If you’ve stopped by Terry Town’s booth at any trade show so far this year, you might have noticed a few products that really caught your attention. When you saw the bright colors with immense clarity and detail, you might have asked yourself "Wow, can I do that too?" What you saw were the crown jewels of Terry Town’s product line: the Subli-Plush Beach Towel. Combining a unique blend of natural and synthetic fibers, the Subli-Plush offers everything you would e
ver want in a beach towel: quick drying, soft to the touch, and an impressive imprint on the face. But how can our distributors achieve the same result? Let’s take a look into the printing process and guide you through the essentials of what you need to know to get a great looking beach towel.
The first step begins with the image or photo that you are looking to print. In the world of where science meets art, there are quite a few file formats out there and it may get confusing trying to find one that will yield the best results for what we’re after. First, be sure to check that your files are in CMYK color format (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) and not RGB (Red, Green, Blue). CMYK is specifically used for printing as it involves mixing actual ink dyes, whereas RGB color formats are only optimized for viewing on your computer screen. If we have to convert the RGB file to CMYK for you, the colors will greatly differ from each other. Vector graphics are going to be the best file type when sublimating on items like full size beach towels and blankets. With vector files, you’re going to be looking at either .AI or .EPS files created in Adobe Illustrator. Since vector files have the ability to be resized and recolored, you won’t be losing any quality from the actual image if you decide to alter or revise it.
As the world of sublimation has opened new doors for us, customers have asked if we can print photos taken from a camera. The answer is that you definitely can, but the photo must be of a very high resolution. Photos taken with a camera are one-dimensional, flat, and are called bitmapfiles.
When printing bitmap files, you’re going to want to pay attention to the DPI or Dots per Inch on the photo. For example, if your photo is at 96 DPI, it may look fine to your eyes while viewing on your phones or computer screens but remember that this image will be blown up to size to fit on the product you are printing on. The 96 DPI image will become pixelated when resized to a 30" x 60" beach towel size, which will result in a blurry and illegible final print – not the desired outcome. Photoshop will allow you to edit single layer bitmap files, but it is best advised to have a photo with a high resolution from the very beginning. It's always much easier to have a high resolution file and downsize it rather than trying to enlarge a low resolution photo. 300 DPI photos will yield the best possible print, so be sure to pay attention to the fine details
before sending over your PO.
With sublimation printing, there really is no limit as to how creative we can get. You can still achieve basic one to two
color logos with no problem, but if you're looking to make a statement at your next presentation, try out a few stock image backgrounds that we have available to really make an impression in your client's minds forever. -A.E.
