Sublimation - regular paper for test prints

I’ve gotten some regular paper for the textiles area for when you need to do a test print, and don’t want to use your more valuable sublimation paper. This paper is pink and yellow (so that there is no mistaking it!). I’ve put samples on the wall, with directions as to where it is kept

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Love the pink and yellow idea.

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Super smart, thank you!

Sorry to disagree but the colors would not look the same. If your art/graphic is color specific, looking at a test run in other than white paper may not come out the way you think. Red and some blues are usual culprits.

I imagine she’s more referring to making sure your artwork is correct and soze roght, not color correctness.

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Exactly as @jamesfreeman says. You are welcome to use any paper you choose. But most of my tests are size and shape, rather than color. Especially as the colors end up looking different after you send them through the heat press (in which case you will have needed to use sublimation paper)

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Colors actually change during the sublimation process as well so you really shouldn’t rely on the way the print looks to determine color correctness. That’s why there are special sublimation printer profiles for things like portraits where color correctness is super important

Here is an example of color change from print to press

To be honest, I have never heard of running test prints in sublimation. I have heard of testing the colors as running and cooking prints to see if the colors match the color pallette that is being used (CMK, Pantone, or what have you) and if they don’t match, use an alternative color until they match. This is crucial in commercial logos. This is what I mean by “color correctness/specific.” Photos are a complete different horse. They tend to be more in the quality/resolution of the photo itself and if not, more/less time in the press, and timing of when you release the paper off the substrate. Also, the quality of the substrate makes a big difference usimg the same photo settings. If you use a Chromaluxe metal sheet your photo will turn out ten times better than if you use the dynasub economy sheet. In sublimation, unless you do this day in an day out, you will never be able to tell the colors by looking at the printed paper. In most instances the hear activates the combination of the inks done by the printer.

I would guess that I run a test print for only about 1 in 10 things I do - so it is not overly common, but is another tool in the toolbox.

A really good example happened at the shop the other day. Eric was wanting to make a tool that included rulers for the Shaper Origin, and had gotten some fairly expensive sticker material. Before using it, Eric opted to do a few test prints to make sure that what was being printed was exactly the size it needed to be (down to testing with calipers) before switching to the expensive stuff.

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