Sublimation on mugs: printing a photo or a gradient on a cup

It all comes down to the way colour reaches the product. Conventional processes lay ink on the surface. Screen printing and pad printing print shades one after another, one pass for each: a gradient, which contains an infinite number of shades, therefore cannot be reproduced. In digital printing, the number of colours is unlimited, but they are applied as solid colours: the transition turns into visible bands. In laser engraving, no colour is applied, it is the material itself that is marked.

Sublimation works differently: the ink penetrates the material and dyes it in depth. The colours are no longer placed side by side in separate areas, they blend into one another. This is what allows a continuous transition, and it is why sublimation is the only process in our catalogue capable of reproducing a true gradient or a photograph.

Practical consequence: if your artwork is built in solid colours, sublimation brings no decisive advantage. It becomes essential as soon as continuous shades are part of the message.

On a mug, this ability opens up uses that other techniques do not allow:

• the photo of a team, a site, a product or a landscape associated with your brand;
• the gradient logo, kept exactly as your agency designed it, with no simplified version;
• the illustration rich in shades, for a company anniversary, a campaign or an internal collection;
• mixed artwork, where a gradient background carries a text and a logo.

The marking remains confined to the area provided for the product, defined with its exact dimensions in millimetres. You see its real template on the product page, with the processes offered. Not all mugs accept sublimation: browse our custom mugs and cups and select those whose product page mentions it for the area you are interested in. The configurator will never offer you a process the product does not allow.

A composition tip: a photo reads better when it fills the area boldly, without multiplying the elements around it. A mug is looked at up close, but rarely from every angle at once.

Good news: sublimation does not require a vector file. An image, JPG or PNG, may be enough, provided it reaches 300 dpi at the actual print size. This figure is not read in the file properties: it depends on the width of the marking area of the mug you have chosen. The same photo can be perfectly sharp on a small area and visibly pixelated on an area that goes all the way round the mug.

The calculation links the pixels of your image to the millimetres of the area: dpi equals the width in pixels divided by the printed width in millimetres divided by 25.4. The configurator does it for you, since it knows the exact dimensions of each area, and warns you if the resolution is too low. It ignores the value stated in the file, which is often wrong.

• Ask the photographer for the original photo rather than a compressed version sent via a messaging app.
• Avoid enlarging a small image: enlargement creates no detail, it stretches the existing pixels.
• If your logo is vector, keep it as it is in the composition: it stays sharp at any size.

A photo or a gradient contains shades that the eye compares without realising it. Remember that a screen emits light whereas ink reflects it: the result on ceramic or on the material of the mug will never be an exact copy of your screen. Very dark tones and very close shades deserve particular attention, because they are the ones that differ most from the display.

The proof, generated in the configurator at the actual scale of the template, is the moment to check everything:

• the legibility of text placed on the photo or on the gradient background;
• the centring and scale of the artwork in the area;
• details that are too fine, which may be lost at the size of the mug;
• the contrast between the text and the image it covers.

Then our team checks every print before manufacturing, for all orders and at no extra cost: your mock-up and your artwork are reviewed before production starts. The automatic check measures; the human check judges what a measurement cannot see.

Sublimation is not always the best choice for a cup. It all depends on the artwork and the mug:

• logo in one or two solid colours: ink applied colour by colour, in screen printing or pad printing, gives a sharp result, and a simple version is enough;
• metal mug: laser engraving marks the material itself, for an understated and permanent result, with no colour at all;
• very detailed artwork but without a gradient: digital printing and its unlimited solid colours may be suitable;
• photo, gradient, continuous shades: sublimation, with no alternative.

The most reliable approach remains to start from your artwork: identify whether it contains continuous transitions, then check the processes offered for the chosen area on the mug’s product page. For the budget side, how the model, the quantity and the number of sides change the price, see our guide to the price of a custom mug by quantity.