print!
When you get an order, the first thing you’re going to do is make a tiled layout of the design in Photoshop, meaning you’ll have multiple copies of the design on the same piece of paper. Why? If you mess up the transfer, you won’t be wasting more 11x17 special paper. In Photoshop, go to File > New.... Name the file whatever you’d like, and change the dimensions to 11” wide and 17” high. Make sure the unit of measurement is inches and the color mode is CMYK. Everything else stays the same. When making the tiled layout, the maximum height of the design can be 4”, but you want the design to be 3.5” just to be sure there is enough breathing room between edges. Try to fit 4-8 image tiles onto the page, but don’t cram them on top of each other. After you’ve finished laying out the page, you’re ready to save. Go to File > Save As.... Name it and save it as Photoshop PDF. The ‘Save Adobe PDF’ pop-up window will open. Just choose High Quality Print as the Adobe PDF Preset, then hit Save PDF. Head over to the Sawgrass DyeTrans printer in the back room next to the mug press. Turn it on. Wait for it to finish it’s startup process. When it’s complete, it will say ‘Ready’. This can take a few minutes. Always perform a Nozzle Check before printing. To do this, press the Menu button four times on the printer until it says Maintenance. Then press #Enter three times.
Take ONE of the 11x17 transfer papers and place it in the bypass tray, bright side out, on the printer. You don’t want to jam it in, but feel your way in. It will be able to go about a quarter of the way in. The bright side will be the brighter white side of the paper. Load your saved PDF onto the computer next to the DTG printer. Open the file onto Google Chrome. Click on the Print icon. Select ‘More settings’. Set the Paper size to 11x17. Check the Fit to page checkbox. Click ‘Print using system dialog...’ Select PowerDriver-v4 SG800 (US), click Preferences. Under Source, select ByPass Tray. Under Size, select 11x17. Everything else stays the same. Click OK. Click Apply. Click Print.
ByPass Tray
operate!
After you’ve printed your image, cut one of them out. It is recommended that you cut right at the outer most edges on each side of the image so you can get a good idea of the exact placement on the mug. Grab a blank mug and the heat-friendly tape. Take a piece of tape that can stretch horizontally edgeto-edge of the image. Tape it to the back of the image. Do your best to align it to the mug as straight as possible. Use more tape to adhere each edge of the image to the mug to ensure every part of the design will transfer. Turn on the mug press. Wait for it to reach 230ºF. It will make short consecutive beeps when it is of temperature. Put the mug in the press, close the handle, and press the green button. The temperature will decrease for a couple of seconds, but that’s okay. It will eventually start heating to 330ºF, then automatically begin the 40 second countdown. When the printing finishes, you’ll hear a long beep. Turn off the power and take out the mug. It will be extremely hot, so using gloves is recommended. Peel of the tape and paper and check the printing. Run the mug under cold water for a minute to finalize the sublimation process.
Heat-friendly Tape
have fun!