# How to make my sublimation colors look good



## AuraHawkins16 (Sep 15, 2016)

im starting a new t shirt business and im lost , i bought 50/50 cotton and polyester , and yesterday i tried the sublimation for the first time it looks good but the colors were very light , i want them to look good because i want to sucess , i also want to know if you can sublimate on a dark garments if not what option do i have for dark colors, thank you for your help i really need it.


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## customprinted (May 26, 2014)

You wont get vivid colors on 50/50 shirts


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## customprinted (May 26, 2014)

It also depends on your icc profile, it is very important to have a the correct icc profile


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## AuraHawkins16 (Sep 15, 2016)

customprinted said:


> You wont get vivid colors on 50/50 shirts
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


It's there a way that i can make them look good , i read about a spray , could that work?


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## customprinted (May 26, 2014)

Never heard of it, but unless you use a 100% polyester shirt you wont get vivid colors, having more than 30% cotton present is going to dull your colors 


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## AuraHawkins16 (Sep 15, 2016)

customprinted said:


> It also depends on your icc profile, it is very important to have a the correct icc profile
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


What is an icc profile??


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## crizalide (Apr 18, 2016)

hey
yes the spray works, also check your printer sitting 
what paper do you use?


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

AuraHawkins16 said:


> It's there a way that i can make them look good , i read about a spray , could that work?


Those sprays usually "work", but why not just use regular inkjet transfers with a good pigment ink and a good paper like JPSS and then you can use a 50/50 t-shirt or 100% cotton without any spray crap instead?

Sublimation dye won't bond to natural fibers, so you have to coat them with a polymer so they do. That is what that spray crap does.

Without any prep 50/50's will look vintage, you are never going to get them to pop. You can improve with more saturation and more ink, but it won't get you where you need to be with any setting period.


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## macman29681 (May 24, 2013)

AuraHawkins16 said:


> What is an icc profile??


Where did you get your ink from? When you wash that 50/50 garment it will fade because the ink only binds to the polyester and not the cotton. An ICC profile is created by the ink seller to make sure what you see on the screen matches the output of your printer.


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## 529apparel (Jul 17, 2016)

Think of it this way: 
100% Polyester = 100% Opacity 
50% Polyester = 50% Opacity
etc. 

The higher % of Polyester the more
vivid the image will be. Dye sub inks ONLY dye Polyester and will not dye cotton so it will wash out of the cotton fibers. 


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

macman29681 said:


> Where did you get your ink from? When you wash that 50/50 garment it will fade because the ink only binds to the polyester and not the cotton. An ICC profile is created by the ink seller to make sure what you see on the screen matches the output of your printer.


A slight disagreement on the profile. The intent of a _printing_ profile is to ensure the printer matches the _source file's intention_ , not the monitor.

A calibrated monitor would be required to _view_ the source file accurately.

It is possible to print accurately even if the monitor accuracy is crap.

It is good to have a calibrated monitor (as I do) but that will have zero effect on how the final products printed color accuracy appears. 

In a perfect world the screen matches the source, the printer matches the screen, and the printer matches the source. 

I would guess 80 - 90% sublimating do not use a calibrated monitor. I presume your MAC monitor is really nice and accurate, but that's one good thing about MAC's. Most PC's out the box are not set up well for graphics editing. 

I use a dual monitor setup. I have an expensive ASUS ProArt 24 inch monitor that came with a cal cert and is 97% Adobe RGB1998 matched. On the the other side I have a cheap Upstar monitor that displays way different from the nice ACER monitor. If I open up any graphic in PS and move to either monitor they look entirely different, but no matter which monitor I am viewing it from the printing result is the same.


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## sinGN (Oct 12, 2016)

Hi
check the Icc profile before printing.


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