Sublimation prints looking terrible!!

[BLG2010]

I have a small sublimation printer (converted) and when I buy a file off of etsy or somewhere else, the mugs look great after I press them. When I design something in illustrator and print it, it looks HORRIBLE! The blacks look fadedwith a goldish tint, the brown dulls out to almost a pinkish color, etc. I print the etsy files out of illustrator as well. What would cause my designs to NEVER look good? I have included a picture so you can see what I am talking about (IGNORE all the other designs - these are booboo tumblers that I use for test prints to make sure they are going to look good before I waste more lol). The 777 and the bison should be brown and the triangle should be black. On the other tumbler, the native design is one that I did not do and it prints perfect. Could it be the color setting in illustrator? But wouldn't it do that for both designs then and not just mine? HELP!!

[Monika Gause]

Your images are not visible. Please embed them using the forum's web interface.

Are your files RGB oder CMYK files?

[BLG2010]

I have tried both ways.

Just uploaded the picture!

[BLG2010]

[Monika Gause]

You probably have to experiment with the color settings that the printer driver probably has. Or with Illustrator's color profiles. What does the printer's documentation say?

[BLG2010]

These are both off the same printer, both printed out of illustrator. Only difference is that I designed the 777 bison one and the other one was a different person. Anything I design looks like this and anything I buy or my customers send in look great. Even printed on the same printer and pressed with the same settings on the same press. Would illustrator change it up per design? I have put them on the same artboard and printed them together and it still does it.... 

[Monika Gause]

Without knowing how this is supposed to look and without having the original file and without knowing how you set up the printer this will be difficult to solve.

[BLG2010]

What I am trying to find out is that if there is a certain way they should be saved when I create them. Cause it's not the printer. It works perfectly for everything except for the ones I create. So is there a certain way to save them? How do I make my black look black? It's black on everything I purchase online or customers send, but not mine.

[Monika Gause]

When you compare the files that work and the files that don't, then what is the difference?

[BLG2010]

The files that work are all .pngs and not ai files. I have no idea what they have ebwrything set at before they send it to me. Is there a certain way i need to create them or save them? I have it set to cmyk and i click print.... im a screen printer so this is a whole new world to me that I know nothing aboit, but I have customers that want both so I am attempting it! 

[Monika Gause]

PNG files can not be in CMYK color mode. That is impossible. And probably those RGB files make all the difference. The printer is maybe better with RGB files. Which printer is it? Did you read the documentation?

You might want to get someone to your place who can show you color management, set up your system and also set up your printer and teach you about how this all works.

[BLG2010]

I never said I saved them as a png in cmyk. I create them as that and send them directly to the printer. What does print correctly are pngs that are sent to me. I know color management - I have a degree in graphic arts. I just asked for advice on how it should be saved to print with the correct colors as I know absolutely nothing about the sublimation world. I have a converted printer that was like $300 so no one to come do training. I'll just pitch the printer and keep rolling with my screen printing, embroidery, DTG, and large format printers as my 6,000 sq ft shop makes 100's of thousands of dollars a year doing that. Sublimation was just a side deal as a few customers wanted tumblers

[Monika Gause]

And I didn't say that you saved as a PNG. I was just deducing facts.

The files that print nice (the PNGs) are in RGB color mode.

The files that do not print nice (your files) are obviously in CMYK color mode.

And that can be the cause for them not printing as you would like them to print.

[Bobby Henderson]

Multiple variables can be involved in why the prints from your Illustrator files don't look as good as PNG images you're getting from Etsy and elsewhere.

Are the Illustrator files you're creating set in RGB or CMYK color space? What kind of color profiles are you using? How do those profiles compare to the PNG images you're getting from Etsy? The Illustrator files you're making need to have apples-to-apples color and profile settings compared to the PNGs that seem to print better.

Are you printing to the dye sublimation printer directly from a print dialog box in Adobe Illustrator? Or does the dye sublimation printer have its own specialized printing application? Such third party applications may include extra features such as printing material profiles. Those material profiles can make a big difference in print quality. A stock installation of Illustrator won't have any of those material profile features built-in; most of the time Illustrator just thinks it's printing to plain paper. Material profiles would have to come from a print driver and settings within that print driver.

When printing Illustrator-generated AI or PDF files it's very important for the printer or a third party printing application to include an Adobe-certified PDF print engine. Vector-based objects that have varying levels of transparency, complex gradients and/or clipping effects will output better from a printer or RIP that natively understands PDF. The large format RIP applications we use at my workplace have Adobe certified PDF engines. I can feed those applications PDF files with any feature or effect from Adobe Illustrator and they'll print it correctly. Our office laser printer doesn't have a native PDF print engine, so its handling of color and transparency from PDF files is less predictable.

Generally I don't like printing PNG images. They're pixel-based for one thing. I prefer vector artwork for most graphical items. PNG images are RGB. Many people who create PNG images in Photoshop do so without any regard of CMYK gamut range limits.