Lnfortun

Quote: Originally Posted by lben I'm brand new at this, so tonight I was practicing with the different inks and paper and I discovered some big differences. So is it normal? With regular transfer paper and plain old printer ink (inkjet) almost all of the ink was transferred onto the shirt. When I tried the Chromablast ink & paper the same thing happened. Nearly the entire print was transferred (just a faint image remained on the paper afterwards). Now with my sublimation ink & paper just the opposite is happening. Nearly the entire image is left on the paper (yes I'm printing on the correct side). I do get an image on the substrate, but I still have a vivid image on the paper, which does do additional transfers, though not as clear. So what gives? Is it normal for the sublimation image to stay on the paper or am I doing something wrong? Any and all suggestions more than welcome. I was printing on old T-shirts, and new (sublimation) blank mouse pads.

Sublimation does seem to leave a lot of ink on the paper. What you are seeing is the dye carrier. The dye is actually turned to gas when heated, transfered to the substrate and bonds with subtrate molecules (must be polyester substrate) and return to solid again. Hence the image is transfered. To get the most of the dye transferred is using a good type of release paper. Sublimation does not require polymer coated transfer paper.

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Luis MAD Scientist JR. AKA MS2
Digital Artist. My canvas is t-shirt and my paintbrush is heat press.

 

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