laser sublimation

[Frank barry]

HI all
I am trying to understand how to put colour on objects and wonder if somone could explain laser sublimation

thanks in advance

[Dan Hintz]

Nutshell... print your design onto specially coated paper using a color laser printer, or use special toner and print onto regular paper. Heat press design onto substrate that accepts toner.

[Mike Null]

The second part of Dan's explanation is accurate relative to laser sub. You can use plain paper for laser sub but you must buy sublimation toners which are only available for a few printers. The most popular one is the HP 4550 which is a discontinued model but they can still be found from rehabbers.

There is another process which uses special paper but regular toner called color laser transfer. The advantage of this process is that it can be applied to virtually any substrate.

There are previous threads on the topic if you want to try a search.

There is another process called dye sublimation which you can research as well.

[Frank barry]

Hi


I have spent hours reading old posts and the more I read the more confused I am I phoned magic touch in the UK very nice but again they gave me a few options but there was no process that they sounded confidant about The thing is I am about to buy a laser printer so wanted to buy the best one so if anyone could suggest one for colour laser transfer or colour laser sublimation


Thanks again

[Mike Null]

Frank

I'm afraid you may have a hard time finding a new color laser printer that you'll be able to find sublimation toner cartridges for. I think your best bet is to use the MagicTouch color laser transfer process. It's more durable than it used to be and much more flexible than sublimation. Paper is available from several suppliers here but I have no idea about what's available in the UK.

People here are using Okidata and Konica-Minolta printers with success. MagicTouch offers drivers for one of the Okidata printers and they are handy in this process but not essential.

One thing you should be aware of--you can't print on white substrates with laser sublimation. Ghosting occurs every time without fail. That means if you want to do metal you'll have to work with silver or gold colored materials.

Here's another site you might find interesting. http://www.transferbusiness.com/?pageto=webmap.htm

[Dan Hintz]

The second part of Dan's explanation is accurate...

Only the second part? :confused: What did I miss?

[Scott Shepherd]

Only the second part? :confused: What did I miss?

The first part, obviously :p

[Mike Null]

Dan

I'm giving you an "incomplete" on the first part of the test.;)

[Frank barry]

Hi all
a big thank you to all of you and a star for Dan

I will look into the laser sublimation
Can I ask another question ? when you speak about drivers can you explain? on this side of the world when we speak about drivers we mean the pc speaking to the printer and via versa

thanks again

[Ross Moshinsky]

I have no experience with Magic Touch but I have an HP4550 and a Ricoh Dye Sub machine. I would suggest the Ricoh setup over the HP4550 all day long. You can do a lot more with the Ricoh machine and I find the quality to be superior in almost every way. The HP setup does have some positives. It's operating cost is lower, prints significantly faster, the press dwell time is a bit shorter, and you can press on regular brass/aluminum.

[Mike Null]

The printers sold by MagicTouch have been fitted with their drivers which refer to their specific varieties of paper and settings.

I use an HP 4000N for black laser sublimation. I bought it refurbished a few years back and it has been a solid money maker. For color I use the cLT process.

[Frank barry]

Thanks again

I do see how those drives could be a big help when starting out
do you know if they would sell me the drives if I dont buy the printer as I am in Ireland and shipping costs are high from the UK

Thanks again

[Mike Null]

I doubt it but it can't hurt to ask. Everything will work fine without those drivers and they may give you the comparable values instead of the driver.

[Scott Shepherd]

They sell it, but only for the same printers they sell. It's $200 and it's listed here (for the Oki model 610) :

http://www.themagictouchusa.com/p934/TMT-Driver-for-C610/product_info.html

[Frank barry]

Thanks again I will give them a call in the morning but I don’t think I will be able to charm the drives off them if they cost $200 but I will give it a shot
I take it if I cant get the drives it doesn’t matter what make of printer I buy or should I still go with the Oki as they might be difficult to get in Ireland


thanks again your help is much appreciated as I know little about printers

[Scott Shepherd]

I don't know what's so special about their drivers because I've never used them. The great thing about CLT is the color you print is the color it presses, pretty much. With Dye Sub, the color you print isn't in the same area as the color it comes out of the press. So you need the special drivers for dye sub.

With the MagicTouch products, we print to it like it's a good CMYK printer and it does just fine. Maybe next time we need a printer, we'll buy it from them and then I'll know what's so special about it, but until then, we'll treat it like any other color printer.

[Martin Boekers]

I don't know what's so special about their drivers because I've never used them. The great thing about CLT is the color you print is the color it presses, pretty much. With Dye Sub, the color you print isn't in the same area as the color it comes out of the press. So you need the special drivers for dye sub.

With the MagicTouch products, we print to it like it's a good CMYK printer and it does just fine. Maybe next time we need a printer, we'll buy it from them and then I'll know what's so special about it, but until then, we'll treat it like any other color printer.

I am not sure about the driver portion, it's more an ICC profile the drivers may have incorporated into it. I have printed some really not good stuff of the laser printer
because somehow my color management settings got changed. I do find Dye Sub difficult to correct, and have to print a color test from time to time, the profile
I have from Conde is pretty good for most stuff. One thing to remember both with Dye Sub and CLT is the inks/toners are transparent so the color of the substrate affects it.