If you are trying to find a sublimation printer for personal use or running a business, keep reading this article. We have discussed the best Sawgrass sublimation printers after extensive testings.
Sublimation printing is creative and profitable. For efficient digitally printed customized products, you need a special printer specifically designed to produce high-quality prints.
I am fond of sublimation printing, and I tried doing it using different printers. Used various techniques and inks and wasted a lot of material experimenting to get high-quality permanent artwork on sublimatable products.
I was not able to achieve the result that could amaze me. At last, I tried sawgrass printers , and I must say, there is nothing more efficient than these printers for sublimation printing.
Let us look into some reasons to choose Sawgrass printers.
Why Choose Sawgrass Printers For Sublimation Printing?
Sawgrass offers a range of printers specifically designed for dye sublimation and offers modern printing solutions for everyone. Here are some of the convincing features to choose sawgrass printers over any other printer in the market for sublimation.
- Sawgrass printers are designed specifically for sublimation printing, so we do not need to convert them. These printers come with a print manager, which automatically sets the image according to sublimation printing requirements.
- Using these printers, you can create and design a number of colorful artwork on a variety of sublimatable items. The items are a wide variety of apparel, decorative items, household items, metallic and ceramic items.
- These printers accept a Variety of Inks that we can use for efficiently printing vibrant colors on different materials. These inks efficiently print against white, light, and dark-colored substrates.
- SubliJet HD and SubliJet UHD ink is perfect for hard and soft polyester substrates. It also produces good results on vinyl-based substrates. This ink comes in 4 and 8 color ink sets.
- ChromaBlast HD and ChromaBlast UHD this ink is preferable on cotton and cotton-based blended fabrics. It is most suitable for light color apparel. For best results, we would suggest you to use it only with ChromaBlast paper.
- Siser EasySubli ink is created to obtain good results on soft and hard sublimation materials. It is efficient to use on dark and light color fabrics or any material of dark color background.
This is our best sawgrass ink, you can use it with any sublimation paper. However, we would recommend you to use easy subli HTV to get ultra high quality colors.
- SubliJet HD and SubliJet UHD ink is perfect for hard and soft polyester substrates. It also produces good results on vinyl-based substrates. This ink comes in 4 and 8 color ink sets.
- A small list of substrates includes fabrics, mouse pads, plastic and fiber materials, keychains, metal photo panels, and kitchenware made up of metals, ceramics, and glass.
Best Sawgrass Sublimation Printer
I use sawgrass sublimation printers for my business and fortunately, I have used these three models. Still have them and use them for our business. Let us look into the details of each of them.
1 – Sawgrass SG-500 – Best Desktop Sublimation Printer
It is a compact size, smart to use desktop sublimation printer designed for efficient sublimation printing.
It is easy to set up this printer and comes with a user manual along with website support to operate it without facing any trouble.
Using sublimation ink, I have printed designs on various types of paper. This printer is quick and prints high quality colored images within no time.
The printer has an easy-to-use interface on the front that allows users to customize settings as per their requirements.
It uses four colored ink cartridges to produce a variety of different shades. The print quality is equally amazing on any type of sublimatable product.
We have also used third party, non-sawgrass inks for testing. Quality was good but we were not able to use sawgrass softwares like the sawgrass print manager and the creative studio. It also eliminates warranty and support.
This unit is more energy efficient than previous model SG-400 which also lacked Wi-Fi connectivity. It also offers a variety of connectivity options and easily connects to multiple devices such as your Laptop, Mac, PC, or smartphone using Wi-Fi.
Sawgrass printers come with a smart print manager where it is easy to perform settings for achieving the design of your choice in high quality.
Highlighted Features
- We can use it to create a variety of customized items, including t-shirts, coasters, mugs, keychains, and more.
- Excellent choice for small sublimation printing businesses
- Easily placed on a table
- It comes in white color only
Sawgrass 500 is an extremely efficient printer for the sublimation printing business that prints HD quality photos. You can customize the design size and print it to craft a number of customizable products for yourself or business purposes.
2 – Sawgrass SG-1000 – Best Wide Format Dye-Sublimation Printer
This is an efficient printer for inventing customized dye sublimated products. It easily places 200 sheets in its paper tray and speedily prints black and white and colored designs.
The printer is known for its diversity and quality. It uses inkjet printing technology to print an image of 600 X 1200 DPI, which produces excellent products with sharp prints. We noticed that they do not fade away on shirts, mugs and other substrates.
After the upgradation from sawgrass 800, the design of the printer was changed. Moreover, Wi-Fi is added to make its performance better.
It produces vivid images of various sizes on 11” X 17” paper. With an additional by-pass tray of sawgrass 800, it also accepts 13” X 19” sheets.
Using this printer, we have printed a variety of images to print t-shirts blankets, aprons, socks, and other various products such as coasters, mugs, and many more.
We connected this easy-to-use printer with tablet, Mac, PC and smartphones using ethernet as well as Wi-Fi.
You need a sawgrass print manager to set the image size and print the image on a variety of paper to sublimate it on any product.
This printer accepts four ink color cartridges and has a new feature that supports extended cartridges to print large batches without any problem.
Highlighted Features
- There is no need to download or purchase additional graphic softwares
- Low startup and operational cost
- Suitable for apparel printing business
- Nil
The Sawgrass 1000 dye sublimation desktop printer is perfect for printing more images in less time and using less energy so that we can use it for any sublimation printing business.
3 – Sawgrass VJ-628 – Best 24″ Sublimation Printer
This is a specially designed printer for sublimation printing at a large scale. It is the world’s first sublimation printer that uses eight-color inks to print a variety of hues ranging from bright colors to blacks and neutral grays.
Built by Mutoh for sawgrass, an experienced Japanese company that also builds printers for Epson. This printer is an excellent choice for printing businesses. The compatible media sizes include 13”, 24”, and 24.8”.
The unit offers print resolution for up to 1400 X 1400 DPI images. It precisely prints personalized products such as textiles, photo panels, and fine arts. It uses a 110-250 V AC to run properly.
This printer comes with back-end support of a variety of software such as virtuoso, partner plus, creative studio, and business builder. As with all sawgrass printers, you also need the print manager to print the images.
This printer does not require much space due to its compact physical dimensions and weighs only 79 lbs. However, the base and take-up reel weight separately.
Ink Choices
- There are four sets of different ink combinations available for different purposes of printing with this unit.
- The Dual CMYK: This ink gives fast printing speed and we have found it best for building decor, business branding designs ,promotional items, fabrics and textile materials.
- Pro Photo: The professional photo ink set helps professional photographers to produce a high quality of photos with rich black color and smooth gradients.
- Pro Photo XF: We have used it for ChromaLuxe panels, fine art and pro photography. It delivers more than half a million colors on printing.
- Flex: It produces true fluorescent colors, orange, blue colors, pink and yellow color cartridges are added that delivers outstanding CMYK performance.
- The Dual CMYK: This ink gives fast printing speed and we have found it best for building decor, business branding designs ,promotional items, fabrics and textile materials.
Highlight Features
- Excellent for wide format sublimation printing business
- Offers High-quality prints at a low per page printing cost
- Comes along with a base and tape reel
- Only compatible with Microsoft Windows operating systems
The Sawgrass VJ628 printer is an excellent choice for wide-format large-volume businesses. It uses intelligent printing technologies to eliminate banding and create realistic 24” full bleed quality images of high resolution.
Buying Guide-Best Sawgrass Sublimation Printer
Numerous factors influence your choice to get the best sawgrass sublimation printer for your use, particularly the product you want to achieve using the printer.
A dye-sublimation printer is different from your routine paper printer, and choosing the right one demands consideration. It is recommended to inspect your preferred printer following these selection criteria.
1 – Model
Sawgrass offers 3 units to the users. We have reviewed them all. Every unit has some difference in specifications according to the material you want to sublimate.
For smaller items like mugs, baby shirts, gifts and packaging materials, we would recommend to use sawgrass 500.
If you want to print all of these items and t-shirts of adults too, sawgrass 1000 is best.
The virtuoso printer is best if you want to use it for a professional business or industrial purpose. You can create designs for textile, photo panels and a lot of other materials.
2 – Cost of Purchase
The price of the printer is an important factor to consider but buying a printer, especially for business, is a lifetime investment.
It is always recommended by us to compromise on the initial cost if the printer offers great features such as print media size, speed, volume, and low cost of maintenance and operations.
3 – Operational Cost
A printer is a device to make products, so the operation cost must be considered before you make a purchase.
Do you want to buy a printer that costs low initially but running it costs arm and leg? The answer must be No.
The cost of operations is calculated on the basis of ink consumption, energy utilization, and cost of repair. It is advisable to choose a printer with a warranty and technical support.
4 – Maintenance Requirement
Dye-sublimation printers require more maintenance as the ink solidifies in the printer head and nozzles.
It is recommended to run the flush cycle once every week or more, depending on your print volume. It helps you maintain the print quality. Maintenance keeps the ink flowing and avoids drying in the printer head.
Some dye-sublimation printers have a pre-installed function of performing auto-maintenance. It is advisable to select one with this feature for a comfortable printing experience.
5 – Printing Volume
You know how many prints you will require per hour. It is wise to choose the printer which matches your requirements.
If you need running a dye-sublimation printing business, select one of the printers designed to print large volumes to accommodate more paper in the trays for user convenience.
6 – Printing Speed
The speed of the printer is calculated in terms of prints per minute. Using modern technology, most printers print a colored image within 15 seconds.
Dye-sublimation print may take more time, but still, you must consider a printer that offers a good printing speed.
7 – Printing Size
It is advisable to choose a printer as per your requirement, and printing size is one of the main factors to consider.
You can select the printer as per the required media size. Printers usually come in three formats and offer to print in different sizes.
The desktop printer offers the print size range from 8.5″ x 11″ to 13″ x 19″. The wide-format printers are industrial-grade printers that offer print onto paper roll measuring 44-104 inches.
The narrow format printers allow printing sizes ranging from 24-44 inches wide. Whatever the printing size, it is recommended to consider the printing field size as well.
8 – The number of Ink Colors
Color printers use a combination of 4 or 8 basic inks to create millions of different hues on the print.
The eight ink color sets come in different color combinations, which are used for various printing applications.
These sets can efficiently print different hues such as grey-black tones, red-orange shades, or skin shades, which are hard to achieve using the primary CMYK ink colors.
The four ink color printer can create vibrant colors and sharp graphics in sublimation printing, but eight ink color choice is more favorable.
9 – Ink Source and Consumption
Some printers use ink cartridges, while some have replaced them with ink bottles. Some printers consume more ink for printing an image as compared to the competitive printer.
Choosing printers with ink bottles is advisable as they offer cheaper rates and are easy to refill. Some printers also come with extendible ink sources to print large batches without facing any hassle.
Ink cartridges are costly compared to ink bottles and add more to more landfills due to increased plastic waste. However, you can choose a cartridge-based printer if you run low volumes.
Is sawgrass better than Epson for sublimation?
Sawgrass is better than Epson printers for sublimation because it is built for sublimation. They operates with dye printing technology right out of the box. Quality of prints is awesome and didn’t wash or fades. They have better efficiency and performance.
The Bottom Line
Dye-sublimation printing is a creative and innovative form of printing to design customized products. People turn it into a profitable business.
It is wise to choose a printer that supports dye-sublimation technology. Sawgrass printers are specifically designed for dye sublimation.
Using them, you can sublimate on a variety of sublimatable products of varying sizes. Many printers are available in the market, but we suggest choosing any of the best Sawgrass sublimation printer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a sawgrass printer?
Sawgrass produces low cost and best dye-sublimation printers that are designed specially for sublimation. They can be used for small and large businesses, in homes and industries.
What is sawgrass used for?
Sawgrass printers are used to carry out high quality sublimation on a large quantity of substrates including t-shirts, photo panels, mugs, ceramics, fabric and polyesters.
How to print from sawgrass creative studio?
To get print from creative studio, you must have a sawgrass printer. Sign in to the software, you can use templates of different substrates like mugs, phone cases etc. and can create designs from scratch. You can also preview the design on the substrate before printing.
Which sawgrass printer is best for sublimation?
The sawgrass 500 is best to carry out various sublimation jobs easily. Sawgrass 1000 is best if you are printing photo panels and t-shirts.
What is the difference between sawgrass 500 and 1000?
The main difference is the size of media they handle. Sawgrass 500 prints media up to 8.5”x14” which can be extended to 51” using SG-400 bypass tray. Whereas the sawgrass 1000 prints media of 11”x17” that can be extended to 13”x19” with SG-800 bypass tray.