Is it the Printer? Paper? Mug? Software? Help please!!

[Coops]

I've decided to start again. I've reinstalled the power drivers and i am downloading Photoshop & illustrator as they are shown to be compatible with Sawgrass power driver. I have also ordered a sample mug from BMS as from reading other posts , there may also be an issue with the quality of my mugs (I purchased mine from a company called 'signzworld'. Fingers crossed this combination will stop the blurring.

[willd]

When you select to print to the powerdriver, select powerdriver "preferences", then "virtual printer driver", in there are dropdowns for substrate and paper types...

[Coops]

This is what I have previously selected. I also choose the ceramic/glass option stating what material I am sublimating on. The print looks blurry before I press it onto the mug. Am I correct in saving it as a JPEG/PNG file and then opening it in Photoplus to print from there? Could it be the font itself? It looks fine on my computer screen but when printed it looks blurry.

[Coops]

I thought it could be the mugs causing the issue however I've just remembered that I've pressed 2 lunch boxes (for my kids) & they both appeared slightly blurry as well as a ruler which again was blurry. I do feel it has something to do with my set up. Does anyone know if Serif software is compatible with Sawgrass power driver? Thanks

[willd]

We work generally with pngs as the final image to print, using various software depending on what we are working with before exporting to png.

One open-source (free) software that we use is "paint.net" (though not available from www.paint.net, as that is a seperate company's site - can find it on google), which I know is compatible.

The issues that we have had in the past related to a change in the size of the final printed image in different software rather than its quality. As someone earlier mentioned, we also run at 300 dpi, we've never experienced problems such as yours, so not sure where the fault lies...

If the image that you have is clear when zoomed in/magnified then I wouldn't expect the resolution to be the issue, problem would appear to be either software or printer related, corrupted settings/drivers somewhere, or else the paper or substrate - there's not much else left!

Will be interesting to see if different software and/or mugs resolve your problems, when you have them all in place - hopefully it will all be plain sailing then!

[Coops]

It could be a combination of the printer / software settings. I need to look into the 'dpi' of what I am printing.

Am I correct to assume that a mug design which includes text and a photo should be 300 dpi?

When I have taken images from Google and tried printing them they appear grainy, is this because they are not 300dpi too? My apologies if these are basic questions im just a bit confused on all this.

When printing onto sublimation paper, should the images not be blurry?

[gorgall2]

I print from Serif Drawplus using Power driver and don't have any problems.

[Coops]

I will try drawplus now. Do you create your designs in Drawplus too? If so what format do you save your designs in?

[insight]

I am new too but a few things come to mind.

image? create template at 300dpi
Printer? Print nozzle check pattern.
Paper? Printing on wrong side of paper.

[gorgall2]

Mostly, usually save as a jpeg