Your Position: Home - Packaging Auxiliary Materials - What is the best paper to use for sublimation?

What is the best paper to use for sublimation?

Sep. 23, 2024

Transfer paper - Wikipedia

Type of paper

For more information, please visit Million Ton.

A logo applied to a canvas backpack, using fabric transfer paper in a desktop ink jet printer

Transfer paper is used in textiles and arts and crafts projects. Transfer paper is a thin piece of paper coated with wax and pigment. Often, an ink-jet or other printer is used to print the image on the transfer paper. A heat press can transfer the image onto clothing, canvas, or other surface. Transfer paper is used in creating iron-ons. Transfer papers can also be used for the application of rhinestones to clothing and other arts and crafts projects.[1]

Inkjet

[

edit

]

Most conventional inkjet printers are not capable of printing white (though many wide-format and direct-to-garment inkjet printers offer white ink as an option). So on these devices, in any white areas, the garment's existing colour shows through. The mirror of the image is printed on paper. When it is transferred, the result is the mirror of the mirror (the original) results. Inkjet transfer paper for dark garments is covered with transferable white ink. For dark garments, the image is printed without mirroring. Garment printing needs transfer paper for high-quality garment printing results. [2]

Washability for inkjet transfer paper is not as good as for screen-printed items.

Dye sublimation

[

edit

]

For dye sublimation transfer paper, fabrics historically had to be white or light in color. 100% polyester, poly/cotton mix (the garment should be at least 50% polyester) microfibre and nylon can all be used. This printing process turns solid ink into a gas, avoiding a liquid stage. This process can be used on ceramic, wood, glass, or metal as long as they have a polymer coating.

Transfer papers now exist for most textiles, including elastic fabrics used for making sportswear and swimming suits, and for natural fiber fabrics such as cotton, silk, linen, and wool.

Colour laser

[

edit

]

Colour laser transfer is very similar to the inkjet transfer paper process and allows the decoration of any combination of fabric blends including 50/50 poly/cotton blends as well as 100% cotton textiles. This type of transfer paper is used for industrial printing jobs on a large scale offering better quality paper and image transfer.

History

[

edit

]

"The initial intent for this method of moving a pre- made image from one location to another was to serve as an essential substitute for ink. In , Pellegrino Turri, an Italian inventor, invented carbon paper to provide the ink for his mechanical typing machine, one of the first typewriters."[3] Ralph Wedgwood obtained the first patent for carbon paper in .[4] Wedgwood's technique was then continuously perfected.

References

[

edit

]

What is Sublimation Paper? Which One is Best For Your ...

Learn which sublimation works best for which projects &#; and how it compares to copy paper!

Sublimation paper is a coated specialty paper designed to hold and release dye sublimation ink onto surfaces. There&#;s an extra layer on the paper designed just for holding, rather than absorbing, sublimation ink. This special coating paper is formulated to hold up in the sublimation printer, withstand the high heat of a heat press, and create beautiful, vibrant sublimation transfers to your surfaces.

Want to save this guide? Enter your below and we&#;ll send the guide straight to your inbox.

Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.

Learn all about sublimation paper in this helpful video:

You should know that sublimation transfer paper is NOT the same as that plain copy paper you might already have in your copier or regular inkjet printer, even though it might look the same at first. A good sublimation paper has three things:

1. It holds the sublimation ink well without allowing the micro ink dots from your printer to blur together.
2. It withstands the high heat of your heat press machine.
3. It efficiently releases the dyes into your surface when heated.

Each of these is important for the sublimation process and getting the best results!

There are a lot of different sublimation papers out there, and you may be wondering what&#;s best to use and what&#;s better off avoided in your heat transfer printing projects.

This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won&#;t cost you a penny more)! Read my full disclosure policy.

I have a variety of sublimation papers here in my studio &#; I have A-SUB 125G, A-SUB 120G, A-SUB 105G, A-SUB ECO, TruePix paper, DyeMaster-R, and Printers Jack. And there are a LOT more papers out there, too. So what&#;s the difference between them all? Most all of these are general sublimation papers that will work for a variety of surfaces. There are OTHERS that get more specialized, but these SHOULD all work for most sublimation jobs.

Let&#;s take a look at a piece of A-SUB paper. This is the BACK side of A-SUB paper, which as the word &#;A-SUB&#; print on it &#; be sure to print on the other side of it. The &#;right side&#; of sublimation paper is the one that is pure white, without any printing on it.

So then how do you decide which is the best sublimation paper to use? One important thing I want you to pay attention to is the paper weight, like how A-SUB comes in a wide range of weights, including 125g, 120g, 105g, and ECO. These numbers refer to the WEIGHT of the paper.

A-SUB 125 g stands for 125 grams per square meter and it&#;s the heaviest sublimation paper. The heavier the paper and the thicker the coating, the better it will hold the ink and saturate your surface &#; if you want full color, vibrant designs, go for the heavier weight. This paper is my favorite and the go-to for nearly every project. It works great in my Epson printer, the printed image looks great, and has a true color. It also has a very high transfer rate, meaning that most of the sublimation ink will transfer from the paper to the surface. 125g sublimation paper also has a greater durability than the thinner paper, and it holds up under all the heat presses I&#;ve tried.

Tip: I&#;ve found the 120 g sublimation paper is just as good as the 125 g paper, and often less expensive!

If you use the 125 or 120 gram paper and get wheel marks, however, you may want a lighter paper, like 105 gsm. This heavier paper can also cause issues with rigid and hard surfaces (hard substrate), as the ink has no where to go and can blur or ghost &#; if this happens, again, go with a thinner paper.

A-SUB 105g is the one hundred and five gram paper, and it&#;s the lightest sublimation paper. So now you may be wondering why we&#;d want lighter paper if heavier gives the best and most saturated color. Well, it turns out that light sublimation paper like holds a little less ink and this is better when you&#;re making seamless designs, like our full-color sublimation doormat or even a sublimation tumbler. The lighter paper is ALSO better for some printers that can get wheel lines or pick up extra ink when going through the printer. For example, when I switched to 105 gram paper on my Epson Workforce, it worked much better. The catch with 105 gram paper is that it is more likely to curl with high temperatures, and it doesn&#;t do as well with heavy ink saturation &#; the low weight of the paper is more likely to cause moving, bleeding, and ghosting, And if your surface just looks dull and faded, like a T-shirt, it could also be related to the low weight of the paper &#; use the heavier paper to get more ink on it and more ink on your surface.

But what about the ECO paper by A-SUB? It&#;s basically less expensive sublimation paper. So if you&#;re doing a LOT of sublimation printing, you could use this, but it&#;s really only a little less money &#; I&#;m not sure it&#;s worth it, personally, unless you&#;re working in volume. I test out whether this paper is the same as the other papers in my video.

So WEIGHT of sublimation paper is a big factor. Another factor can be the compatibility of the paper with your printer. For example, TruePix paper is optimized to work with Sawgrass sublimation printers. It&#;s 120 grams and works on a variety of surfaces.

DyeMaster-R sublimation paper is optimized to work for Epson and it&#;s 105 grams. I am not sure why it&#;s so thin, but it could be because the Epson Workforce, which is one of the first printers people began converting to sublimation years ago, really needs a thinner paper.

Now, you may have heard of people using regular paper for sublimation, for example laser copy paper. It&#;s possible to use laser copy paper because it&#;s formulated to withstand the high heat of your heat press. The question is if inkjet heat transfer paper can hold and release the ink well enough, however.

So I thought we should do a TEST of six different papers &#; three A-SUB papers, TruePix paper, Laser Paper, and a regular Copy Paper, just so you can see what it looks like for each one. Here&#;s what each one looks like pressed onto polyester fabric (I used garden flag sublimation blanks):

The top results are what I think are the best sublimation paper &#; A-SUB 125G and A-SUB 105G. It&#;s always a good idea to do a test like this when you&#;re first learning to use your dye sublimation printer or are trying out a new sublimation project or special paper.

Get my Subliflower Design for free!

I also have a group just for sublimation crafting where you can get help and tips from other crafters who love to sublimate, too! Come join us at jennifermaker.com/sublimationgroup to ask questions, share ideas, and get inspired!!

I hope this helps you find the right sublimation paper for your next project. Watch for more sublimation tutorials and please ask any questions you have in our Facebook group or tag me on social media with #jennifermaker.

Love,

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit sublimation paper sheets factory.