TonyM wrote:When I buy a printer and set it up to work with sublimation ink, is that all i can then use that printer for?
I guess what i mean is do I need to buy another A3 printer to produce say photographs and posters?
So one for Sub work, such as mugs, plates, Tshirts etc, set up with a sub ink CISS and then a second A3 set up with normal ink for photos etc. Or can the sub ink set up do both?
The ink colours in dye-sublimation ink aren't the same as the ink colours from the printer manufacturer's ink (OEM). Sublimation ink reacts under heat and so Sawgrass provide a colour correction profile that will, as close as is practical, make the print look "right" after pressing to your substrate (such as a mug). They don't care what the ink looks like on the paper that comes out of the printer - that's of no importance compared to the finished product.
So, if you print a regular document *with* the sublimation ink, you're going to get some very funny results. It may be acceptable for draft prints, or prints for which the colour isn't totally relevant, but not for photos.
I occasionally use my Epson 1400 with dye-sub inks to print out A3 CAD drawings and mind maps, but these are effectively black line drawings. Dye-sub black isn't a particularly deep black on paper, but it serves the purpose for these prints.
It is possible to remove the dye-sub CISS and pop OEM inks back in it for regular printing, and swapping back to dye-sub afterwards, but it's not recommended. Every time you swap out, a certain amount of ink will be flushed through the printer. And every time you remove the CISS and put it back again, you run the risk of introducing air bubbles into the printhead - and if that happens, you'll really have a right day of it.
TonyM wrote:Does cost come into the equation in this case, as I seem to find sub inks far more expensive than normal inks and probably therefore not viable?
If you look into it, you'll find that's a wrong assumption to make. When you buy ink for a CISS, the common price is approximately £60 per colour for a 125ml bottle - that's about 50p per ml. OEM ink, such as from Epson, generally costs around £10 for a cartridge containing about 10ml of usable ink - that's about £1 per ml. This simple calculation shows that dye-sublimation ink, even at its most expensive, is still half the price of OEM ink. Makes you think.
If you do a lot of printing, you can make bigger savings. If you buy your sublimation ink in 500ml quantities, it'll cost around £180 - that's about 36p/ml, just over a third of the price of OEM ink.
Sublimation ink only appears to be expensive because you have to buy it in bottles of 125ml - but each bottle of 125ml contains roughly the same amount of ink as 10 cartridges from the printer manufacturer. (YMMV, of course, but the savings are clear.)
The only time that sublimation ink is hideously expensive if is you buy cartridges instead of a CISS. The ink in a cartridge is the same quantity as OEM ink. I don't know if you can still get them these days but, when I started out, the cartridges for my Epson 1290 were around £50 each - compared to the OEM price of about £20. Rather than half the price, as they are with a CISS, they worked out to over double the price.
The conclusion is clear - stay away from dye-sub cartridges, and buy CISS ink in the largest quantity you can. (Don't buy it in large quantities if you don't think you're going to use it all within about a year or so, though.)
