Sublimation

Sublimation printing is a digital printing process that uses heat and pressure to transfer dye onto different materials. Here's the full process: You print a design onto special transfer paper using sublimation inks. Then, you place the paper onto a product and heat it with a heat press. Materials used for Sublimation are usually high percentage polyester (and lighter colors are best). Since sublimation is pretty much like using your desk top printer (it isn't so don't do that) it does not print white. White is the absence of color so if the image you want to use has white in it, where ever it is white will actually be the color of the background (shirt). This is why you'll see a lot of people sublimating on bleach splattered shirts so that they have the white background for those images that have white details. A couple other ways for me to achieve white on colored material is to use either a glitter HTV (yes it has to be glitter HTV because that has plastic in it - polyester is made from plastic). Or it has to be a special HTV meant for sublimation. This can increase the cost of the image I'm producing as there is added materials and time. Sublimation is a great way to get detailed and colorful images on clothing or other sublimation friendly items and it usually lasts longer then HTV and doesn't create a heavy feel to the apparel that HTV can cause. It is really one of my favorite techniques.