Sublimation: picking designs that survive the press

Sublimation works when three things agree: a design with true transparency, a blank that holds polyester, and a design whose colours survive heat. Everything in this guide opens with the first part solved.

How to choose in under a minute

• Each listing states its exact formats under WHAT YOU GET — start there, not with the picture.
• Digital only: every design is an instant download from Etsy, so sizing is a chance to check the notes, never a wait.
• Match the blanks to the colours. Designs are drawn for light and mid-tone garments first; dark shirts change how pale artwork reads.
• If a fact is missing, the listing description (same text as here) usually answers it.

What the shop’s sublimation PNGs assume

Sublimation designs here are 300 DPI PNGs with transparent backgrounds, sized near the blanks they are named for. Tumbler wraps state their circumference-factored size; shirt designs state a print area in inches.

The press itself is on you: sublimation wants polyester — the higher the share, the brighter after washing — and light colours so the design owns the surface. Solids bend the colour dramatically; every guide to infusible-ink blanks is true here too.

Delivery and licence

A sublimation design is delivered the same way as everything else: instant download, licence included, nothing physical ships. A dark garment or a heavily coloured blank is not a failure of the design — it is a chemistry limit, and it is worth knowing before the press.