picture too light

[Mumfy]

Hi, newbie here- bit unsure whats going on - but today I tried pressing on a glasses pouch , got an image and printed it - im using sub inks and a epson printer, did the temp and pressure as suppliers said - and it comes out very faint ??... Now do i need to up the temp or increase the pressure ??? I keep wasting blanks, and they aint cheap !!

vB_ID:3080

P_20141128_002758_BF.jpg (75.36 KiB) Viewed 11 times

[ArferMo]

I give em 60s at 190C

Are you sure your temperature is correct have you checked it don't rely on the readout they can be WAY off.

[Quinsfan]

Are you printing on the correct side of the paper? Is it sublimation paper? What make of sublimation paper is it? All of the answers to these questions may help answer your question.

[Mumfy]

I got the paper with the printer, and i used the smooth side- used it as directed, did them at 195 for 50 secs, med pressure - came out like this , on both sides- had the same issue with a puzzle i did ?? did try turning temp up , but made no difference

[pisquee]

What make are the inks, what ICC profile are you using?
lick you fingers and touch both sides of the paper - is one side sticky?

[gorgall2]

Don't keep wasting blanks, print a small design on your blank and then you can use it for several tests.

[rossdv8]

Go to a budget store that sells 'cheap' polyester bed sheets and get a set of white ones that are 100% polyester. They will probably cost you a few quid and you can make a hell of a lot of tests out of them.
If it's a single bed set and they come with a pillow, save it. Once you have everything going right you can cut the pillow in half, press the halves and make a couple of cushions for home.

For practice or testing, cut some pieces out of the sheet and do tests on that when you are curious about colours and times and pressures.

Once you get it looking good on white polyester - try printing on a blank.
Ink and paper are far cheaper to waste in practicing, than blanks

[Mumfy]

thanks for that idea rossdv8, shall give it a go - I printed out a large picture and used 1 blank loads of time - i have been turning up the heat and shortening the time , then more time and less heat , still cant get it right - so for now im walking away before i throw the bloody thing out the window !!!!, but when i am calm i will defo use the sheet method

[rossdv8]

Remember, the sheet method is just to get things 'close' as far as colours etc go. So you should have nice crisp blacks and your other colours will be pretty good.

Once you have that looking ok, then you can afford to waste a few blanks working out exact times and temps, although if it looks right on the sheet, it should look pretty good on the case. But as others said - when you start practicing on blanks, do small prints so you can use one blank several times.

So if you print on half your glasses case, you can do 2 prints a side. 4 prints on one case beats wasting 4 blanks

Remember though, if you start printing mugs or aluminium all the temps and pressures and times will change.