# Heat Transfer Vinyl with Sublimation Ink



## TshirtNewb1011

Hello T-shirt community, I have a seemingly stupid question that i cannot seem to find an answer to. First of all, I am new to t shirt printing and am planning on starting up my business pretty soon. I have a Ricoh printer with Sublijet-R ink for *sublimation printing* and am planning on purchasing a vinyl cutter. 
My question is this, since i am using this sublimation ink and the addition of the vinyl material will I be able to print on other fabrics such as cotton, or will i be doomed to limiting myself to only polyester/polymer coated materials even with the vinyl material.

(I have a limited knowledge of t-shirt printing and any help, tips, comments would be extremely appreciated.)


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## dcbevins

Sublimation is not printing on the tshirt. The initial transfer is printed. Standard Heat Transferred Vinyl does not involve any printing. They are transfers via a heating press, just to be clear.

Sublimation as far as I know is polyester only, with some pre-treatment possibilities for other materials. Seems costly to pre-treat.

Heat Transfer Vinyl is not full color. Each color has to be cut and transferred. It is a poor solution for many color designs and no solution for photo or full color designs.

Printing onto HTV is another matter.

HTV can be applied to a larger range of garment materials, even leather in some cases.


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## splathead

You can apply your vinyl to cotton, but not your sublimation ink.


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## tippy

You can sublimate on some vinyls, and the HTV can be pressed onto cotton. We chatted about this over in the DyeSub area: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/dye-sublimation/t488817.html


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## TshirtNewb1011

Ah, I think I get it now. I was a little cloudy on some aspects of how the whole process works, but your comments have helped me better understand. Thank you all for your helpful comments, they are very much appreciated.


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## djque

You can sublimation on to certain glitter vinyl and that can be heat pressed on to cotton. 
Sublimation is only on poly but vapor apparel and American apparel have poly t shirts that feel like cotton.


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## Eie8631

I have the printable vinyl in white...does anyone know if that can be sublimated?


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