Choosing high-quality sublimation ink is necessary in order to get and achieve the best results possible. The print quality, lasting time, smoothness, and all the other important things can be affected by the ink quality. That’s why choosing the best quality sublimation ink is super important.
I have been searching for the same answer maybe a year ago and I found many unwanted and useless answers. But today I will tell you the best way to choose high-quality sublimation ink as per my experience and industry experts. This will help you with your sublimation printing journey as well as you will be able to differentiate between the sublimation ink and their types.
What Is The Best Way To Choose High Quality Sublimation Ink
So, there are various checks that will help us to find the best way to choose the high-quality sublimation ink possible. Those points are,
- Sublimation Ink Brand
- Compatibility With Your Printer
- Suitable For The Substrates You Wanna Sublimate on
- Transfer Rate
- Vibrancy Of The Colors
- Sublimation Ink Particle Size
- Price Of The Sublimation Ink
- Other Minor Checks
Let’s start with each step by step.
Sublimation Ink Brand
The very first thing that needs to be considered is the brand of the sublimation ink. It must be well-known among the experts. There are many sublimation ink brands out there that produce really amazing sublimation ink. Check our article on the best sublimation ink brand for a better idea.
But in a nutshell, if you wanna know the best sublimation ink brand name quickly then it’s a Hiipoo. They are getting famous day by day and their sublimation inks are the best for now. Personally, I am getting awesome bright, vivid, smooth, and long-lasting prints using the Hiipoo sublimation ink.
Compatibility With Your Printer
The next thing to check is the compatibility of the ink with your printer. There are many sublimation inks available in the market that works with specific brand and model printers only. That’s why making sure about compatibility is quite an important thing. If you are worried about which ink should i buy then read our article on the best sublimation ink in 2022. It will give you a brief idea about sublimation inks and their compatibilities.
Suitable For The Substrates You Wanna Sublimate on
This point somehow resembles the previous one but this is also very important that’s why I am explaining this separately. Before buying any sublimation ink, you need to be clear on what kind of substrate you are going to use that sublimation ink. Because some sublimation ink is not capable enough to provide the same high-quality printing result on metal or glass-like they can give on polyester or fabric.
Transfer Rate
As we all know that during the sublimation printing process ink is converted into gas while the heat transfer process and then transferred from a paper onto a substrate such as a shirt. Now, the transfer rate here should be more than 90% in order to end up with some amazing print results. And usually, most of the sublimation inks have a 90%+ transfer rate.
You might be thinking how can we identify the transfer rate of sublimation ink? Well, the manufacturer should provide this information or another method to try and test yourself. But I would suggest using good-quality accessories for the sublimation printing, especially the ink. And you won’t face any transferring issues. And just for information, the higher the transfer rate is, the better the print would be in sense of colors, vividness, smoothness, and long-lastingness as well.
Vibrancy Of The Colors
If you are doing sublimation printing professionally then you need to make sure that your ink colors are vibrant enough to give a real-life touch to the prints of the customers. When there is a presence of multiple colors in the image, sometimes the results are not what we are expecting. But this can be overcome by using the sublimation ink that has a super vibrancy in its colors.
And generally speaking, even if you are doing the sublimation as a hobby. Still, you need to have vibrant color sublimation ink because the vibrancy will affect your printed image results. So the more rich the ink colors are, the better the result would be.
Sublimation Ink Particle Size
You might be thinking this point is useless but let me tell you that this is one of the most crucial areas for your printer specifically. The sublimation ink uses the ink particles and if the particles are very large, it can lead your printer head to blockage. That’s why I always recommend using the sublimation inks that are using 3 layer filtration process.
This filtration process makes sure that ink particles are not larger than the print head and in most cases, those particles are just 50% of the size that the print head can allow. So there is no chance of blockage or clogging in your printer.
Also, this 3 layer protection helps you to have a more vibrant and detailed print. Because smaller ink particles can have a more detailed print view and image printed. If we compare the results of smaller ink particles VS the larger ones. We can clearly see the difference between the both of them. The smaller one surely has a better, detailed, vibrant, and rich-colors image printed.
Price Of The Sublimation Ink
Price is the most, if not one of the most important factors and this also helps us to identify the best way to choose the high-quality sublimation ink. You can find many inks out there having all the qualities I just mentioned but they are just out of the budget.
That’s why choosing the budget-friendly sublimation ink with all the qualities I just explained above is super important. Usually, well-known brands offer the best budget-friendly sublimation ink.
Other Minor Checks
There are a few other things as well that can help us to know the best way to choose high-quality sublimation ink such as the expiration date of the ink, the size, customers feedback about that particular ink, etc. this is commonly checked by every person who is in the sublimation printing and who is going to buy the sublimation ink.
Also Read:
1. Best Anti UV Sublimation Ink In 2022
2. Top 5 Hiipoo Sublimation Ink
3. Is Sublimation Ink Toxic
Final Words On The Best Way To Choose High Quality Sublimation Ink
There are many points through which we can find the best way to choose high-quality sublimation ink but if we summarize all of them, then it would be like. Sublimation ink should compatible with your printer, should give high-quality, vivid, bright, long-lasting colors, should be using a 3-layer filtration process, should feel smooth after transferring, and should be within the budget. If the ink has all these features, just go for it.