Every Fibre Tells A Story

Russell HD T

Sublimation Guide

*10 Colours available from the 1st September 2014

Every Fibre Tells A Story

Contents

1. What is sublimation?

2. Benefits of Sublimation

3. Debunking the myths

4. Equipment

5. Images

6. How to sublimate?

7. Troubleshooting

Every Fibre Tells A Story

1. WHAT IS SUBLIMATION?

Sublimation is a simple but effective form of digital printing, used for printing high quality

images and graphics onto polymer surfaces. It can be used to print onto promotional items

such as mouse mats and mugs, and in the case of textiles, t-shirts with a high polyester

content.

What makes sublimation unique is the chemical process. Sublimation inks are actually dyes,

which only bond with polyester fibres. When the dye is heated during pressing, two

important things happen: the dye turns from a solid straight into a gas, and the polyester

fibres in the garment open up. The sublimation ink then permeates the fibres, instead of

sitting on the surface like other transfer methods. When the heat is removed, the fibres close

back up and permanently retain the sublimation dye. The end result is a picture-perfect

image that is “embedded “into the fabric – so you can’t actually feel that it’s there.

With sublimation, you can print a t-shirt in 2 minutes or less by following these 3 steps:

Think! Use your imagination, get creative or use an existing image/artwork – why not take a

look at our Pinterest board for some inspiration.

Create! Open your image/artwork in a graphics program for editing and printing

Print! Transfer your image onto a T-shirt using the specified sublimation accessories

detailed in this guide and a heat press.

2. BENEFITS OF SUBLIMATION

Image is permanently dyed into the fibres of the fabric

It will not fade, crack or wash out

It has minimal time, labour and set up costs

Equipment needed can be purchased for under £1000

You can produce and edit an image in a standard computer program

You can use virtually unlimited shades of colour and print in seconds

It’s a constantly expanding market due to social media sites like Instagram and

Pinterest

Every Fibre Tells A Story

3. DEBUNKING TWO COMMON MYTHS

There are 2 common myths about sublimation:

1. Sublimation only works on white

2. Printing only works on 100% polyester

Neither is true.

1. White might be best for colour reproduction but it’s not the only option – we offer 9

marl colours and they produce a fashionably muted, retro feel, just what a large

chunk of the market demands. The trick is to find a suitable design that works with the

colour of the fabric.

The important thing to remember is that this is not truly an ink, it is a DYE that re-colours the

fibres it is attached to. You cannot dye a dark garment a light colour; you would first have to

bleach it. In addition, the sublimation dyes are semi-transparent, which means that the

background colour will always affect how the dye looks in the end. This is the same with any

lightweight ink or dye. For example, print a full-colour image on a white piece of paper.

Now print it onto a yellow piece of paper. The background colour of the paper will affect

how the print looks, and it is the same principal for sublimation.

So for sublimating onto coloured fabrics, the design should be a significantly darker shade

than the fabric. Black or tonal solid colours work well. If you want to add some colour,

choose the right design. Remember that any white areas in the image will not be transferred

onto the fabric and will appear the same colour as the garment.

Example of sublimation on coloured t-shirts

Every Fibre Tells A Story

If you really wanted a coloured T-shirt with a lighter print, you could use “all-over” printing.

Say you wanted a black T-shirt with a white print. Here you would use a print large enough

to cover the whole garment (you would need a wide format industrial printer and heat press).

The background colour of the print would be black, and the design would be white. Printing

this onto a white t-shirt, you would essentially be re-colouring the garment with black while

adding the design.

Examples of all over sublimation

2. You cannot sublimate onto cotton because the dye particles are designed to bond with

polyester, and ignore everything else.

The higher the polyester content in the material, the more dye will bond to it, and the brighter

the final image will be. That doesn’t mean to say that you cannot use blended fabrics – our

HD T is a 65% Polyester/35% Cotton blend and the results speak for themselves. However

the lower the polyester content is, the more “muted” the print will look – it will not have the

same vibrancy as a 100% polyester garment.

4. EQUIPMENT

Every Fibre Tells A Story

The sublimation process works with selected inkjet printers. Not all inkjet printers will work

– only models that do not use heat to print will have sublimation capabilities. The most

popular models are manufactured by Epson and Ricoh. Various sizes are available, from A4

right up to full garment size.

Sublimation ready printers will usually come with colour-correcting software, which helps

make the printed image as close a match to the screen image as possible. The software will

also automatically “flip” the image, as the image must be mirrored for heat pressing.

Special sublimation inks and paper must be used:

Heat presses come in various sizes, and must maintain constant 180 – 200 degree

temperatures.

Every Fibre Tells A Story

5. IMAGES

As with any printing process, to produce high quality results you must start with a high

quality image. No matter how good your sublimation printer is, it will never be able to

output an image that is higher in quality than the initial image. GARBAGE IN = GARBAGE

OUT!!!

No special software is required to create images for sublimation – any standard graphics

software will do. If you can open up a photo on your computer and print it out, then you can

sublimate it.

For creating artwork from scratch, or for editing artwork and photos before printing, you may

need to use a standard graphics program such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop or

CorelDraw.

There are 2 basic types of image formats: raster and vector. The type of format will

determine how and what can be edited within the image.

A raster (or bitmap) image is made up of pixels or points of colour, for example a

photograph. Most pictures taken with a digital camera or found online are examples of raster

graphics. Be sure to start with an image that is a decent size and resolution, as these elements

are fixed. As a rule of thumb, you can make a large image smaller without losing quality, but

increasing a small image will make it become blurry and lose clarity. Common raster files

are JPEG, BMP, TIFF, GIF, PSD and PNG

Vector graphics, unlike raster images, are comprised of paths and points. These paths can be

used to create simple drawings (e.g. company logos) or complex diagrams, and can be scaled

to a larger size without losing image quality. Common types of vector files are AI, SVG,

DRW, CDR and EPS.

Every Fibre Tells A Story

6. HOW TO SUBLIMATE

There are 3 key elements in the sublimation process:

1. Time

2. Temperature

3. Pressure

Sublimation is not an exact science, and the above will vary depending on the garment and

the equipment you are using. Use the guidelines from your dealer as a starting point, and

experiment to find out what works best. A very general guideline for our HD T would be 50

seconds at 180 degrees, using light to medium pressure (approx. 2.76 bar).

Every Fibre Tells A Story

1. Prepare your artwork and print

onto sublimation paper

2. Set the temperature of your heat

press to 180-200 degrees and

between 50-60 seconds. Spread a

Teflon sheet on the bottom of the

press

3. Place the T-shirt face up onto the

press and smooth out any folds

4. Lay the transfer on top of the t-

shirt, face down. Put a second

Teflon sheet on top.

5. Press with light to medium

pressure for 50-60 seconds.

6. When the pressing time is up, the

heat press will “beep”. Remove

the transfer sheet as quickly and

smoothly as possible.

7. Remove the shirt from the press

and allow to cool.

Every Fibre Tells A Story

7. TROUBLESHOOTING

Some common problems are as follows:

Blue Specks: Sometimes tiny stray fibres

from the manufacturing process are left on

the surface of the t-shirt. They are almost

invisible to the naked eye, but once heated

during pressing they turn into permanent

blue specks on the garment’s surface. The

solution is quite simple – run a lint roller

over the T-shirt before putting into the heat

press. For our HD T you only need to do

this for the White and lighter coloured

ones.

Image Bleeding/ Faded Colours: One

reason that these problems may occur is

that there is excess moisture in the fabric.

Moisture can be absorbed into the fabric

from the atmosphere. To eliminate this,

pre-press the T-shirt for 5-10 seconds

before pressing the image on. This will

remove the moisture from the fabric.

“Ghosting”: this is when the print comes

out blurry, typically around the edges.

This is caused by the transfer paper

shifting on the shirt’s surface when the

heat press is opened – the movement

causes the print to blur. The solution is to

either tape the print in place using heat

resistant tape, or use a special spray

adhesive on the transfer prior to applying it

to the shirt.

Fabric changing colour: White fabric

may turn yellow and coloured marl fabric

sometimes changes shade. This can be

avoided - for white reduce the temp by 10

degrees and reduce the pressure a little as

sometimes heat press aren't always

perfectly calibrated. The change in colour

on the marl colour will disappear when the

fabric cools down after printing, again this

can be avoided by reducing the time and/or

pressure.

Every Fibre Tells A Story

Transfer lines: Transfer lines are razor

thin lines embedded in the garment, where

the edges of the transfer paper have made

contact with the fabric’s surface (using a

square outline). There are a few things

that can be done to prevent this happening:

Tear the paper around the design,

to soften the edges

Use lighter pressure. Light to

medium pressure is recommended.

(You may need to adjust the time

to balance this out)

Press again once you have removed

the transfer, to press out any lines

If this doesn’t work, use heat

resistant foam/ Teflon pads.

*** NOTE: for the Russell HD Tee, the

back neck sticker must be removed before

printing and can be stuck back after

printing!!!

Every Fibre Tells A Story

The information here is intended as a guide only.

***The information in this booklet was supplied by Sawgrass Europe, a leading provider of

digital printing technologies (sublimation inks, colour management software etc.). For more

information visit: http://www.sawgrasseurope.com/ ***

*** Our equipment was supplied by The Magic Touch, who stock printers, heat presses,

paper, inks, etc. http://www.themagictouch.co.uk/ ***