Colour laser printer

[Username]

Hi all, at the moment I have a sawgrass sg400 however I am looking at trying the colour laser heat transfer stuff, with a laser printer can I also do photos with it and press them on to mugs and so on or is it best for test and other kind of stuff like that, I'm not looking at the OKI with white toner as it costs too much money in Australia. What are the pros and cons of using a laser printer, do I still need to get the mugs and glassware thats been made for sublimation or can I use mugs from the $2 shop (like your poundland)

[webtrekker]

Hi. If you're looking to actually sell mugs then you really need to be sublimating them. A few rounds in the dishwasher will see most laser-printed mugs fade significantly. Even with sublimation, you need to be buying good quality mugs from a reputable supplier. Cheap-as-chips mugs will cause you no end of problems, with anything from fading (due to poor coatings) to distortions, chips and black specks in the coating. You'll soon lose customers if you send out crap.

Why on earth would you want to laser-print mugs anyway when you already have a perfectly good sublimation printer?

[UK Printed Mugs]

Yes. Webtrekker is spot on. Your sg400 is perfect for full colour sublimation. Laser for perhaps white toner onto regular non white mugs but stick with sg400 and you can’t go wrong.

[Username]

I was only looking at Laser so I can try that forever multi trans paper but do I need to have a white toner if I wanted to use other colour mugs other than white or can I use any colour mug I want? I was looking at creating more decorative mugs and I also believe you can use this product on t-shirts as well.

[logobear]

if you want to do laser transfere on non white mugs you need a white printer.
IMHO - we did laser mugs for years, but after switch to sub, never went back.
We do have a white laser, but still don't bother on mugs, its a pita compared to sub

[Username]

I'm still happy to do sublimation but for decorative mugs with foil and forever paper you can not really do that with sublimation

[webtrekker]

I'm still happy to do sublimation but for decorative mugs with foil and forever paper you can not really do that with sublimation

As long as you understand that washability goes out of the window with these methods and that they are to be carefully hand-washed, or kept as purely decorative items, then that's ok. Inform your customers of this too, to avoid backlash! People don't usually mind when they buy cheap foiled mugs from the local Poundshop or B&M, but if you are charging premium prices then expect people to be more critical if anything goes wrong.

[Username]

As long as you understand that washability goes out of the window with these methods and that they are to be carefully hand-washed, or kept as purely decorative items, then that's ok. Inform your customers of this too, to avoid backlash! People don't usually mind when they buy cheap foiled mugs from the local Poundshop or B&M, but if you are charging premium prices then expect people to be more critical if anything goes wrong.

Yeah fully understand and it will be sold as a decorative item only