Sublimation printing is a popular method for printing on fabrics. In the past, we showed you how you can make a jacket using the sublimation process. Today, we are going to deep dive into the process of sublimation printing on a t-shirt made of prolite material. Each type of fabric has it’s own requirements, and so it is important to know these before you begin. Watch the below video for a step by step process on how you can sublimation print a t-shirt:
The first step when printing in sublimation is to look at the colours. When looking at your print on fabric, you may find that the colours don’t look the same as what you saw on your computer display. To resolve this issue, you should make sure that you design in RGB. This ensures that you get a brighter and more vibrant design.
The next step is the material. Today we are looking at prolite material, which is a very silky smooth material, with no open weaves. When designing, you need to understand the material. A material with no open weaves, like prolite, will produce a crisp vibrant print. A material that has holes, will produce a blurrier image. This means, when printing on prolite, you can use as much detail and colour as your heart desires. You also need to look at the stretch of the fabric as this will affect the print. Every material shrinks after sublimation, and this will mean your design is smaller than you wish. Prolite will shrink around 2cm in height and 3-5 cm in width. It is best to do a test so you know what changes to make to your design.
The next step is to print your design. Before you go to print, you need to section your print off into panels. Depending on which type of paper and material you are printing on, we suggest that you use 130 grams or higher paper with AM.CO.ZA‘s printers, as the Advanced Machinery Large Format Printers outputs a lot of ink, and if your paper is too thin, the paper will warp, which will cause stretch marks or areas with no ink.
Now is the time to heat-press your print onto the fabric. With prolite fabric, the recommended temperature is 126 degrees. Depending on which heat press you use, this is the perfect temperature to allow a successful print. You will want to ensure that you keep the tension of your roller tight but not overclocked. If there is too much tension, you will end up with white streeks and shrunken material. With prolite material, you don’t need to use protection paper as the polite material prevents ink from passing through your material onto the mat because there is no open weaves or holes.
The last step is to stitch your garment together, and you will have successfully sublimation print a t-shirt on prolite material! What will you be printing next?
