Best Shirts for Sublimation + Tips for Sublimation Printing

Designing custom clothing is an opportunity to express your creativity and create something that makes your customers feel seen and understood. If you design a garment that resonates with a niche audience or fills an unmet need, you might even start a viral trend.

Working with a printing partner can simplify the production process. You don’t have to go to design school or learn to sew. Depending on your business model, you might not even need to invest a large sum of money before you start selling. As an aspiring designer, you can focus on your ideas and how to display them. An essential component of this is selecting the right shirt and the best printing technique for your designs so the finished product looks as good as you had envisioned. 

Learn more about sublimation, including the best shirts for sublimation printing, to see if this method is right for you.

What is sublimation? 

Sublimation, or dye sublimation, is an image transfer technique used to create custom t-shirts, other apparel products, and home goods. Sublimation printing takes its name from the physical process on which it relies. In physics, sublimation describes the transformation of matter from a solid to a gaseous state without passing through a liquid phase. Sublimation printing works by forcing solid dyes into a gas to transfer designs. It requires specialized printers, solid ink, transfer paper, and a heating press. 

Here’s the step-by-step process: 

1. Design creation and submission. The sublimation process begins with designers creating a digital image file and submitting it to a printing company. 

2. Printing to transfer paper. Manufacturers use specialized printers to transfer the design to heat transfer paper. Sublimation printers read standard files, like .jpg and .png images, much like a traditional inkjet printer. These machines interpret the image and print the design by applying heat and pressure to solid ink. These elements force the ink into a gaseous state, which bonds with the sublimation paper and transforms back into a solid as it cools. 

3. Heat pressing to fabric. To create a printed garment, manufacturers place the transfer paper on top of the fabric, secure it with heat-resistant tape, and use a heat press to apply heat and pressure. This forces the ink back into a gaseous state, where it fuses with the t-shirt fibers to create a durable print. 

Sublimation creates extremely durable garments. The designs resist cracking and fading, even after multiple washes. This technique can print highly detailed, photorealistic images in full color. Sublimation printing uses CMYK color processing to create any hue, but it cannot print in white ink. 

Best shirts for sublimation 

The best sublimation shirts are pure polyester. During the image transfer process, gaseous dyes form a chemical bond with fabric fibers. This bond is unique to polyester—sublimation ink can’t adhere to cotton or other natural fibers. Pure polyester shirts yield the brightest, most durable designs. Sublimation images printed on 100% cotton shirts are less vibrant and can fade away after the first wash. 

Sublimation printing also works on polyester-cotton or other polyester-blended fabrics, such as tri-blends of polyester, cotton, and spandex. With blends, printing results may vary depending on fabric composition. Sublimation ink will only attach to the polyester shirt fibers. Incorporating another material means that only a certain percentage of the fabric will accept the ink—this can lead to washed-out or dull designs. 

Working with blends may have other advantages. Some consumers prefer the feel of cotton shirts, while incorporating a stretchy synthetic material like spandex or elastane creates snug, fitted garments with a smooth texture. Printing on blended garments is a way to combine the benefits of multiple materials. 

For best results, select a fabric with at least 40% polyester. Blends with a greater percentage of polyester will produce brighter results than blends with more cotton.

Tips for sublimation printing 

• Consider the garment color
• Avoid white space in designs
• Use high-resolution images
• Mirror your design
• Order sample garments
• Pay attention to the design size

Sublimation printing captures fine details and renders beautiful, vibrant colors. Understanding the advantages and drawbacks of this printing technique will help you achieve the best possible results. Consider these tips for sublimation printing custom t-shirts:

Consider the garment color

Think of your garment as a canvas when sublimation printing. The blank t-shirt is the surface on which you create your art. Garment color plays a big role in the vibrancy of your final image. With sublimation printing, the ink fuses with the fabric instead of resting on the surface, as with other printing methods like direct-to-film (DTF) and direct-to-garment (DTG). This gives sublimation prints a soft, transparent quality, similar to dye. The color of your blank garment will show through slightly. For the most vibrant results, choose a light-colored or white shirt. Colors may appear slightly muted on dark or black shirts. 

Sublimation excels at printing bright, vivid hues. Turquoise blues, bright pinks, and banana yellows will all pop against a white background and create impactful, eye-catching designs. Dark colors, such as black or forest green, may appear muted due to the ink’s transparent quality. 

Avoid white space in designs

Sublimation printers don’t print white ink. Any white areas in your image will be left blank, and the base color of your garment will show through. If you're printing on a colored shirt, this could introduce unwanted elements to your design. Using a white shirt will help you achieve the best results if your design includes white elements.

Use high-resolution images 

Sublimation printing can render intricate, photographic details, but the output will only be as good as the input. Review your printing partner’s guidelines for image submissions. Popular printing companies recommend a minimum resolution of 150 to 300 pixels per inch (DPI). 

Mirror your design 

Sublimation printers print your image onto transfer paper first, so mirror or flip your sublimation design before printing. To apply the design to a t-shirt, printers flip the sublimation transfer so that the printed side is facing down and is in contact with the garment. Mirroring your design ensures that the final printed image is the image you see on your screen and that all elements face in the correct direction. Without mirroring, you may end up with illegible, backwards text or disorienting imagery. 

Order sample garments

Consider ordering a sample garment before you print a full run of t-shirts. Reviewing samples is the most effective way to ensure a high-quality final product. Assessing a printed garment in person allows you to verify that colors and details are accurately rendered. 

Pay attention to the design size 

Think about the surface area your design will cover while you’re creating your image file. Image files have file sizes, resolution, and dimensions. File size, measured in kilobytes or megabytes, does not affect the size of your design. Resolution is measured in pixels per inch (DPI)—this affects design clarity and crispness. Print size is determined by the image dimensions, measured in inches or pixel count. 

Sublimation can print very small designs, like logos, or large all-over prints that fill the entire shirt. The best size depends on your design placement. A full-front t-shirt print, for example, can range from 10 inches by 10 inches to 12 inches by 14 inches. If you’re interested in creating a large design, such as an all-over print, check with your printing partner to ensure that they have large transfer sheets and adequately sized heat presses. For all-over printed sublimation shirts, create a bleed margin by making your image file slightly larger than your target print size. Including a margin helps prevent any white spaces and ensures that your design covers the entire surface area.