# Dye Sublimation Color Corrections



## MFibers (May 6, 2011)

Hi All,

Just a quick question regarding color corrections and the information we're getting from our dye sublimation printers.

My business involves scanning pieces of artwork and then printing them via dye sublimation onto shirts. We're still building up the capital to buy our own dye sublimation printer, so at the moment we're outsourcing to a local company.

They've told us that because our scanner scans in RGB and not CMYK, that each design is going to take two days to color correct, and that there's no work around that our in house graphic designers can do to make the process go any faster.

Is there anything we can do? I'm new to this business and slightly ignorant on what exactly color correction for Dye Sublimation entails. It would be no problem for my designers to change our image color scheme from RGB to CMYK, if that would solve the problem. 

Thanks!


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

I would say that most dye sub shops use RGB colors thus you may want to shop around.


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## tshirtsrus (Jun 6, 2007)

Are you sure they are talking about Dye Sublimation?, as far as I know sublimation only works in RGB mode, unless they are using a different system that I'm not aware of.


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## LB (Jul 25, 2009)

I think they are pulling your chain. I print sublimation on a Ricoh 4 color printer and everything is done in RGB. That is what was recommended to us by the distributor. What kind of scanner do you have?


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

There are shops that still use CMYK it is my understanding RGB offers a wider gammot of colors.


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## LB (Jul 25, 2009)

Riderz Ready said:


> There are shops that still use CMYK it is my understanding RGB offers a wider gammot of colors.


You are correct..wider gamut. In other words, more colors can be produced.


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## Conde_David (May 29, 2008)

I too agree that your information is incorrect
for digital devices like we use for sublimation.

Correcting scans can be a very difficult process
like folks that reproduce fine art painting. 

I suggest you find someone good a scanning.


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## Roughneck (Apr 19, 2011)

And the colors come out gorgeous in RGB, don't they? I love it!


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## PositiveDave (Dec 1, 2008)

MFibers said:


> Hi All,
> 
> Just a quick question regarding color corrections and the information we're getting from our dye sublimation printers.
> 
> ...


Absolute rubbish! Go to a decent printer.
Whilst it is true that RGB has a wider gamut, at some point you have to convert to CMYK for printing, you should do this at the last minute.


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## PhilDx (Feb 13, 2010)

Maybe it's confusion between color CONVERSION and CORRECTION? 

The printer itself will put down inks using CMYK. The images you have on your computer should generally stay in RGB color mode. The color CONVERSION happens at printing time and is done in software either by the printing computer or the printer itself using color profiles.

It sounds like your printer may be talking about color CORRECTION. That's where a skilled graphics person takes the original scan and 'corrects' the colors in an app like Photoshop. Whether they work in RGB or CMYK is a function of final output, there are many variables and it can take years to get good at this, and yes, it could have a two day turnaround. 

As far as I know all the available color profiles for sublimation assume an RGB original, hence the comments above, and that's why outputting a CMYK original doesn't give good sublimation color. It shouldn't be that way but it seems folks like Sawgrass don't really care as long as you'll get a just-ok print. I've been back a forth with them on color profiles and it's clear they don't really understand what they're doing.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

PositiveDave said:


> Absolute rubbish! Go to a decent printer.
> Whilst it is true that RGB has a wider gamut, at some point you have to convert to CMYK for printing, you should do this at the last minute.


Epson printers are native RGB, while the carts are CMYK, the process of RGB to CMYK conversion is handled in the printer driver and not required for the user to interact in that process. Your workspace is always RGB.

If you have a RIP you can have a lot of conversion options, but basic sublimating with a ICC profile is transparent to the end user for the final CMYK conversion, the printer does it for you.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

MFibers said:


> Hi All,
> 
> Just a quick question regarding color corrections and the information we're getting from our dye sublimation printers.
> 
> ...


Forget CMYK conversions.

For your color corrections print (and sublimate) something from your art scans first and see if it is good enough or not. This should be on something imprinted that you are going to sell. Of course you need to clean up your scans firsts.

Once you are setup with the inks and ICC profile use this for your "baseline" print and sublimate this file using Adobe RGB 1998 color workspace.

http://www.gballard.net/dl/PDI_TargetFolderONLY.zip

It will show your strengths and weakness immediatly from you sublimation process. If you must tweak it can help eliminate some of the trial and error involved in your color corrections later.

I hope you are planning to print a lot of the same design over and over after your color corrections are locked down, or print one big continuous job. 

While you can improve bitmaps using Photoshop color isolation tools, and a lot of tedious trial and error, your hardcopy "proofs' are not paper anymore, they are heat transfered substrates. 

Question is time and money, and how much the person whom judges the final sublimation product vs. the originals colors accuracy is willing to compromise.

I would suggest that once you're setup properly to sublimate determine if your output is good enough and do you really need to "tweak" of not.

Michael


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## MFibers (May 6, 2011)

Thanks for the advice guys.


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