# All Over Dye Sublimation Printing Disappointment



## twillis (Feb 29, 2012)

I run a small, super ethical e-commerce t-shirt and jumper brand based in the UK. Up and until now we have pretty much stuck to discharge printing. We really wanted to realise a few ideas that were beyond the capabilities of screen printing and decided to look into dye sublimation printing.

We just recently received some samples back from our Sublimation printers. We were specifically in the market for all over prints with vibrancy and have ended up with a really faded looking, mostly grey product on a 65% poly/ 35% cotton jumper. 

Needless to say, we are massively disappointed with the results. We had no black come out at all and all our darker prints just looked completely washed out. Our sublimation printers website is full of all over dye-sub jumpers with black in the prints - were those images given a little edit in photoshop or is it the process? 

Does any one have some advice on what kind of printing would work for a vibrant finish for all over printing? And where to source it ethically in the UK? 

Any help on this would be amazing - we read so much great stuff about sublimation printing but we seem to have ended up with pretty shockingly poor results.


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

Welcome to the world of misleading dye sub product photos on the web. I would guess it happens with other decorating methods but happens more times than not with dye sub.

First you will never get vibrant colors on 65/35 shirts. No ink is adhering to the cotton. Second dye sub colors vary from vendor to vendor depending on their ink, their profiles, etc. What this means is you can send the exact same design file to 5 different dye sub shops and most likely you will get 5 totally different results. In short the dye sub supplier may be able to produce vibrant colors you are just not using the correct values to do such. 

The only way to get professional colors is to get a color chart printed on the shirt or material you are using from your supplier and use their color values to create your image. Does not matter what it looks like on the screen - just how it prints.


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## twillis (Feb 29, 2012)

Ha ha ha! Well, it will be considered a steep learning curve. We have been so lucky with all our other suppliers so far and have had a good honest representation of product and also great advice from them.

Thank you for your advice - total eye opener. 

Will certainly be listening less to the talk and looking more at the work in person, from here on out!


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

Riderez has nailed it dead on....for sublimation you need 100% white/pastel polyester...won't work on cotton or darks


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## Stitch-Up (May 26, 2007)

@Riderz Ready

I saw all over dye sublimation at a recent show in the UK - it was very interesting.

Hope you don't mind me asking for tips? I understand if you'd prefer not to answer.

We have a rather redundant Epson 9800 and have thought of using it for 'All Over Sublimation'.

Would you know if this printer is suitable and where, could we get sublimation inks for it?

What heatpress do you use?

Thanks in advance.

John


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## ZO6 KLR (Jan 8, 2013)

Stitch-Up said:


> @Riderz Ready
> 
> I saw all over dye sublimation at a recent show in the UK - it was very interesting.
> 
> ...


Mark from Riderz has not posted in quite some time but I may be of some help.

The 9800 is quite capable of dye sub printing. If you can overlook the fact that it is a turtle compared to most production machines, then it will suffice. The 9800 was my first "large format" printer I purchased and I still have it to this day. I may run a print on it once in a while or so just to keep the heads from clogging. We've since moved on to larger and faster production printers.

I am unsure about the UK as to where to purchase inks. We use Jteck 
at my shop and I believe Mark used the same if I can recall.

The smallest heat press you would need would be a 30" x 40" to produce your all over prints. Again, I think this was the size of Mark's press at the time. A 44" x 64" would be a better choice, though.


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## Stitch-Up (May 26, 2007)

Thanks for the reply Mark,

Yes, the 9800 is an old printer! Ours is still printing well but not often enough.

I'm not sure what market we'll have for all-over prints hence I don't want to spend a lot of money on a new printer just yet.

What brand of heat press do you use?

Thanks

John


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## ZO6 KLR (Jan 8, 2013)

Stitch-Up said:


> Thanks for the reply Mark,
> 
> Yes, the 9800 is an old printer! Ours is still printing well but not often enough.
> 
> ...


John, we currently operate a custom made Geo Knight 48" x 48" Maxi Air press and a 74" AIT rotary press.


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