What is sublimation ink?
Sublimation ink, unlike regular ink and toner, when heated changes. The change is from solid particles of the ink into a gaseous state and permeates fabric. The sublimation ink, then becomes part of the fabric making the design seamless to touch and resilient to fading from washing.
Considering starting a sublimation printing business?
There are a few things that you need to start printing designs onto your products through the use of sublimation printing. First, a sublimation printer and sublimation ink.
Good, quality sublimation ink is necessary.
Manufacturers will recommend only their brand. Sometimes, this is a good thing. And sometimes, the sublimation ink specific to a printer’s brand will be expensive. There are aftermarket and non-brand specific sublimation inks made to for the sublimation printers. However, the quality and print results may suffer and vary. In addition, the warranty will voided for some sublimation printer brands.
What sublimation ink is available?
Sawgrass SubliJet UHD Ink
Sawgrass is a first class printer manufacturer, but they really shine with their ink products. It is strongly recommended that you use only genuine Sawgrass inks in SG500. The SG1000 uses the same ink cartridges as the SG500, and that recommendation holds true for it as well.
Happily, genuine Sawgrass inks are available for all of these printers.
Sawgrass Sublijet UHD Inks for SG500 and SG1000 Printers
SUBLIJET UHD – Sublimation ink cartridges for the new Sawgrass Virtuoso SG500 and SG1000 printer (COMPLETE SET). BUNDLE DEAL:
COMPLETE SET. Standard capacity ink cartridges: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (31ml each). *****ATTENTION*****: These inks are for:
SUBLIMAX sublimation paper – TESTED & CERTIFIED BY SAWGRASS – sheet size 8.5×11″ and 117gsm (PACK OF 110 SHEETS). Premium Quality….
Printers Jack 400ML Sublimation Ink for Inkjet Printers
Right off the bat, this is my go-to ink for sublimation ink, and is the one I use the most. It gives you great results, comes with an ICC Color Profile, and does exactly what it advertises. I would definitely recommend this to anyone, especially anyone using an Epson WF-7710 (this is what I personally have used for the longest time).
On Amazon, it has a 4.3 star rating with over 11,000 reviews! Those that do give it negative reviews seem to be having other issues that may be more inherent with issues on their printer or with their print settings. All the positive reviews praise accurate and vibrant colors, and great results.
Note that you will need to perform some setup to get started with your printer, but this will be required for virtually every type of sublimation ink.
What comes in the box?
- 1 Bottle x 100ml Black Sublimation ink
- 1 Bottle x 100ml Cyan Sublimation ink
- 1 Bottle x 100ml Magenta Sublimation ink
- 1 Bottle x 100ml Yellow Sublimation ink
- One pair of disposable gloves
Compatible Printer Models
- Epson Stylus C68, Epson Stylus C88, Epson Stylus C88+, Epson Stylus C288
- Epson WF-7610, Epson WF-3640, Epson WF-3620, Epson WF-3540, Epson WF-3520
- Epson WF-7110, Epson WF-7010, Epson WF-7710, Epson WF-7720, Epson WF-7620
- Epson WF-2750, Epson WF-2630, Epson ET-2850, Epson ET-2650, Epson ET-3750
- Epson ET-4750, Epson ET-3700, Epson XP-434, Epson XP-440, Epson XP-320
- Epson NX-515, Epson NX-420, Epson NX-330
Price: $22.99
AOPANE Anti-UV Sublimation Ink
This is another super high quality sublimation ink that meets and exceeds a lot of the guidelines I laid out earlier. The AOPANE Ink works well with a wide range of materials, providing you with vibrant and fade-resistant transfers. Not only does it provide you with the vibrant images you are looking for, but it also comes with a 1-year manufacturer guarantee.
Like most of the inks we will be going over in this guide, this ink will require some setup. It works best with either a set of refillable cartridges or a continuous ink supply system (CISS). But once you get it setup, you shouldn’t have any issues dialing in your prints!
This ink also boasts a 4.6 star rating on over 40 reviews on Amazon! The majority of the negative reviews on the AOPANE sublimation ink seem to be issues with the vibrancy of the image. This can be due to a number of reasons, such as a bad batch or printer issues. However, if you run with a high quality sublimation profile, you shouldn’t experience too many issues with printing out true colors.
This ink is a great option for a wide range of printers, and can definitely meet your needs for your sublimation ink.
What comes in the box?
- 1 Bottle x 100ml Black Anti-UV Sublimation ink
- 1 Bottle x100ml Cyan Anti-UV Sublimation ink
- 1 Bottle x 100ml Magenta Anti-UV Sublimation ink
- 1 Bottle x 100ml Yellow Anti-UV Sublimation ink
- One pair of PVC sanitary gloves
Compatible Printer Models
- Epson Stylus C68, Epson Stylus C88, Epson Stylus C88+, Epson Stylus C288
- Epson XP-434, Epson XP-440, Epson XP-320
- Epson WF7610, Epson WF3640, Epson WF3620, Epson WF3540, Epson WF3520
- Epson WF7110, Epson WF7010, Epson WF7710, Epson WF7620
- Epson WF2750, Epson WF2630
- Epson ET 2850, Epson ET 2750, Epson ET 2650, Epson ET 4750, Epson ET 3700
Price: $19.49
INKXPRO Professional True Color Sublimation Ink
This is another one of my go-to sublimation inks. It has worked well for me in the past when using this sublimation ink with my Epson WF-7710, and I’ve been able to have consistently high quality results from INKXPRO.
The INKXPRO Sublimation Ink is compatible with a huge range of printers and gives you vibrant transfers onto a ton of different substrates. The INKXPRO also comes with a manufacturer made ICC Color Profile (which we provide in our downloads section), that has given me consistently vibrant results.
With a 4.3 star rating on over 50 reviews from Amazon, it seems as if this sublimation ink performs comparably with the other inks we’ve reviewed so far. Those that have given this ink a negative rating seem to have had issues with their order coming in poorly or with vibrancy issues on their prints.
What comes in the box?
- 4 X 100ml Sublimation ink refills
Compatible Printer Models
- Epson C68, Epson C88, Epson C88+
- Epson WF-3520, Epson WF-3540, Epson WF-3620, Epson WF-3640
- Epson WF-7010, Epson WF-7510, Epson WF-7520, Epson WF-7110, Epson WF-7610, Epson WF-7620
- Epson WF-7710, Epson WF-7720, Epson WF-7210
- 4 color Epson EcoTank printers
Price: $34.99
Epson® Dye-Sublimation Ink for Epson F170 and Epson F570
The Epson Sublimation Ink is that they earned a OEKO-TEX® ECO PASSPORT certification.
They passed the rigorous chemical testing and the certification means the pressed inks on garment products are completely safe to be worn by babies, children, and adults. This reduces your liability especially when you are in the business selling sublimated shirts, sweatshirts, baby bodysuits, and other garments.
Ink Cartridge Recycling Program
Return your used qualifying ink cartridges for a $5 account credit (to be used for a future ink purchase) or we will donate $5 in your name to one of the following charities: American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, or UNICEF.
What comes in the box?
Epson T49M1 – Black
1 X 142ml sublimation ink refill
T49M2 – Cyan
1 x 142ml sublimation ink refill
Price: $24.99
T49M3 – Magneta
1 x 142ml sublimation ink refill
Price: $24.99
T49M4 – Yellow
1 x 142ml sublimation ink refill
Price: $24.99
Compatible Printer Models
Epson F170
Epson F570
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