Printing

Why am I not able to print white or light colors on dark colored items?

Unlike screen printing which just puts a layer of 'paint' on the top of the fabric, Dye Sublimation is translucent and actually 'dyes' the fibers of the fabric itself! If the fabric already has been dyed it can't be 'un-dyed' to give you a light or white color. The only way to do this would be to do some sort of bleaching process to bleach the already dyed areas, but this is not a good technique as it can cause problems in other printed areas. If you want to do a Dye Sub print you will always need to start with either a white or very light colored item. The 'white' areas in the print will let the fabric/item show through so depending on the color of the material being pressed it may have color shifts ( blue printing on a yellow shirt may turn green when pressed ). If you are going to Dye Sub materials we recommend only using White, very light gray/tan/yellow colors. Do not use black, navy, dark reds, dark browns, etc as you will not be able to see the translucent color showing on top of the material.