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Originally Posted by freebird1963 |  | | | | | | | | | Thanks Jack.
... my question is:
Is a paper that is good for all substrates good enough or should a paper that is dedictated to certain substrates be used instead.
(i.e. carry a paper for cermics/ a paper for glass etc.)
Thanks
Mark | |  | |  | |
Good question. Without writing a treatise, the answer is a little tricky, but I’ll try.
Very briefly, it’s about the paper coating, paper brightness and how the paper out-gases. The coating must promote the ink to drying quickly and not allow penetration too far into the paper. Paper brightness generally equates to a smoother paper, with very short surface paper fibers. Good out-gassing determines the dedicated direction of the subliming process.
Coating – if it does not hold the ink exactly as laid down (and at the proper depth) the image can be slight fuzzy, to the discerning eye. It can also produce dot gain when sublimated.
Brightness – with regular printing paper you may have noticed that a 96 Bright paper is not only whiter than an 87 Bright paper but is also smoother. This is because the paper fibers are much shorter. If fibers are not really short, they can get trapped in the coating on hard substrates.
Out-gassing – I’ll try to keep this short. Ideally, you want sub ink to out-gas like a shaped charge, not like a grenade. The better it does this (although a superior substrate coating is also helpful) the crisper the image. In extreme cases posterization is so bad that facial tones, for example, lose much of their contrast.
Darn, I still got too long. To get to the point, yes some papers are not suited for hard substrates and should only be used on fabrics. A top-notch paper performs both tasks admirably.
I’ll stop here. I’ve seen many voice the opinion that there is no difference in paper. They are wrong. In spite of constantly testing every available paper on the market (including imports), many with a higher profit margin than what we sell, we continue to carry only one sublimation paper.
Have a great day neighbor!
conde sub paper - What brand is it ? 
