How Is Sublimation Different from Other Printing Techniques?

Sublimation is a unique printing technique that involves transferring ink onto a polyester coated fabric or surface using heat and pressure. Unlike other printing methods, such as screen printing or heat transfer vinyl, sublimation allows for a more precise and vibrant outcome. The process involves printing the artwork or design onto special sublimation paper using a sublimation printer. From there, the paper is placed onto the surface of the blank material and heat pressed for a certain amount of time depending on the substrate. This causes the ink to turn into a gas, which then permeates the fibers of the material and permanently dyes the surface.

The result is a gorgeous, high-quality image that won’t fade or peel. Whether it’s for customized shirts, mugs, or ornaments, sublimation’s versatility and permanence make it a popular choice for anyone looking to create a lasting impression.

What Equipment Do I Need to Get Started?

Setting up a home setup may seem daunting, but rest assured it can be done affordably and easily. The equipment needed includes a printer, heat press, sublimation ink, and paper. To get the best results, it's important to choose equipment that meets your needs.

1. Sublimation Printer

The market offers a wide range of sublimation printers to cater to different production needs. If you're just starting, we suggest starting with a desktop sublimation printer like the Sawgrass SG500. As your business grows and you require faster output to meet increasing demand, consider upgrading to a more advanced sublimation printer such as the Epson SureColor F6470 or the Epson 9470. These models represent the pinnacle of sublimation printing technology and are worth the investment.

2. Heat Press

Next up is a heat press, this handy gadget uses the perfect blend of heat and pressure, applied to a substrate like a t-shirt or a mug, for a certain amount of time. This process enables the ink to fuse seamlessly into your fabric or surface, making it permanent.

Just like with sublimation printers, the market is flooded with a vast array of heat presses, and it's easy to feel swamped by all the choices. Both the clamshell and swing-away heat presses are great tools. The clamshell press is ideal for thin materials like sublimation blanks because it applies even heat across the surface, ensuring a perfect print. Conversely, the swing-away press is better suited for thicker materials, as it can apply greater pressure and heat, ensuring an excellent transfer even in dense materials. We recommend purchasing a swing-away machine as it will remain suitable for your business as it grows.

Another primary aspect to consider is the size of the press. A 16" x 20" heat press, such as the Geo Knight DK20, is considered the industry standard and it's versatile enough to handle almost any task. Plus, it's a good investment for the future as it can accommodate larger designs when your business expands. However, if you're working on a tighter budget and can't afford a 16" x 20" model right away, you can start with a smaller one, say a 9" x 12" press, and gradually work your way up!

What Can I Sublimate?

Sublimation offers a world of possibilities for personalization and business growth. Everyday items like puzzles, keychains, blankets, and more can be transformed into unique, personalized pieces, expanding your product offerings. The quality of the sublimation blanks you choose is crucial to achieving high-quality results; wholesale options offer value for businesses planning on creating multiple items.

Beyond personal use, sublimation printing opens opportunities for creating customized gifts, home décor, and apparel, offering significant potential for business expansion. Imagine surprising customers with bespoke gifts or offering unique, personalized home décor items like wall art or photo canvases. The fashion industry also holds vast potential, with the ability to create custom t-shirts, hats, bags, and more that reflect individual style and personality.

Why it's Important to have Accurate Design Placement

If you're just getting started with sublimation, you may be wondering what a sublimation template is and why you even need one. Sublimation templates are premade design files that provide general guidelines of the image size that you will want to print for your product. They conform to the size and shape of your sublimation blank, and most of our templates include a small bleed (that is, printing that goes beyond the edge of the substrate) which covers you in case your item shifts slightly during heat transfer.

Sublimation templates are super useful as they take the guesswork out of what size your substrate is and how big of a design you need to print. Just simply pop your design into the template, print, and heat press it! Without a template, you may find yourself printing your design a few times to get the size just right, which wastes not only ink and paper but also your valuable production time.

Below, you will see a template we made for our neoprene hand sanitizer keychain holders. In this image, you can see the item size, the bleed layer, and our Coastal branding.

How to Use Your Sublimation Template?

Once you’ve downloaded your template, open it in your design program. For the purposes of this demonstration, we’ll be using Adobe Photoshop, but if you’re using Illustrator or CorelDRAW, the instructions will be similar. So don’t worry!

When you’ve got the template opened, you will notice three layers – safe area, bleed, and Coastal branding. The safe area is the actual item size. The bleed area is some extra printing space that we’ve added beyond the item’s size (between .25” and 1”), which gives you some wiggle room when you go to transfer.

Now, bring your designed image into your design program. (We should mention, you will probably want to have an image already prepared by the time you’re using this template). This could be a pattern that you downloaded online on websites like freepik.com or Adobe Stock, an SVG image you purchased, a photograph, etc.

Next, size your design appropriately within the template’s bleed area as shown in the video below. Next, create a clipping mask to clip your image into the bleed area (not the safe area). In Photoshop, this involves placing your design layer above the bleed layer, then right-clicking the design layer and pressing “create clipping mask.” After clipping your design into your bleed layer, you can hide the item size as well as the Coastal branding. And now, you should have one ready-to-go image that aligns perfectly with your blank!

How Does this Work for Curved Items?

When working with our templates for curved items such as latte mugs and certain other drinkware, you will notice there is not a bleed layer – only a safe area. This is normal! For these items, you will follow the same steps above except create a clipping mask to clip your mask onto the safe area instead.