I'm almost frightened to ask, but what ink should I be using?

[fridayschild]

Hi, sorry, hope it's not too stupid a question, think its one of those easy to ask/not so easy to answer jobs.

I want to do sublimation printing on hard surfaces like mugs and also on tshirts.

I don't have a printer yet, I am still trying to get my head round the ink question.

I can see pigment ink on a sublimation shop website but I read on a tshirt printing forum (sorry, I feel like I've been unfaithful) that's it's not the same, so what should I be getting?

Please help, I am going nuts here. Ta everso.

[Matt Quinn]

I can see pigment ink on a sublimation shop website but I read on a tshirt printing forum (sorry, I feel like I've been unfaithful) that's it's not the same, so what should I be getting?

The only stupid questions are the ones people never ask wind up finding the answer to the hard way.

Sublimation ink is dye based - but not all dye based inks are sublimation inks! - In fact only one special type is!

Sublimation ink is expensive - Because it's a special type of ink that, when heated, goes from the solid state directly into a gas state. When held in close proximity to certain thermoplastic surfaces at high temperature this gas 'fuses' into the opened pores of the plastic becoming a permanent part of it. When the item cools the plastic basically 'sets' and the image is a physical part of it.

This fusing process is called sublimation.

This ink is NOT something you're going to buy from a computer shop or in a manufactuer's standard cartridge. In fact you probably wll find that even the bulk-ink suppliers haven't a clue what sublimation ink actually is! Though some have been known to spout the most enormous amounts of B.S. on the subject.

So what you need is sublimation ink. And (usually) an Epson or Ricoh printer with either a continuous ink system, refillable cartridges or (in the case of the Ricoh) special cartridges from a specialist supplier filled with special dye-sublimation ink...

And yes; people DO use the same ink for both mugs and T-shirts... The mugs need to be of a special type coated with some variation of Polyester - shirts need to be either Polyester of have a high Polyester content... And need to be light coloured.

- there ARE however other ways of printing onto T-shirts; thus perhaps some of the confusion you might have been lead into.

[fridayschild]

Thanks for taking the time to reply Matt and for going into so much detail for me. I appreciate the help.

I bought the press from Coralgraph and we discussed that I wanted to do sublimation printing which they said they could supply a printer & inks for, that's why I can't really understand why the only inks they sell (apart from the usual obviously) are pigment inks.

I have some of the special mugs and I get that I need the ciss system but the pigment inks CG sell won't work with them then?

Thanks for making me feel better about the 'stupid' question

[Paul]

reopened and cleaned...

[jennywren]

That was a very good hoover it took everything

[JackB]

Oh no! I was reading this thread and was going to pm the member who was saying that he or she found a source of cheap ink that really good to use, and now I cant remember the name of that member.

Jack.:frown:

[Paul]

I cleaned only off topic posts so most importanat still here.

[jennywren]

I cleaned only offtopoc posts so mosr importanat still here.

I know I was trying to bring a little humour,. Still subconsciously Fridayschild I'm almost frightened to ask, but what ink should I be using? was aptly picked.

[JSR]

...he or she found a source of cheap ink...

Although it was mentioned in a post before they were removed, "cheap ink" is another name for "unauthorised ink". The owner of the patent for dye-sub ink in a desktop printer comes down very harsh on anyone who supplies ink without their permission - this is why all the dye-sub ink you find being sold by authorised resellers is the same price. You can't get it cheaper elsewhere, so any mention of "cheap ink" immediately sets antennae twitching.

If you are lucky enough to obtain dye-sub ink from some other source, then you would be wise not to mention it in public - otherwise you'll find that source dries up very quickly.

Pity we can't make our own. Drop some "magic tablet" into cheap £10 dye-ink to turn it into dye-sub ink - now that would be the invention of the decade!

[Paul]

yeee this tablet would cost £100 per pill