New Sawgrass Printers With WiFi, Increased Resolution and Energy Savings




Updated Printer Engine and Inks Give Greater Color Control and Deeper Blacks


Purpose-made Ink and Printers are Efficient and Eco-friendly


G7 Certification Gives Sublimators Confidence in Consistency With Sawgrass


Adding Value with The Sawgrass Network


Ecommerce WebsiteIncluded$950 / year
Design SoftwareIncluded$1,200 / year
Color Management SoftwareIncluded$1,450 / year
Customizable, Royalty-Free DesignsIncluded$360 / year
Training & CertificationIncludedN/A
Lifetime Tech SupportIncludedNA
*Costs are approximate in USD, based on industry standard products


For more information or order your printer, visit

Common Mistakes When Using Sublimation


Nozzle Check problems




Nozzle print Comparison


Check to make sure you are using sublimation paper.



Printing on the wrong side of the paper




Follow the instructions for your product




Using the wrong inks



Sawgrass Sublijet-R Technical Support
Sawgrass Sublijet-IQ Technical Support

Advantages of Sublimation Printing


What Do You Need To Get Started In Sublimation?
You will need an inkjet printer (Ricoh or Epson), sublimation inks, sublimation paper, and a heat press. In addition, you will need a white or light colored substrate that is either coated with a polyester coating or made of polyester fabric for sublimation to work.

Inkjet printers that are compatible with Sawgrass (a major distributor of sublimation ink) inks include: Ricoh GX7000, Ricoh GX3300, Epson 1900, Epson 4880, Epson 1800, and many older models that are discontinued.

If you are just getting started on sublimation, it is recommended that you buy a complete packaged system as that will save you a little bit of money compared to buying the components separately.

What Can You Print With Sublimation?



Why Choose Sublimation?
Here is a list of the advantages that come with sublimation printing

  • It has a relatively low learning curve compared with screen printing.
  • Same cost to print one item or 1000 items. So no need for minimum orders, and perfect for 1-up items and promotional items for small businesses, schools, charities, sports teams, parties, reunions, and many more!
  • Complete customization! The advantage of digital sublimation printing is that no plates are required, so it is ideal for customizing designs with changing elements such as names, numbers, etc.
  • Sublimation is quick and easy to produce, allowing for same day or same hour printing, as well as on demand printing that reduces risk and wastage.

With every printing method there will be disadvantages and so here are a few…

  • Substrates need to be polyester coated or made of polyester fabric.
  • Substrates need to be white or light colored. You cannot print onto dark or black colored items.
  • Printers tend to clog if not used for extended periods of time. With the introduction of Ricoh printers, the clogging risk has been significantly reduced. However we still recommend doing a nozzle check once a week.
  • Sublimation inks are relatively expensive compared with OEM inks. This will need to be factored in when pricing your products.
  • Color Management issues. With the installation of the PowerDriver, color management problems have been significantly reduced. As with all printers, color management issues will vary depending on the graphic/photograph.


What is sublimation?

Sublimation is the process from a solid state to a gas state bypassing the liquid state.  Sublimation systems work the same way.  Your inkjet printer, will print onto a specially coated sublimation paper with special sublimation inks.  When it dries onto the paper, the ink is in solid form.

Once you apply heat and pressure on the solid inks, they quickly become gas bypassing the liquid state.  Because of the pressure and heat, the gas slowly and accurately moves from the specially coated paper to the polyester coated substrate.  Once heat is taken away and the ink is allowed to cool, the gas is then trapped in the polyester coating.  Thus, the image is permanently trapped in the polyester coating.

Without the polyester coating, the inks cannot be trapped.  Only some synthetic materials will allow the inks to go into it and to trap the inks inside.  Because the inks are translucent (part transparent, and part opaque), sublimation will not work on dark colored substrates simply because the dark background will show through and contaminate the image.  In a worse case scenario, the dark background may make the image completely not visible.

In addition, not all inkjet printers can use sublimation inks.  The reason for this is because some inkjet printers use heat to print.  Because heat is used in the sublimation process, heat cannot be used during printing on the printer, as it will allow some of the inks to evaporate and color consistency cannot be achieved.  Thus there are only a hand full of printers out there that can use sublimation inks.

Sublimation also requires a flat or consistent surface.  the reason for this is because the heat needs to be applied evenly in all areas at the same time for the image to print onto the hard substrate.  If heat is not applied evenly, the image quality will not be consistent.