There are plenty of printing technologies that are being used these days. Some of the printing techniques that you can choose from are offset printing, rotary printing, screen printing, heat transfer printing, and digital printing. Some opt for 3D printing, laser, discharge, brushing, block, or sublimation printing. These days dye sublimation and digital printing are both popularly used by businesses. In this article, we will dive deeper into understanding the advantages of each printing technology. We aim to provide you with information that could help you decide which printing method is best used for your requirements, budget, and timeline.
What is Dye Sublimation Printing?
In an article entitled, ‘Exploring the World of Print: Techniques, Types, Materials and Effects,’ dye sublimation is defined as a printing technique where it uses heat to transfer the dye into the fabric. This is best used when you want to achieve full color and vibrant design.
Dye Sublimation Process
These are the processes involved in using dye sublimation:
- Decide on your design. There is plenty of software you can use in creating your design. You may use Canva, Adobe Photoshop, Sketch, Figma, VistaCreate Gravit Designer, or any other software you prefer.
- Place the ink into your sublimation printer then you can print your design onto the sublimation transfer paper.
- Choose the right kind of substrate. This is essential especially if your material is polyester or coated.
- You can remove any moisture and wrinkles by pre-pressing the heat machine. To achieve the right color, make sure that your heat machine is preheated before transferring the design. It’s also critical that it’s set up at the right temperature before use.
- Once the required heat is achieved, place the printed transfer paper facing the substrate, gently close the heat machine, and apply pressure and heat.
- The ink will be transferred into the material, after the transfer time is due, pressure should be released and the material is allowed to cool down.
- You can start peeling off the transfer paper gently, the design is now left into the printed substrate.
- Make sure to do the quality check before continuing the process for the rest of your materials.
Advantages of using Dye Sublimation Printing:
- Allows for transfer of full colors into different surfaces such as ceramic, and fabrics through the mixture of pressure and heat
- Great for customization of designs that can be used as a gift or promotional items such as advertising banners
- Durable and does not fade even if washed
- Heat resistant and does not easily crack or get peeled
- Set-up cost is not as expensive as other printing technology where the printer itself costs a substantial amount of money
- Can be used in a variety of materials such as t-shirts, hoodies, hats, pillowcases, and cushions
- It can also be used on other materials other than fabric such as mugs, coasters, and cases for your phones.
- Great for photo printing and gift item businesses. It is also viable for retail and e-commerce businesses allowing custom prints of products for home decor, buntings, banners, flags, and other materials.
- It’s relatively considered more eco-friendly compared to other printing methods. Since the ink is heated and turned into gas it reduces the waste materials and its environmental impact is also lessened.
Disadvantages of using Dye Sublimation Printing:
- If you are using cotton or silk, you need to opt for another printing method. When using dye sublimation printing, the fabric needs to hold a high percentage of polyester material. This is why it’s great for printing advertising flags that are made of high-quality polyester but not on shirts made out of cotton.
- This type of printing is prone to color mismatch. Thus you might need to test print first before doing the whole pile of materials. In some cases, the colors that appear on your screen may differ from that of the printed one.
- Dye sublimation is only applicable on light-colored substrates. If you are using black colored ones, the colors won’t turn out the way you want them to be.
- It’s not advisable to be used if you’re aiming for an exact placement of the designs.
What is Digital Printing?
Digital Printing is one of the printing technologies widely used in textiles. When using textile technology, you can be more flexible when it comes to design. In addition, the production time is shorter compared to other manual or traditional forms of printing. With this kind of printing method, inkjet technology is used to transfer designs into the fabric. There are plenty of advantages when using digital printing. It allows you to print very complex designs, play with gradients, and even print photos or images you’ve taken.
Digital Printing Process
Below are the steps involved in using digital printing.
- Make your design with the design software previously mentioned. The design should be of high resolution preferably between 150-300 dpi in CMYK
- Make sure that you are using a high-quality file with the right solution. This is important in producing sharp and vibrant images.
- Calibrate the printer to make sure that the colors you want are achieved with the printed output.
- Decide on the substrate and load it carefully into the printer.
- Begin the transferring of the digital file into the substrate using the inkjet technique. Allow the ink to set permanently into the substrate, be careful when removing it from the printer.
- Check the quality of the printed material. Make the necessary trimming and other post-printing steps.
- If you are going to send it out, pack it carefully especially if the item will be delivered from a long distance.
Advantages of Digital Printing
- Allows for a large volume of printing requests in a lesser time required. This is helpful especially if you are trying to meet a deadline or in a rush to print additional orders. Let’s say you have an upcoming event and you initially thought that having 20 banners is enough. When you saw the place, it was bigger and needed more banners to be hung. You can easily print out more without feeling too stressed out about the deadline.
- You can achieve full colors of your design with a quick delivery. Unlike other printing methods which need the changing of plates, digital printing is straightforward and done in one process.
- Requires less time in color matching thanks to the advancement of technology. With this advantage, you can start the printing process right away. No time is wasted.
- Considered to be environmentally friendly as the ink is only placed on the parts aligned with the design. In addition, no plates needed to be cleaned afterward.
- Provides high value as there are printers that could produce a glossy finish or embossed effect.
- Straightforward and simple to use, unlike other complicated printing technology which needs in-depth knowledge of ink printing.
- Considered to be low cost about the speed of printing turn-around
- Allows for customization and is great for printing low-volume
Disadvantages of using Digital Printing
- The durability of the print may not be for the long-term as compared with dye sublimation printing. Digitally printed ink can fade faster under direct sunlight.
- The printable fabrics are limited and white colors are usually included in the print
- There is ink or color limitation and the opacity of the ink against the printed fabric is also not so great.
Additional Tips:
- Make sure that your files are print-ready. It should be in CMYK or CMYK-safe RGB about the accuracy of the color on our screen.
- Do not forget to include bleed on your images, you don’t want your design to be cut out.
- Saved your files with the right formatting such as .ai
- Double-check if the placement of the design on the substrate is correct. Otherwise, the design will be flipped in the opposite direction.
- Do a quality check and make the necessary adjustments before doing a mass print.
- Clean and flatten the surface of your substrate to ensure that all the surfaces are going to be covered properly. No wrinkles or creases.
- If you are just starting, you can seek the guidance of a professional to help you out. Learn your ways as you gain more experience.
- In dye printing, the amount of pressure and right heat is tantamount to producing the quality of the product.
- In both printing techniques, positioning the materials properly is critical in achieving the desired design outcome.
Now that you’ve learned the difference between dye sublimation printing and digital printing, you can choose better which one to get for your next order. If you need advertising flags, customized table covers, tents, and other related materials, feel free to talk to our customer service representatives at Everest Prints.
