Generally poor print quality - tips please?

[Paul]

Cos sawgrass hold the patent. You can't offer 3rd party inks as it would be illigal . But this is down to producing ink or selling. But what you put in your printer is only your business.

[tanx]

I am very new to the sublimation game and like alot of folk already feel like i am being held ransom by Sawgrass (which we are virtually, unless you have a wide format printer lol). It's hard enough to get going in the business without having to spend ludicrous amounts of money on ink and "supported" specific printers. There are quite a few manufacturers of ink, and i for one, won't be told what i can buy or can't buy to use in my equipment. Sawgrass may have good ink and good support, for "supported" printers, but i'm sure there are good inks (with the right profile) available elsewhere. I have noticed also that other ink suppliers, reviews of their ink ect are rarely mentioned on here !!! it's like a taboo subject - strange

[bms]

You will probably still need a custom ICC profile made to get good photo's from the ricoh, powerdriver is ok but a custom profile is better. With that said the ricoh SG3110 is a good choice of printer to get you going.

Sawgrass have released a new version, version 4 of the PowerDriver software for the Ricoh printers. Everyone using Ricoh printers should consider upgrading as this gives improved colour matching as well as remote support.

[Frostee]

Good evening,
A few weeks ago I purchased a second-hand EPSON XP-202 that was in generally good condition. I purchased a compatible CISS (well, refillable cartridges) and filled each with a hearty dose of seemingly non-branded sublimation ink. The printer is using sublimation papers.

I've printed mugs and a couple of phone cases successfully with solid-coloured logos, but just before I was about to commence business (exciting moment), I printed a photo of myself for photographic use on the website. However, the print quality was far from impressive.

You can view a sample print here: http://uploadpie.com/lulZr
XP-202 is the sublimation printer, and HP 7510 is a standard inkjet printer that I have had for a few years, just to illustrate the comparison.

The printer is printing with the 'Best Photo' setting, and the heads were cleaned very recently.

Do I need to buy another printer? Could you recommend a good, high-quality, economical printer?

Or do could you suggest any tips to solve this problem? It's set me back at the last minute.

Have a great day!

Take care,
Joel.

Just saw this. They both looknlike paper. Did you actually press the photo? What something looks like on the paper is very different from what the item loks like when pressed. I remember being mortified looking at the paper the first time I tried. Figured I'd press it anyway to get some practice and it came out great!