# Ink ran when washed.



## teresa3200

I am very new to this, I purchased a heat press and printed several prints using my HP Envy inkjet printer. I now know I made a mistake. I washed one of my t shirts after printing and the ink ran all over. Can you tell me what type of printer is best to use to avoid the ink from running? Also I would like to print on cups and other items, so the printer would have to work for that also. I read to use a sublimation printer but not sure what I should look for. Sublimation printers say to use on polyester and I usually use cotton t shirts.


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## selanac

Teresa, you should probably use two different printers. One for cotton, and one for sublimation. 

You need to cure the ink with your heat press before washing. Some say wait 24 hours. The temperature should hit 320 degrees. 

You also need a proper heat press for the mugs, i.e. mug press. I use the same sublimation transfer paper that I use on t-shirts, and mugs. However, some suppliers sell hard and/or soft surface transfer paper. 

I bought an Epson printer, bought refillable ink cartridges, and bought sublimation ink to fill them with. 

When you change the ink cartridges and use something other than the OEM cartridges, the printer may not tell the computer that the ink is low. Work around, watch the cartridges to see when they're low. 

Hope this is helpful.


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## teresa3200

The t shirt I printed on was 100% cotton, and I printed on it over a week ago. So I guess the time was ok. I had my heat press set at 350 for 30 seconds. Should it be for a longer time? I'm not sure what to do. I have been looking into purchasing a sublimation printer, can I use that printer to make t shirt prints as well?


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## selanac

Teresa,

The reason anything washes out is due to the ink not being cured. You need to get a heat temperature gun to test the heat. Point it at the upper platten and make sure it hits 320 degrees all around. Not just in the center. You want even heat. 

As I said, yes you can change the ink of a inkjet printer to print sublimation ink. You can also buy one that already has sublimation ink from companies like Conde, Coastal Business, and other companies.


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## socceronly

teresa3200 said:


> I am very new to this, I purchased a heat press and printed several prints using my HP Envy inkjet printer. I now know I made a mistake. I washed one of my t shirts after printing and the ink ran all over. Can you tell me what type of printer is best to use to avoid the ink from running? Also I would like to print on cups and other items, so the printer would have to work for that also. I read to use a sublimation printer but not sure what I should look for. Sublimation printers say to use on polyester and I usually use cotton t shirts.


I assume you mean you printed on Inkjet paper and heat pressed it? 

I would use pigment ink for transfer paper, and the dye ink isn't the same as sublimation dye. 

You can't use sublimation on cotton. Poly only.


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## teresa3200

socceronly said:


> I assume you mean you printed on Inkjet paper and heat pressed it?
> 
> I would use pigment ink for transfer paper, and the dye ink isn't the same as sublimation dye.
> 
> You can't use sublimation on cotton. Poly only.


Can you give me any suggestions on what type of ink to use on cotton? Or how to make it work without running?


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## selanac

She mentioned someone told her she can only print on Polyester material. Well we're at it, hard surfaces have to have a sublimation coating also. 

The standard Dye ink will cure fine. It won't last as long, but it won't wash out the first time if you cure properly. Pigment ink transfers stay on the transfer. I.E. you don't print directly on the t-shirt, nor does the ink adhere to the t-shirt when transferred as sublimation does. Also DTG's print directly on t-shirts. 

I bought a Heat gun from harbor freight years ago and it's still working today. You can also do a print (cure) wash test by simply printing your transfer, cure it, and let it sit for 24 hours. Than wash is inside out. Do a normal wash nothing special. Dry it in the dryer, than see the results. It's a slow process, but it works. Right down your spec's like, heat press temp, how long you pressed for.


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## LeoKac

Hello, I have a problem with dark transfer paper (Blue Grid). With heat press and medium pressure, I use 350 Degrees Fahrenheit and 10 seconds. sometimes I use variations of temperature: from 350 to 380 and time: from 5 to 20.

I have a T-shirt printing/transferring production workshop.

Almost always the image looks great after the heat press. great colors and great clarity/sharpness. Just fine.

But after a day or two, the image gets blurry - like a Photoshop filter - Gaussian Blur. It happens all the time. Always. The T-shirt just stays in the room, no washing, no extreme conditions, just normally lays on the table for a day. Sometimes two-three days, and the image gets blurry. Very blurry.

I don't know what's wrong, what am I doing wrong? The White T-shirt printing and transferring has no problems at all, but when I print for dark T-shirts, this happens.

Maybe the printer ink is low quality? but if it is low quality, then white T-shirts would have the same problem too, right? Maybe the "BlueGrid" paper is low quality? Please help.


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