Printed Colours vs. Heat Pressed Colours

Why do prints from a dye sublimation printer look wrong?

Why are the colours incorrect?

If you are looking at your print straight from your printer; tis is probably why.

On paper it is perfectly normal for a dye sublimation print to look different to the image on your computer screen.

This is because sublimation inks change colour during the sublimation heat pressing process.

As sublimation ink reacts when it is heated the ink will physically change colour.

The end result becomes brighter and more vibrant than the image printed on the sublimation paper.

It is always advisable and often necessary to heat press the image on to a product to see the final result.

Below we have a produced a sublimation print on to an aluminium sheet using our Style 120gsm sublimation paper, Inktec Sublinova inks and Epson Ecotank ET-1810 printer to demonstrate how the colours change between

Onscreen image – how the image looks on your computer screen; and how we would hope it to look on the final product.
Print produced by the printer – how the image looks after being printed on to sublimation paper.
Finished transfer on a PU leather placemat (or other substrate) – how the final image looks after being heat pressed.

In some instances some colours can print ‘completely wrong’ on the paper.

This is most common with shades of green, teal and aquamarine.

These colours are made using cyan (blue) and yellow inks. As the print uses two inks to create green shades the inks are often laid onto the paper on top of one another.

Generally yellow is laid first, with cyan (blue) laid on top.

So, in a lot of instances shades of green will appear BLUE on paper.

Once heat pressed the printed transfer will be correct and appear the correct shade.

Below is a dramatic example of this.

As mentioned above the printed image on sublimation paper (before being heat pressed) will in most cases look ‘wrong’ this is nothing to panic about. It is completely normal for the ink on paper before heat pressing to look incorrect.

• Generally prints on sublimation paper appear more pale / washed out than onscreen image
• Red colours will not appear paler – more orange
• Grey colours will appear to have a purple cast
• Teal / aqua colours will appear a light sky blue colour
• Blue colours will appear darker – almost purple

Each image will differ depending on the colours it is created from but the above is an overview of what you can expect the sublimation print on paper to look like before heat pressing.

When the sublimation print is heat pressed on to the product or substrate a chemical reaction takes place (sublimation process) this reaction creates a change in the ink as it changes from a solid to a gas. During this reactive change the ink will shift in colour to become correct and match the onscreen image closely.