of your shirt or blank item, while the sublimation printing process actually infuses the ink into the fibers/surface of your item. That is what makes it permanent. If you&#;d like to see a project using both, check out this Summer T-Shirt.
While you can print directly on printable HTV and then use your Cricut to cut out the design, it acts the same way plain HTV does, being iron onto the substrate instead of into the substrate. While this may be a cheaper alternative to sublimation printing, after a while your design may start to crack or peel&#;even if you do everything right.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website sublimation transfer sheets bulk.
If you want a multi-colored, permanent image transferred into a shirt (or any sublimation-ready substrate), then sublimation printing will be your best bet!
How is Sublimation Different than Cricut Infusible Ink?Like I mentioned above, Cricut Infusible Ink is a sublimation product. Both sublimation prints and Cricut Infusible Ink need heat to turn the ink into a gas and infuse the product.
Cricut Infusible Ink is a bit more limited, though. You can use either sheets of solid/patterned infusible ink, which you need to cut with a Cricut machine, or Infusible Ink markers to draw/color and image. For example, I made these Summer Coasters using four different Cricut Infusible Ink transfer sheets. I created the design but the colors were not editable&#;these are the colors of the actual sheets.
While you can make beautiful products with both, sublimation printing is limitless. You can print nearly any color and pattern with detail you just can&#;t achieve with transfer sheets or markers alone.
What Kind of Substrates Can I Sublimate?There are sublimation blanks available for almost anything, from t-shirts, to keychains, to tumblers, and more. For an item to work with sublimation ink, it needs to be primarily polyester or have a special poly-coating. For example, your standard household mug won&#;t work because it doesn&#;t have the special poly-coating. I&#;ve compiled a list of the most popular sublimation blanks, which I&#;ll be sharing in an upcoming post. (See all new posts listed above).
Typically for clothing and apparel items, you want at least 75% polyester. You can go down to 50% but any lower than that and your ink may fade over time. The lower the polyester makeup, the more &#;vintage&#; and less bright your final design will appear.
Sublimation blanks are often referred to as substrates. You may see me use the word interchangeably throughout this blog post and future ones.
Can I Sublimate a Cotton Shirt or Regular Coffee Mug?As mentioned above, in order to sublimate, the material needs to be mostly polyester or poly-coated. A standard coffee mug won&#;t work. It does not have the coating, which allows the ink to be directly infused into the mug. A poly-coated mug looks just like a regular one, though! So be careful not to mix them up.
Cotton shirts cannot be sublimated on directly. However, you can purchase a sublimation coating spray for use on shirts. This coating allows you to sublimate on materials you wouldn&#;t normally be able to. I have a test of a few different brands to share soon as well!
How Much Does Sublimation Printing Cost?Costs can vary, however, the largest cost will always be your printer and ink. The printer is, of course, a one-time cost, but you will need to replace ink over time. An Epson Eco-Tank printer and Printers Jack ink for example, will cost you a few hundred dollars. A professional grade sublimation printer and ink, however, can cost thousands of dollars. It honestly depends on what brands you choose.
Then your other costs are substrates, which range from super inexpensive to quite pricey. My favorite place to purchase is Heat Transfer Warehouse, though I&#;ve found a lot of good blanks on Amazon as well. If you&#;re going to be be sublimating a lot of the substrate, make sure to buy in bulk to save money.
As mentioned before, I am a hobby sublimation printer, so I don&#;t need anything super fancy. I plan to stick to the basics and try to share products I believe are reasonable for crafters!
I hope you found this sublimation overview helpful! Stay tuned for more sublimation posts in the upcoming days, including how to convert that Epson EcoTank printer so you can get started on your sublimation crafting journey too! (See all new posts listed above).
Because there are so many different types of specialty papers on the market (and thousands of different projects they can be used for), we get these two questions quite often:
What kind of heat transfer paper do I need? What is the best heat transfer paper?
The first step you'll need to make when deciding which heat transfer paper to buy is identify the type of printer you have (or intend to purchase). In the world of heat transfer paper, there are two main kinds of printers: inkjet and laser.
If you're unsure which type you have, the answer may be as easy as running a Google search on the model number of your printer, which is often located on the printer itself. You can also check to see if your printer takes ink cartridges (filled with a liquid ink), which would indicate you have an inkjet printer. A printer that takes toner cartridges (filled with a powder) would suggest you have a laser printer. Still having trouble? Don't hesitate to call our Product Support Department at 800-562-, option #3.
I don't have a printer yet - should I buy laser or inkjet?
If you haven't picked up your first printer yet, you may be wondering if you should start with a laser or inkjet printer. Both types of printers have the capability of producing high quality, professional T-shirts and garments.
In general, you will find that inkjet printers are less expensive than laser printers and carry one of the lowest startup costs in the garment personalization industry. Inkjet printers are also ideal for printing photographs as they can print a full range of colors. The downside is that they are not self-weeding, and it is necessary to cut around the image before pressing it to your garment. This is especially the case for dark garments - otherwise, you will have a white background around your image.
Laser printers, while typically more expensive than their inkjet counterparts, excel with printing vector-based art and can also do quite a good job printing photos as well. This is especially true if you use a RIP software such as Digital Factory Crio Transfer RIP v10 that allows you to rasterize photos (essentially breaking them into smaller dots), which gives you a lighter "hand" or feel, as well as superior washability. Possibly the biggest plus is that many laser heat transfer papers are self-weeding (aka two-step), which means you don't have to cut around the garment, and there is no feel or "hand" anywhere outside of the printed image.
If you'd like to read a little bit more about the differences between inkjet printers and laser printers, we cover this topic in more detail in our post "3 Things You Must Know Before Buying Heat Transfer Paper".
It can be daunting to navigate our selection of heat transfer paper with all the variety of heat transfer paper for laser printers and inkjet printers. If you aren't sure where to look first, start out by asking yourself a couple questions, and you'll find that narrowing down the options is simpler than it seems.
Begin by asking yourself these two questions:
White or light garment colors (including natural, tan, light ash gray, off-white, etc.) can be decorated with a transfer paper that is specially made for light garments (such as JetPro Soft Stretch). Light heat transfer paper contains a transparent polymer coating, so keep in mind that anytime you put this transparent paper onto a colored garment your shirt color will take on any empty spaces in your print - which can, at times, slightly change the coloring of your image.
Dark garment colors (black, red, blue, navy, green, etc.) require the use of a paper specifically made for dark garments (such as 3G Jet Opaque or Jet-Opaque II). Dark garment heat transfer paper has a white, opaquer polymer coating - therefore, your image will transfer as you originally designed it, and no shirt color will show through any unprinted areas. Reminder that when using a dark transfer paper, any bit of paper that is not trimmed away with scissors or a cutter (or any spot that doesn't contain a print) will show up as white on your dark garment.
Both types of heat transfer paper can be applied using either a home iron or a commercial heat press. Based on our experience in testing all kinds of specialty paper, we always suggest using an actual heat press for the best results - but a home iron will also work (with some patience).
The other consideration to bear in mind is what type of fabric you are printing on. As a rule of thumb, most transfer papers will work with 100% cotton, 100% polyester and poly/cotton blends. The notable exception is 3G Jet Opaque, which will work only on 100% cotton. If you are printing on other fabrics outside of cotton, polyester and poly/cotton blends, that is not to say our heat transfer papers will not work with them. However, given the breadth of fabrics that exist, we do not guarantee they will work with all of them.
For your convenience, we have put together a chart of which paper you will need based on fabric type, garment color (dark / light), and printer type (inkjet / laser).
When using a light heat transfer paper, keep these pointers in mind to ensure you are pressing for success:
When personalizing your products with a dark heat transfer paper, follow these tips for the best results:
We hope this provides you with a little more understanding about how to navigate our paper options and helps you decide which heat transfer paper to go with for your project! If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to the Coastal Product Support Department at 800-562- or by at [ protected].
Are you interested in learning more about a4 sublimation paper manufacturer? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!