Dye Sublimation Printers for T-Shirts
Dye sublimation printers make quality print designs on your clothing material, especially polyester fabrics.
To get the soft-feel, photo quality details, durability of the print, retain breathability, the heat press, transfer paper, polyester blank, and colour, all affect the design quality.
Listing the best dye sub printers, I’m going to consider their print width, reliability, print speed, resolution, ink economy, and maintenance.
This is the reason I’m limiting this list to the overall best 5 printers for t-shirts.
Epson SureColor F570
The Epson SureColor F570 ranks top when you mean serious t-shirt print business.
It has 2,400 × 1,200 dpi maximum resolution, which is not the best, but considering other features such as PrecisionCore MicroTFP printhead, 140-mL CMYK bottles, and automatic nozzle verification, it is a workhorse.
It supports large sheets up to 11 × 17in dimension and rolls up to 24in, making it a better option than the desktop alternatives.
Its ink doesn’t cost as much as others like the SG1000, it doesn’t require frequent head cleanings, and it has a larger media capacity.
It allows printing larger graphics, multiple transfers nested across a roll, jerseys and bigger apparel thereby enhancing your productions.
The disadvantages of sub printers are that it involves trial and error, and they can waste materials while learning to operate them.
Also, the size is big, so it requires much space, and also more expensive than a starter printer.
Brother SP-1 for Small-Batch Sublimation
The Brother SP-1 is a beginner-friendly sublimation printer, unlike the SureColor F570. It includes full-size starter inks and sublimation paper.
It uses Brother’s 47-mL CMYK cartridges and connects wirelessly to the Artspira machines.
It allows up to 8.5 × 14 inches print format, which is not suitable for large print design or fullback artwork, but it’s good enough for standard T-shirt front design.
The print size is a plus as you can print hundreds of pages without replacing the ink.
When you don’t use it for weeks, it still prints normally so it doesn’t require much maintenance.
The drawbacks are problems with dark colors, and color fidelity. Also, Artspira is more central to the Brother experience, so it is better when you have a full desktop Artspira application.
However, it also supports PC printing, so you don’t actually need a full Artspira setup.
Epson SureColor F170
The F170 is a classic, low-cost Epson sublimation printer, not an Epson converted office machine.
It uses 140-mL T49M bottles, a 150-sheet automatic feeder, PrecisionCore technology and supports paper widths up to 8.5 inches.
The bottle system is impressive, more expensive proprietary cartridges for regular use.
F170 is perfect for standard-size transfers, but large design print could be a concern.
The drawbacks with this printer are the visible dot patterns in light solid colors, clogging or color-management problems, especially when you don’t use it regularly, but for a business, that shouldn’t be a problem.
Sawgrass SG1000
The SG1000 is a pure dye sublimation printer with good colour management and simple workflows.
SG1000 also improved on SG500 print size, so it has an 11 × 17-inch format.
The problem with this printer is the automatic maintenance which consumes ink, printing failures, firmware problems and ink compatibility.
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