Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Dye Sublimation Printing

Dye sublimation is quickly becoming the favorite way to achieve all-over prints on t-shirts - even if you only want a few. Sublimation printing on t-shirts has a unique look that is different from screen print and tends to produce a lighter feeling result on the tee.
Advantages of dye-sublimation over other methods of textile printing:
  • Images are permanent and do not peel or fade.
  • Dye does not build up on the fabric.
  • Colors can be are extraordinarily brilliant due to the bonding of the dye to the transparent fibers of the synthetic fabric.
  • Truly continuous tones can be achieved that are equivalent to photographs, without the use special techniques such as half-tone screen printing.
  • The image can be printed all over the entire item, with no difficulty in printing all the way to the edges.
Disadvantages:
  • The printer speed is slow.
  • Any creases in the apparel during printing leave blank spots behind, although this is an accepted quality issue with all-over screen printing.
  • Garments must be 100% white polyester
Depending on the desired result you can have some fun printing on light colored tees or polyester blends for some cool affects.