With sublimation printing, we can convert sublimation dyes to the sublimation sheet. After that, they can be applied to desired fabric, mugs, bags, polyester sheets, mousepads, and many other things. It is interesting to know How to make a Sublimation Design with different printers.
The heat press used to make sublimation designs makes the prints easy, permanent and durable without fading away quickly. The crack lines and peeling off print do not appear while ironing the clothes. The adhesive quality of the Sublimation Paint makes it print easily with a thin and clean layer. The infusible Ink on mugs for sublimation printing and other materials is fixed and long-lasting. But the Ink is only used for specific colors. For customized mugs, hoodies, and other customized accessories lovers, sublimation printing is perfect.
We cannot sublimate everything but only some specific medium. The products designed for Sublimation ink can only be used for sublimation printing. We should only choose light-colored and high polyester fabrics for Sublimation Printing. The brighter Ink comes if the polyester is higher.
Suitable Printers for Sublimation Designs
When it comes to sublimation, the only question that arises is which type of printer can be used for sublimation. The Sublimation ink is not suitable for every printer. The printers with a heat press and piezo pressure technology are perfect for sublimation printing.
Buying a Sublimation Printer is quite expensive, so converting a cheap printer into a Sublimation Printer is better. Just by using the Sublimation ink into ink cartridges, we can do Sublimation Printing.
Compatible Sublimation Designs
Designs are an essential part of the sublimation process. Regardless of the printing mode, a creative design is the soul of printing. There is much Software that helps us portray our idea into a compatible Sublimation design. The well-known Sublimation software for creating the designs is Adobe Software. Some well-known of them are
- Adobe Photoshop Elements
- Adobe Illustrator
- Corel draw Graphics Software
- GIMP
- Affinity Designer
- Sketch
- Gravit Designer
- Inkscape
- Cricut design space
Making a Sublimation design is creative. We need to do some editing and other functions to make it look perfect. The designs must be presentable, compact, and accurate to match the needs. With the help of sublimation software, we create designs for facemasks, shirts, mugs, mousepads, leather objects, wood, and many other things.
How to make a design with Software?
The question is still there. The basic steps are the same for all the designer software. We can add photos, texts, and many other features to highlight the design.
Open the page on the desired software, set up the page size, and open the desired design and image file.
The media and page size are variable while printing. Some designs are ready to print out. We can drag, drop and print them.
While design-like drafts require customization before printing, we can pull in the colors and texts to the images. In the full panel, with the eyedropper tool, we can choose any color already present in the image to edit the image further.
We can add more than one element to the image combine it with different text addition. We can use a fill panel for changing the transparency by doing offsets. The images are more presentable with font-style texts.
Creating sublimation designs is simple if we know the basics of photo editors. We can create and modify our images with design without much effort.
Steps To Start The Sublimation Process
To start sublimation printing with Epson Ecotank 2760, remove the top cover and move it to the left to find the cartridge’s place. On each cartridge, specific color is mentioned. The level for each link can be seen in the below bars.
Prepare plungers to fill in the Sublimation ink with its pointing end inside the bottle. Pull up the plunger stopper to pull the Ink. Lay the bottle in a horizontal position to avoid air bubbles. Now, lift the ink tank lid and put the pointed side inside the small ring to fill the cartridges with ink. After the cartridges are full of sublimation ink, you can start the printer.
Then we have to pick a design for sublimation.
- First, it is created on a blank sheet which then goes through a heat press to sublimate the same image. While applying design without any words, image flipping is not needed.
- For the text-based designs, we have to go to flip horizontally settings. This can be done on printing or photo software. For our design, use any designing app.
- Go to the printer settings and choose the paper format you need with the result image quality. Load the paper on the blank side facing up than the bottom one containing words.
- Then a high heat device is needed to paste the image permanently. Check the temperature and time settings with sublimation paper in the heat press.
- We need to place butcher paper below the easy press mat to protect the press. Then press the easy press for a few seconds or a minute for printing. While removing, do it gently without moving anything and let it cool for a while. Then touch it with gloves to check the results.
For different materials, the Sublimating techniques can be different. However, they are easy to follow.
Bottom Lines
How to make a Sublimation Design is no more an issue. Modern printers are sublimation-friendly and generate durable and sharp designs on versatile mediums. However, using a sublimation printer or conversion printer is quite tricky and takes time for a beginner. But once you acquire the skill, you can earn significant profit performing sublimation on shirts, mugs, and many other mediums.