Sublimation

What is Sublimation?

Sublimation is a printing technique that allows to print full color images on a wide array of items such as sublimated t-shirts, sublimated cell phone cases, sublimated flip flops and other various types of wearable garments.

Dye Sublimation has been around for over 40 years and was created to print full color images on fabrics primarily for shirts. Solid dye particles are converted into a gas using heat and pressure then are forced to bond with the material they are dyeing and converted back to a solid. The dye is actually absorbed into the shirt fabric as opposed to ink sitting on top of the shirt as with screen printing. Because of this only light colored shirts can be used to Dye Sublimate.

The second major difference between the two methods is Dye Sublimation must be done on material that contains at least 50% synthetic (i.e. polyester). The higher the synthetic material (i.e. polyester) the more vivid the color of the logo. The other major difference is the ability to print not in three or six color as with traditional screen printing, but full color. Dye sublimation looks great, however, quantities need to be very high for it to be cost effective.

How does Sublimation printing work?

Dye Sublimation has been around for over 50 years and was created to print full color images on fabrics primarily for shirts. Solid dye particles areconverted into a gas using heat and pressure then are forced to bond with the material they are dyeing and converted back to a solid. The dye is actually absorbed into the shirt fabric as opposed to ink sitting on top of the shirt as with screen printing. Because of this only light colored shirts can be used to Dye Sublimate. The second major difference between the two methods is Dye Sublimation must be done on material that contains at least 50% synthetic (i.e. polyester). The higher the synthetic material (i.e. polyester) the more vivid the color of the logo. The other major difference is the ability to print not in three or six color as with traditional screen printing, but full color. Dye sublimation looks great, however, quantities need to be very high for it to be cost effective.

Now we get to the ultimate question about T-shirt Sublimation. How do I get my design to transfer vibrant, opaque and/or bright on a t-shirt? Here is the answer: There are many poly blends out there. Next Level Apparel is one company that offers nice 65% Polyester 35% Cotton tees. When sublimating on blend tees the sublimation prints do transfer the design, however, the design only displays at 75%. To get a vibrant, opaque and/or bright “pop” (industry term), you must use a 100% Polyester t-shirt.

American Apparel launches 100% Polyester T-shirt Winter 2011.

This is big news! Finally a perfect t-shirt for sublimation with the fashion forward cut of American Apparel. We have deep stock of these tees and are prepared and excited to take on the flood of orders. The greatest part about it is that we have dialed in our digital sublimation printer. We can produce a sample of your sublimated shirt on a 100% polyester American Apparel Tee and ship it to you the next day.

Below is an example of the difference when sublimating on a 65% polyester 35% cotton blend t-shirt and a 100% polyester t-shirt. The sublimated t-shirt on the left is the 65/35 blend and the sublimated t-shirt on right is a 100% polyester blend.