# Dye sublimation ink versus pigment, confused. Pigment is for heat transfer, obviously dye sub is for sublimation. Right??? Ugggghhh!



## Harley1431 (Dec 13, 2011)

Confused, just doing some reading on ink, the only type of sublimation ink is dye sublimation. Pigment ink is for heat transfers. Help!!


Is it best to buy a ciss for sub and heat trans. I have two printers and Will be doing both.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

You got it....sublimation ink for polyester white and pastel. Pigment ink for ink jet transfers. Whether you use a CIS fir eithe ink or both is a personal choice...some like one..some the other. I do not use a CIS.


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## sben763 (May 17, 2009)

Harley1431 said:


> Confused, just doing some reading on ink, the only type of sublimation ink is dye sublimation. Pigment ink is for heat transfers. Help!!
> 
> 
> Is it best to buy a ciss for sub and heat trans. I have two printers and Will be doing both.


Dye sub for polyester 100% I dont like the look on 50/50 also for hard surfaces with coating applied for dye sub. You can just use any mug or tile and expect it to sublimate. Heat transfers for 100% cotton I have been told you can on 50/50 but I never have. I have done some other blends like 90/10 and 70/30. We usally screen print our 50/50 stuff.


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## Harley1431 (Dec 13, 2011)

Wouldn't be more economical to have a CIS?


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

Possibly a bit more evonomcal but refilling can be a bit messy if you are not careful...I just price tbe end product according to my cost and my local pricing


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## sben763 (May 17, 2009)

Harley1431 said:


> Wouldn't be more economical to have a CIS?


It ussally is alway more economical to use CISS. pigment and dye sub should be printed from daily or at least every other. All of the printers I have for dye sub or pigment ink have waste ink tanks and I clean before every long run of tranfers or sub paper. When doing sub I look at every few prints while working on other stuff and print 20 at a time. Nothing suck more than wasting 5-10 transfer cause a head clogged in the middle of printing. Has only happened a couple of times twice it wasted some paper the other few times I caught it. There are a few programs out there that will print a full color every day or so to prevent heads from clogging.Print head cleaning the easy way. No more clogged inkjets with Harvey Head Cleaner.

Thats one of them some claim Ciss clogg more often I cant see it after 3-4 years of transfers and a few years of photography before that but I was using standard dye ink but its not known for clogging


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

sben763 said:


> It ussally is alway more economical to use CISS. pigment and dye sub should be printed from daily or at least every other. All of the printers I have for dye sub or pigment ink have waste ink tanks and I clean before every long run of tranfers or sub paper. When doing sub I look at every few prints while working on other stuff and print 20 at a time. Nothing suck more than wasting 5-10 transfer cause a head clogged in the middle of printing. Has only happened a couple of times twice it wasted some paper the other few times I caught it. There are a few programs out there that will print a full color every day or so to prevent heads from clogging.Print head cleaning the easy way. No more clogged inkjets with Harvey Head Cleaner.
> 
> Thats one of them some claim Ciss clogg more often I cant see it after 3-4 years of transfers and a few years of photography before that but I was using standard dye ink but its not known for clogging


I agree there is some cost savings with CIS as if you are using carts an automatic head clean occurs when you refill the cart and place back in the printer. Most CIS have "always full" chips and don't require a manual reset.

If your ink costs are high this is more of a factor, along with the number of colors you are using. A head clean on a 6 or 8 color printer is more expensive than on 4 color printer.


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