DSF

Hi everyone,

im new to all this ,as you can probably tell,i bought a heatpress and mug press second hand and the printer wasnt working,so i bought a epson workforce fc7610.
do I need a program to design the mugs/T-shirts? I'm looking for as much advice as possible please, thanks in advance.

If you are a designer and looking to create artwork then you should already have the right software tools - Photoshop CC, Illustrator Coral Draw. If you are not a designer then you may need to pay a contractor/artist.

hi
thanks for your reply, no I'm not,I'm completely new to it, I only bought it to do as gifts for family and friends. so I'm learning from the start.
thanks

I'm assuming you are talking about sublimation printing here.

You will need the correct sublimation inks for your printer. You will also need sublimation paper to print your transfers onto. Lastly, you will need what's known as an ICC Profile. This is a file normally provided by your ink supplier for your particular printer and brand of ink. It is essential if you want to reproduce colours faithfully. The ICC Profile is used by whatever graphics software you are going to use to print your designs (Photoshop, CorelDraw, Illustrator, Inkscape, Gimp, ... to name the most popular softwares that support ICC Profiles).

T-shirts.

Be aware that sublimation printing only works on WHITE or VERY LIGHT colours and the fabric must be 100% POLYESTER to achieve best results. A high poly/cotton mix, say 65%/35% can be used but produces a more faded print as the sublimation inks only penetrate the polyester fibres, not the cotton. It may look fine when first printed, but some of the colour will wash out on the first wash.

Mugs.

Mugs must be proper sublimation blanks, which have a special coating, otherwise they won't print. Buy good quality mugs from reputable dealers otherwise you will have nothing but trouble.

Designs.

Although you can buy ready-made designs or have them made by a graphic artist, it's perfectly possible to make your own, as many of us do. I use Photoshop, but to save on costs you could try the free Gimp, or the free Inkscape for vector designs. It's not rocket science! My two granddaughters, aged 7 and 8, have produced designs that I have printed on mugs and they look great!

Just take the time to do a lot of research and ask questions before forking out money on things that are unnecessry when starting out.

thank you for the infomation,i have tried to do alot of research,but end up with a headache,lol.my printer is a sublimation printer,i also have the paper and the icc profice disc to set up.i am in the proccess of downloading photoshop so fingers crossed i will figure it out.thanks again