Types of paper

[TonyM]

Hi all,
As a follow on to types of ink, a question about paper to use with the ink.
Is there one type suits all?
I read that there is some for light fabrics and some for dark.
Also is it the same paper for fabric as ceramic?
What about plastics, mousemats, and I understand you can even sublimate to metal or wood.
Does each material require a different paper?
Thanks again and sorry for what must seem really obvious questions to the more experienced of you. but I would wager that there are a few newbies if not now, in the future that will be thinking, Thank God he asked that as I dont want to look silly. :oops:

Tony

[Paul]

hi Tony! there is no such a thing as paper for dark and white :)
I would recomend texprint or trupix for all your sublimation printing. I use texprint I love it! I use that for my ceramics and for t-shirts.

thanx

Paul

[accdave]

I prefer Texprint for t-shirts and trupix for everything else.

[Justin]

Xpres used to sell different papers for sublimation tee's and hard items, mouse mats/coasters etc. but now do a one paper fits all which is very good for the price.

I recently switched to Truepix and it's the best I've ever used. Far more expensive though.

Justin

[bms]

There are various brands of paper in the market and a good quality sublimation paper should be good for hard surface items as well as softer items - hard surface are items such as metal, ceramics where as softer items are items such as mousemats, t-shirts etc.

TruPix or Texprint are papers manufactured by Sawgrass and are good quality papers.

An economy brand of sublimation paper (not the same as 80gsm laser printing paper) is okay for hard surface items only. The better quality papers allow more of the ink to gas off the paper during sublimation whereas the poor quality papers soak too much of the ink into the paper preventing it from being released.

There are also "high release" papers which produce more vibrant results onto softer items and these include JetCol or Texprint HR (HR = High Release). These papers often need some drying time (approx 10 mins) before use as the ink doesn't soak into the paper very much.

If you looking for a good all round paper then you won't go far wrong with the TruPix brand IMO.

[TonyM]

Thank you

Once again sensible helpful answers.

One last question until the next one.
Silicon paper? What is that for?

Is it just a protective thing?
Can I not just use a sheet of my normal injet paper and throw if it has ink on it.
What is the silicon paper use?

Regards

Tony

[JSR]

Martin's too modest to mention that he sells an A4 economy sublimation paper. It comes in packs of 200 sheets and is great for starting out. I used to use it.

These days I do tend to stick with TruPix for hard items and TexPrint for fabric items. They cost a little more but if you factor it into your costs, it's affordable enough. If you're just starting out or doing some experimenting, the BMS economy paper will help you save money if you're printing hard items (mugs, placemats, coasters, etc). Be wary of unknown economy sublimation paper.

Silicon paper is there to separate your work from your press - protecting your press in the event of ink either going through the paper, or gassing around the edges. If ink gets onto your press there's a danger of it pressing onto the next item, and you don't want that. Prevention is better than cure when it comes to ink on your press.

You can either use silicon paper which is good for a couple of uses and then discarded. Or you can use the heavy teflon sheets which are good for hundreds of uses (they cost more but are worth it). I use a combination (belt and braces). I use teflon sheets on the heat platen itself and I used to use silicon paper next to the teflon sheets but I've since switched to Tesco's greaseproof paper - works out a lot more convenient because it's cheap enough to use as a "use once and chuck it" paper.

[TipTop T's]

I also use greaseproof from Tesco's for the bulk of my printing, but also use teflon for things like a final press when using flex and TTC transfer paper.

[Images On]

Hi I am quite new to sublimation printing and am using truepix paper at the moment, I do have problems on high saturation photographic images with ink marks, this keeps cropping up just when I think I have got it cracked!
Is there a better paper for high saturation images, I print onto mugs and T-shirts. When I get a clean print the transfer is great so no worries about the image quality of the paper I just want to stop pulling out what hair I have when I keep getting ink marks on my prints.

[frizbee]

Can I add my two penny worth to this.

Truepix paper is by far the best quality paper and will give you good quality results on solid colours on mugs & unisub.

BMS sell a high release fabric paper, not sure what its called but again, it produces about the best results you can get.

Xpres paper is fine for your standard mug & unisub printing but not up to pure solid colours compared to truepix.

Novachrome, intersting paper as it is just epson matte photo paper, works well for unisub products but thats about it buy it on ebay for £5 a pack do not use for mugs it really is not good enough.

BMS, The magic touch and many others do a pack of 200 sheets enconomy paper, not a bad paper and will give good results but compared to truepix colours are not as sharp but worth keeping a pack in stock for emergencies.

Other paper and certainly the cheap no name stuff on ebay is worth staying well away from after all your reputation is all in your quality and if you need to weigh the couple of pence difference against your quality then you need a new business model.

For the masses who don't already know me, we give the above info based on our actual experience, not sure home many mugs I printed last year but its more than 20,000 probably nearer 30,000 I know we did over 10,000 unisub coasters! and have been through every type of paper and ink and ended up with truepix and epson (only for coasters!)