Dye-Sublimination - Colour Hell

[IOIIOOIO]

Does anyone here have experience with Dye-Sublimination printing? I have just started at a new company that does it, and I am having huge problems with colour matching. Every machine has several "curves", which all manipulate the various colours in various ways. I have printed out a colour chart on each machine, on each curve, and applied it to different materials. This has helped speed up the process of colour matching tremendously, but I am still not satisfied. Some curves print magenta beautifully, and some print yellow beautifully; but none of them prints the full CMYK spectrum accurately on a single curve, and not a single one can print Cyan accurately. I come from a vinyl printing background, and have never had such an issue. I'm particularly concerned with the fact that Cyan is impossible to achieve. My biggest problem is that the official technician for the machines is the one who messes around with the curves, the rest of us are forbidden. He is quite adamant (sic) that it is not possible for him to get all the colours printing accurately on a single curve, and that the blue we get is the closest he can get to cyan. To give you an idea, the closest I can get to 100% Cyan is what looks like, say, C:40 M:20.... I'm not kidding.

I just want someone to confirm if it is indeed so utterly impossible to print these accurately with Dye-Sublimination? Or is this guy just being lazy, and talking from the hip? The thing is, he is the official technician from the company that makes the machines.

[Elyaradine]

I don't have experience with that. I'll try and ask some folks next week. I won't see them until then.

[IOIIOOIO]

Thanks. And it's actually "dye sublimation".

[[ uberdiablo ]]

Sorry bro. Never worked on something like this before. Hope someone can help you out though. Sounds like it's being a real bitch.

[Elyaradine]

I haven't had a chance to ask the lecturers I had in mind this week. I'm on the video and animation side of the campus, while they're on the design side, and each time I meant to ask them they were busy with lectures.

I asked a design student to pass on the question though, and she said she'd get back to me tomorrow.

[IOIIOOIO]

Thanks. From what I've gathered online it seems colour matching with dye-sub is very difficult because it doesn't work quite the same as regular printers, and because there are so many different variables; like what materials you're transferring to, the heat of the press and so on and so forth. However, I have not had any confirmation yet with regards to Cyan in particular. I have suggested that we use Light Cyan and Light Magenta in addition to the current four colours; but they say they can't find anyone who supplies those colours.

Some more info you might need:

We are using Elvajet inks in four colours: Cyan; Magenta; Yellow; and Ultra Black. We are printiung on Bond paper and transferring to materials usede for flags; banners etc.

Problems aside, there are some really amazing colours that we can achieve with Dye-Sublimation that you simply wouldn't be able to achieve with regular CMYK. Like, I always thought vinyl print was so awesome because of it's vibrancy - but even that has nothing on dye-sub. Some interesting facts: Dye-Sub is fantastic for photography work, because the colours diffuse and blend with each other very well (as opposed to inkjet, where if you look at it under magnification you can seethe individual CMYK spots that make up the colour.) Also, the thing about Dye-Sub is that the ink actually heats up and turns straight into gas form, then when it cools down again it fuses with the fabric itself. Almost like the print is embedded into the fabric, not just sitting on top. That's why you can achieve such bright colours, and it's also what gives it such durability (combined with UV protection so the colours don't fade.) So yeah, if you want to print flags, dye-sub is the way to go!

[Elyaradine]

Sorry, I'm probably saying stuff you already know, and it's taken forever to do it too.

I asked the lecturer I thought'd know, and she basically said that if they say they can't print a certain colour, it's probably true, and that if you absolutely need a particular colour you're better off going to another (bigger) printer. Otherwise, you'll just have to familiarise yourself with the printing constraints and design around them.

It might be that they're using a Deep Blue ink instead of real Cyan, but it could also be the material on which you're printing. Print inks are usually transparent, so your substrate can make a big difference to the colour you print, and so on.

It's all rather obvious I think. Sorry I couldn't help more.