# Do I really need a special transfer paper for sublimation? See pictures!



## pur34zn1 (Nov 14, 2015)

Hey everyone.

This is my first post so please have mercy 

I just recently started sublimating shirts, and I did an experiment to see the difference between normal printer printer paper that you can buy at Walgreens and specially-formulated, double-sided, premium sublimation paper. I sublimated the same image with each paper (left is sublimation paper; right is normal paper).

*It seems to me that the results are identical. Why, then, do I always see suggestions that a special kind of paper needs to be used when sublimating?* The answer to this question will help me decide whether or not to buy less expensive normal paper or to go with the more expensive sublimation paper.










Any kind of help would be much appreciated.
Thank you very much!


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## cleggy (Apr 29, 2012)

Sublimation paper tends to be more porus so it holds more ink, but normal paper will also work but can give inconsistent results.


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## joeshaul (Mar 1, 2008)

I've heard heavy duty copy paper can be a good substitute, with the product gamut we have, don't know if I'd want to bother with there possibly being "paper issues" with something like sublicrylic that can be quite costly. To be honest, I discreetly hide and charge my customers the extra dime for the costs, don't let them know, they might go somewhere else!


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