Are you new to sublimation printing or have been doing it for a few years? No matter the case there is always something new to learn to increase your efficiency and profitability.
Check out these 15 tips to make more money and save yourself a few hassles. If you would like to learn more about sublimation printing, check out a more in-depth look at the process by reading “What Is Sublimation Printing and How Does It Work.”
1. Keep a diary or a spreadsheet with the settings you use for every print job. This will be critical if you want to recreate an order to the exact specifications as it was printed the last time. Remember to annotate what material was printed on, press settings, etc. Also, if you are using Illustrator or Corel Draw to create your designs. Record the font you used. I have learned from experience that having to go back and figured out fonts can be a huge time suck.
2. Always buy extra substrates or blanks whenever you do a project. There is nothing worse than screwing up a piece and being one short of the order. It can be a big waste of time to have to track down one more piece and since Murphy’s Law will come into effect. Your supplier will, of course, be out of stock. You will also need extra blanks to check your colors. What you see on the screen and what gets printed are usually not the same. So make sure to use the ink manufacturers swatches (ICC profiles) when creating your designs. Having extras will also cover any damaged items that you received from the supplier. I have found many little nicks and chips on my blanks that I refuse to pass on to the customer.
3. Refer to the manual or documents provided by the manufacturer of the ink/blanks. Always start with their recommended settings. They are the experts and have done extensive testing on all their products. I use Johnson Plastics, and they have a sublimation shop at the warehouse. These guys are the best; they will help you with any problems you run into. Additionally, they give me lots of samples to test on at home, free of charge.
4. If you find yourself getting large volume print jobs do a Google search in your area for print-on-demand shops. I try to do most of my own printing but when I go on vacation, or I am falling behind my current jobs. I contract out the printing to a local shop that can knock out large volume jobs in a matter of days. If you build a great relationship with them, you can sometimes to get them to do a one-day turnaround.
5. Make sure you know your costs, so you aren’t working for free. Contact the ink manufacturer to find out the average ink usage per square inch and also the cost per square ink they have calculated. If you Google sublimation ink cost calculators as well, there are a few tools out there that will calculate your costs for you all the way down to the electricity used.
6. Buy a name brand printer, I recommend the Sawgrass Virtuoso and most importantly use their inks. I can not stress this enough. Do not buy Chinese ink off of eBay. It is not the same, and it will not perform anywhere near inks such as Sawgrass Sublijet and ArTainium. You may get lucky and have one batch perform well, but you are unlikely to get a second. The biggest issue is color matching. I have found that the using the same print settings with Chinese inks will not result in consistent final products.
7. Follow the printer manufacturers maintenance and cleaning schedule. This will ensure your printer has a longer life and it will save you money in the long run. It is expensive to have a technician come out and clean your printer because the ink got everywhere on the inside. It will also prevent equipment breakage. One other tip here: try not to move your printer around very much, this can cause with your ink and will ruin a large number of prints after moving. If you do need to move it, be gentle and try to keep it in a level position while moving.
8. Nozzle checks are your friend. If you have printing issues, make sure to do a nozzle check on plain paper. This is especially true if you have spotty printing.
9. Always leave your printer on so that it can do the automatic maintenance procedures. If you turn it off, you are likely to get clogged printhead nozzles because the ink dried up. It ends up being a waste of ink and a waste of money.
10. Print on the correct side of the sublimation paper. This is a rookie mistake but happens a lot when you are in a rush. The bright white smooth side of the paper is the correct side. The yellowish and rough side is the back side. Remember to pay attention to the printer orientation symbol to get it right. Not a huge problem but it wastes time and money. Keep my printer loaded, so I don’t have to worry about it.
Additional tips for paper use. Print on the along the long edge of the paper. Printing along the short edge will cause more paper jams and misaligned prints. Using the short edge causes the finished print to be slightly canted.
11. I just found out about this next tip a couple of months ago. If you go to the Advanced tab of the Printer Properties, check the box “Keep Printed Documents” you will be able to reprint any job directly from the folder. This is extremely helpful if you a constantly printing one-off jobs.
12. Do a temperature check of you heat press twice a year. This will ensure consistency in your prints and will save you a lot of hassles in the long run. This can be done with a high tech laser temperature device or a low tech thermometer used to check food temps. If you do find your heat press is out of whack, contact your manufacturer to find out if you can press a few buttons to fix this or if it is a bigger problem.
13. Check your press for pressing equally on all four corners. Many of the cheaper heat presses and some of the clamshell presses tend to have uneven pressure over the whole platen. Clamshell presses tend to have lighter pressure further away from the hinge. Presses such as the DK-20S are highly recommended for sublimation printing since the press straight down.
To test your heat press, print four squares in the corners of the sublimation paper and press on to some test fabric. If any of the printed squares are fuzzy or have ghosting, your press is likely not pressing evenly. This test can be accomplished without printing by pressing pieces of paper around each corner, but I find this not to be as accurate as seeing an actual print.
14. Print everything in RGB mode, even black and white designs. The ICC profiles are created for RGB mode. Black will not print the same in grayscale as it will in RGB.
15. Print your color palettes on some of you extra blanks. By doing this, you will have an accurate example of how the spot colors will turn out on that type of blank. You will want to do this for every type of blank to ensure your finished products look as good as possible.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of tips and tricks, as mentioned from the start, there is always something new to learn. As your hobby or business grows I am sure you will have some of your own that are unique to your set-up.