What materials can you print on with sublimation printing?
Here are the most commonly used materials:
- Polycotton textile
- Polymer
- Polyester
- Ceramic
- PVC
- Polyester-coated aluminum
- Polymer-coated metal
- Polyester-made fabric
- Polymer-coated plastic
- Aluminum Panels and Inserts
- Hardboard and Wood Plaques
- Tile
- Mugs
- Acrylic
- Glass
- Slate
- Polyester Fabric
- Reinforced Fiberglass
- Plastic
You may have noticed that cotton is not including in this list.
Why?
Sublimation will wash out of cotton. This happens because the synthetic sublimation dye cannot chemically bond with the all-natural cotton fibers.
However, you can create a synthetic surface on top of cotton.
The best materials to use for sublimation printing out of the list above is polyester or ceramic. For fabric, you can use a variety of designs and logos, unlike traditional printing that could sometimes only produce one logo per garment.
There are, however, a few designs that don’t work well with sublimation printing. An example, are designs that have block colors with designs that need to be placed all over the garment. This is partly because of a chance of ghosting, color mismatch, and white streaking.
Are there any materials that won’t work with sublimation? Again, 100% cotton materials and other natural materials are not suitable for this method of printing. This is because they are chemically incompatible and the ink will not adhere.