Sublimate Clothing

Dye sublimation printing is used to create high-quality, full-colour prints or images on textiles, fabrics and clothing. It can create prints that cover the entire garment area. This style of printing transfers a design or pattern onto a material, fabric or textile, using a combination of a special ink, or dye, and heat.

Sublimated clothing is a popular choice in Australia for custom garment printing and custom branded clothing.

Here’s how sublimated clothing is printed: the process in a nutshell.

1. The design or image is printed onto specialty sublimation paper, using specialty sublimation ink (see why it’s a super special process?) .
2. A heat press is then used to transfer the design or image onto the fabric or clothing, which turns the inks into gas (yes, gas), which permanently binds to the fabric, embedding the ink into the clothing, when the gas settles into the fibres of the clothing.
3. As the gas cools down, it will then become solid again, permanently embedding the dye into the fabric.

That’s the sublimation process in a nutshell, using the sublimation dyes, and sublimation paper, to transfer a custom design or artwork onto the shirts, jackets, or whatever garments it is that are being custom printed.

The sublimation printing process has many advantages over traditional printing methods.

• Sublimated printing allows for high-resolution images
• Sublimation dyes give a full-colour, high-quality print
• Sublimated garment printing designs don’t peel, fade, or crack
• Custom printed clothing from sublimation printing can be washed easily, as the print is bonded to the clothing.
• Sublimated printing technology works well for complex and multicoloured designs.
• The breathability of the garment isn’t impacted by the print, as the clothing feels the same as if it wasn’t printed; this is what makes it so popular for basketball jerseys, football jerseys, netball shirts, club polo shirts and other sporting team club shirts and uniforms.

Screen printing is a more traditional method of textile custom printing, which involves creating a ‘screen’ (or stencil) for each colour to be printed. The stencils are then used to apply the various layers of ink to the printing surface.

Screen printing and sublimation printing are both methods used to create custom printed clothing. They each have their pros and cons for different situations. Here’s how they compare.

The colour of the shirt, garment or fabric which your design will be printed on will determine what the best printing methods are.

• The optimal colour fabric for dye sublimation printing is white fabric.
• Screen printing technology works well with any colour fabric, including darker clothing where a base coat can be used underneath.

• Sublimated printing technology is the best for complex designs, and designs with multiple colours.
• Screen printing can quickly become very expensive and time-consuming with complicated designs, or designs with multiple colours. This is because a new screen template needs to be created for every new colour, and this must be applied one at a time, in layers.

• Sublimated clothing printing is best if the fabric is polyester or a polyester-blend fabric.
• Screen printing is effective on a wide range of fabrics.

• For smaller orders, the sublimation printing process is much more cost-effective than screen printing. Creating just one screen print, or a small amount of screen printed garments, can be quite expensive, due to the number of templates that are required.
• For larger orders, screen printing, and sublimation printing can be equally cost-effective.

• Sublimation printing is the best method to use for sporting jerseys, basketball jerseys, sportswear, and active uniforms, where breathability is important. This is because the breathability is not affected by the dye sublimation process, as sublimation dyes embed into the fabric itself. If you’re looking for sublimated polo shirts in Australia, to provide sun protection against the harsh Aussie sun without an impact on breathability, sublimated shirts are the way to go.
• With screen printing technology, on the other hand, the ink will sit on top of the fabric. This feels heavier to wear, and reduces breathability in the parts of the garment where the print has been applied.