# sublimate a photo



## peppapig134 (Jul 4, 2011)

hi if i printed a photo image onto normal sublimation paper and printed it onto a white fabric would it look ok?anyone had experience with this or do u have to buy a special kind of paper?, cheers tez


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## edward1210 (Nov 7, 2009)

peppapig134 said:


> hi if i printed a photo image onto normal sublimation paper and printed it onto a white fabric would it look ok?anyone had experience with this or do u have to buy a special kind of paper?, cheers tez


 IF you are talking about sublimation the blank has to be 100 poly.
If you talking about inkjet it could be 100% cotton, yes, it will look good.
Sublimation has to be 400f arount 35 to 45 mins.


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

Your paper in many cases will depend on what substrate you are printing. For fabic we use one paper and for glossy products like number plates, water bottles, etc we use another.


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## discoqueen (Jun 5, 2010)

edward1210 said:


> IF you are talking about sublimation the blank has to be 100 poly.
> If you talking about inkjet it could be 100% cotton, yes, it will look good.
> Sublimation has to be 400f arount 35 to 45 *mins.*


SECONDS. Not minutes. Pretty sure something would catch fire if you went 35-45 minutes at 400 degrees.

And again, the time will also vary depending on what you're sublimating on.


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## D.Evo. (Mar 31, 2006)

To sum it up - if you print on sublimation paper with sublimation inks and press onto polyester - it will work really well  
With regards to time - I mostly press fabrics at 50-60 sec on low pressure, less time doesn't give me the same vibrancy. You may want to experiment with different combinations of time, temperature and pressure to see what works best for you. Temperature has to be around 400F/200C, but for some types of fabric it's better to drop it down a little bit.


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## edward1210 (Nov 7, 2009)

D.Evo. said:


> To sum it up - if you print on sublimation paper with sublimation inks and press onto polyester - it will work really well
> With regards to time - I mostly press fabrics at 50-60 sec on low pressure, less time doesn't give me the same vibrancy. You may want to experiment with different combinations of time, temperature and pressure to see what works best for you. Temperature has to be around 400F/200C, but for some types of fabric it's better to drop it down a little bit.


 sorry, yes you are correct, sorry I mean seconds.


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## peppapig134 (Jul 4, 2011)

DISCOQUEEN that made me lol out loud! i knew what u meant edward and it made me laugh so all good in the cold uk!lol what time would u guys reccomend for pressing onto a laptop sleeve? cheers, tez.


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## discoqueen (Jun 5, 2010)

peppapig134 said:


> DISCOQUEEN that made me lol out loud! i knew what u meant edward and it made me laugh so all good in the cold uk!lol what time would u guys reccomend for pressing onto a laptop sleeve? cheers, tez.


I knew what he meant too, but I figured I'd put it out there, just in case someone that knows very little about sublimation was reading this! We don't want any fires!


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## peppapig134 (Jul 4, 2011)

no we dont mate lol it really tickled me!


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

One thing to also remember - check your presses actual temp with a guage especially if your colors are not what you think they should be. We are a perfect example as ours was off by 20 degrees thus when we first pressed at 390 it was actually 370. Big difference in results.


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