# Sublimation dark fabric



## dayday67

Do they make a sublimation inkjet for dark fabric?


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## dayday67

dayday67 said:


> Do they make a sublimation inkjet for dark fabric?


Self-weeding heat transfer for dark fabric with sublimation inkjet


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## splathead

No. Ink has to be darker than the fabric.


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## NoXid

Sublimation is a dye process, and dying is an additive process: blue and yellow yield green. Black is all the colors combined. Applying more dye to a black substrate only makes it blacker or slightly shifts the tone of the black, making it a bit warmer or cooler in tone, but irrevocably black.

Pigment based inks are a different process from sublimation. Pigments don't dye the substrate, they paint over it, like house paint. White inks/paints contain a metric poop-ton of titanium dioxide pigment in order to conceal the substrate color.


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## Lnfortun

dayday67 said:


> Self-weeding heat transfer for dark fabric with sublimation inkjet


You can if you are willing to spend on cheap B/W printer with the black toner replaced with white toner, self weeding 2 step Imageclip Laser Dark and Sublimation inkjet printer. You need white underbase to apply sublimation for dark fabric. Opaque from Imageclip transfer and White toner will be the underbase.

It would be similar process in this thread Here. Except the inkjet ink used was regular dye(*It should have been pigment ink or sublimation*) and the laser printer was CMYK to print the white underbase. Sublimation inkjet printer and B/W printer will work instead of regular pigment inkjet and CMYK laser printers as well.

Atttransfer sells the white toner for B/W printer. Buy the recommended B/W printer by Atttransfer from any office supply and save money.

The image below is one of the photos in the tread above. It was pressed on dark fabric. Again I used regular dye ink because I did not have sublimation inkjet printer. Sublimation ink will work as well. The second was done with sublimation ink, white laser and Imageclip Laser dark transfer. Pardon the registration comment. I have to be honest the process is not flawless. You have to be careful when marrying and weeding the laser transfer.


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## NoXid

That sort of approach is indeed an option, but it is NOT sublimating the shirt. It is sublimating a piece of plastic that one then heat presses onto the shirt--at which point it is little different than pigment ink transfers or Plastisol transfers in that there is a layer of "stuff" stuck onto the face of the shirt, as opposed to sublimation of the actual shirt which dyes the shirt without adding any weight or feel or layer to its surface.

Yes, yes, I know you know this. Just making it clear for those who don't, as every even remotely ambiguous post on this topic results in some believing they have sighted a unicorn that does not in fact exist.



Lnfortun said:


> You can if you are willing to spend on cheap B/W printer with the black toner replaced with white toner, self weeding 2 step Imageclip Laser Dark and Sublimation inkjet printer. You need white underbase to apply sublimation for dark fabric. Opaque from Imageclip transfer and White toner will be the underbase.
> 
> It would be similar process in this thread Here. Except the inkjet ink used was regular dye(*It should have been pigment ink or sublimation*) and the laser printer was CMYK to print the white underbase. Sublimation inkjet printer and B/W printer will work instead of regular pigment inkjet and CMYK laser printers as well.
> 
> Atttransfer sells the white toner for B/W printer. Buy the recommended B/W printer by Atttransfer from any office supply and save money.
> 
> The image below is one of the photos in the tread above. It was pressed on dark fabric. Again I used regular dye ink because I did not have sublimation inkjet printer. Sublimation ink will work as well. The second was done with sublimation ink, white laser and Imageclip Laser dark transfer. Pardon the registration comment. I have to be honest the process is not flawless. You have to be careful when marrying and weeding the laser transfer.


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## Lnfortun

NoXid said:


> That sort of approach is indeed an option, but it is NOT sublimating the shirt. It is sublimating a piece of plastic that one then heat presses onto the shirt--at which point it is little different than pigment ink transfers or Plastisol transfers in that there is a layer of "stuff" stuck onto the face of the shirt, as opposed to sublimation of the actual shirt which dyes the shirt without adding any weight or feel or layer to its surface.
> 
> Yes, yes, I know you know this. Just making it clear for those who don't, as every even remotely ambiguous post on this topic results in some believing they have sighted a unicorn that does not in fact exist.


I know it is not sublimating the shirt directly. How else would one do on dark shirt and 100% cotton to boot, without using underbase that will block the shirt color, besides removing the dye on the shirt where the image would be sublimated. There was a company long ago that sells dark shirt with dye where the image will be sublimated is removed.

I posted as an option to do dark shirts. I am not claiming a Unicorn or holy Grail it is just another option.

BTW here is a better photo of the ATTTRansfer's process. It was done by Ross Hardie in Inkjetcarts.us facility. I was told "Ross thinks it is better than DTG". The test substrate was not for commercial use. It was done to test the process. The fabric used was 100% cotton which cannot be directly sublimated.


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## tfalk

Lnfortun said:


> BTW here is a better photo of the ATTTRansfer's process.


Link/image does not work. I tried copy/pasting it and all I got was a black screen...

Al claimed he had a better paper he was bringing to production. That was last summer. I tried to buy his 'system' last summer. All I will say is Caveat Emptor and leave it at that.


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## webtrekker

This is one of the worst forums I know for image posting.


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## Lnfortun

tfalk said:


> Link/image does not work. I tried copy/pasting it and all I got was a black screen...
> 
> Al claimed he had a better paper he was bringing to production. That was last summer. I tried to buy his 'system' last summer. All I will say is Caveat Emptor and leave it at that.


Sorry about that. Here is the forums way of uploading photos.


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## Lnfortun

Anyone seen this video? This is a game changer. Some of the forum self proclaimed sublimation expert calls it a Unicorn or debunkers hate to see in the forum.

https://www.siser.com/the-guide-to-easysubli/


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## ginzburg

The Siser product requires contour cutting. Chemica has a similar one. The problem is that they show that they are over 200 microns. That is pretty thick. 



Forever has Subli-Flex 202. I don't see how thick it is. I think it gets printed on the backside and then sublimates to the front.



There are also some Reveal style offerings that seem to be coming out. I don't even know if they are actually for sale or even if they actually work.



Reveal has Reveal-W https://vividchemical.com/reveal-w 

I don't know much about it. If something like this can be made white with clear ink, then it seems like it could be full color if you had actual sublimation inks in addition. I wonder why they even call it sublimation. 



Forever claims to have a similar product. https://www.forever-ots.com/product/subli-flex-no-cut/


Forever also has a glitter one for darks. https://www.forever-ots.com/product-category/transfer-media/sublimation-printers/subli-dark-no-cut/


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## Lnfortun

This does not need heatpress. It is !ow temp. Don't require UV or echosolvent printer. The way I see it if the ink subordinates thru the vinyl so will the will the dye from the polyester shirt.

I have read reveals does not live up to what was intended for. Opaque or vinyl do require contour cutting. It is par for the course. Unless you know something Is don't know.


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## webtrekker

Head..... Wall..... Bang.....


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## PatWibble

dayday67 said:


> Do they make a sublimation inkjet for dark fabric?


 No..........


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## 1ArmBandit

i wish we could do gifs muahaha


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## DrivingZiggy

1ArmBandit said:


> i wish we could do gifs muahaha


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## ginzburg

Lnfortun said:


> I have read reveals does not live up to what was intended for. Opaque or vinyl do require contour cutting. It is par for the course. Unless you know something Is don't know.



Vivid Chemical did claim that they are or were developing a full color version like the Reveal W. I don't know what the status of that is. 



It does seem like the shirt color would also migrate though, but the Forever product seems to work from the back to the front.


That Siser product is very low temp. They claim it is better with their special inks. Maybe those are low temperature inks or something.


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## ipromoink

Lnfortun said:


> Anyone seen this video? This is a game changer. Some of the forum self proclaimed sublimation expert calls it a Unicorn or debunkers hate to see in the forum.
> 
> https://www.siser.com/the-guide-to-easysubli/


am I missing something? I can do this with 3G Jet Opaque without the need for sublimation ink.


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## ginzburg

ipromoink said:


> am I missing something? I can do this with 3G Jet Opaque without the need for sublimation ink.



What is different with that is the very low temperature is uses. That seems unusual for sublimation. It would be very similar to use as the 3G Jet Opaque.


The Forever is slightly different in that it doesn't need to be transfered with a tack sheet.



This video is very annoying, but it shows how it works.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzrDPd9ZMW4


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## pmzirkle

Look into the Tag material from JDS


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## SublimatorToo

I need to cut my grass today but I don't have a lawnmower.


However, I do have a carpenter hammer. Do you think that would work?


I fail to understand why there is no end of dolts who think that a light transparent dye will be visible on a black shirt. And of course, they want that shirt to be cotton.


How did they ever learn about dye sublimation and come to miss what it is and how it works and then get POed when they find out that they can't mash it into what they'd like?


Have they been misinformed by suppliers?


Now where's my hammer? That grass isn't getting any shorter.


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## proworlded

Wait until you see EasySubli that will be available next Tuesday. It is definitely a game changer.


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## DrivingZiggy

proworlded said:


> Wait until you see EasySubli that will be available next Tuesday. It is definitely a game changer.


Hah! I guess we were typing at the same time. I just started a new thread rather than trying to answer the plethora of threads out there.


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