Greetings from Staffordshire

[DREAMGLASS]

Hi. I am 'returning to the fold' after an eight month break away from sublimation.

My principle interest in sublimation is for garment decoration, but I have also produced mugs, metal signs, glassware and gifts using sublimation in the past.

I tend to have two perspectives on sublimation. I hate the fact that one ink manufacturer tends to dominate the market, which not only diminishes competitive pricing, but the limited range of printers that is supported (many obsolete) holds back the potential of the small sublimation industry (IMHO). On the positive side, sublimation offers versatility in print output onto a wide range of media, that would be difficult to match with other print methods.

I hope to give my input into the forum topics as time permits (Xmas rush will soon be on us).

[bms]

Welcome back - you cynic (quite true though!)

[DREAMGLASS]

Welcome back - you cynic (quite true though!)

I am looking at it from someone buying at those prices, not selling the stuff.... lol

Thank you for your welcome Martin.

[Paul]

welcome on forum

[DREAMGLASS]

Thanks Paul..

[Ian M]

Hi & welcome to the forum.

We had quite a lively discussion a few weeks ago about being able to use other printers if only there were ICC profiles for them. I'd love to be able to use a Brother DCP-130C like I use for my everyday printing. I think this would be much closer to the Ricoh gel printers than people would imagine. To be honest I just feel that certain ink manufacturers in a way hold a gun to our heads which I hate.

Ian

Sent you a PM which you might find useful

[Paul]

you dont need to stick to artanium you can easly buy 3rd party sublimation ink. but this is a little bit a gamble here... I used couple "unbranded" inks in the past with exelent results. now I am using artanium only coz had VERY good price for it.

ps. Ian - If you have usefull links why not post them on here so they can be usefull to others too

[DREAMGLASS]

Thanks for the welcome Ian.

Although the cost of sublimation ink is very high, some may say extortionately high, it is being limited to just a few specific printers that is the real bugbear. Especially when some of those printers are long out of production now and only available secondhand on FeeBay.

I'm sure that sublimation would be more buoyant as a print method, if ICC profiles were developed for a much wider range of printers. A certain ink manufacturer would probably sell a lot more ink too.

[Ian M]

Paul, the problem is that a certain ink manufacturer will threaten to sue a 3rd party sub ink supplier. As I said it's just a gun being held to our heads.

[DREAMGLASS]

I trust you guys are aware that the 'patent' only applies to small format printers anyway?

I forget the exact definition of a large format printer, but the legitimate ink alternatives are considerably cheaper to buy. The 7000 and 9000 series Epsons run large format sublimation inks WITHOUT ICC profiles, without clogs and without a certain manufacturer having complete domination of the market. If you got the space for a 44" width printer they are a good secondhand buy and will still be running when your fourth or fifth desktop printer has fallen to bits.