Best Sublimation Printers (2026): Factory vs Converted

If you want to sublimate without fighting your equipment, start with the printer the manufacturer actually intended for sublimation, and at letter size that is the Epson SureColor F170. Epson built the F170 around its own dye-sublimation ink (the T49M bottle set) rather than dye-based photo ink, so the tanks, the print head settings, and the color profiles all assume sublimation from the first page. That is the difference between this machine and every converted EcoTank you will see on a craft forum: nobody had to drain anything, nobody voided a warranty, and the color you get on a mug matches what Epson's profile predicts on screen.

On paper the F170 is a modest machine: one paper tray, 8.5 x 11 maximum, wireless and USB connectivity, with Ethernet and USB cables in this bundle. The strength is what it does not require. You fill the tanks from bottles, print from your usual design software or Epson's own app, and go straight to the press. The 140 ml Epson refill set costs more per bottle than the generic inks sold for EcoTank conversions, but the tanks hold a lot and the cost per transfer still lands well under Sawgrass cartridges.

The honest limit is size. A letter sheet covers mugs, coasters, ornaments, tumblers, and shirt logos, but a full-front shirt print or a 12 x 12 photo panel needs a wide-format machine, which is where the Pinckney 13 x 19 conversion below comes in. For most artists adding sublimation as a second income line, letter size is exactly enough, and this is the printer we would put on the desk.

The Sawgrass SG500 is what you buy when the mugs and shirts have to ship on time. Sawgrass is the one company on this page that makes sublimation printers and nothing else, and it shows in the details owners keep mentioning: the print head is designed to tolerate the long idle stretches a small shop sees between orders, the SubliJet UHD inks come with profiles that are correct out of the box, and the included software handles sizing, mirroring, and product templates without a second application.

This starter bundle is the sensible entry because it arrives with ink and paper, so the first transfer happens the day the box lands. Output is letter size with legal-length sheets through the bypass, which covers the same product range as the Epson F170: drinkware, coasters, keychains, small photo panels, and left-chest shirt prints.

So who picks Sawgrass over Epson? People who value support and predictability over ink cost. When a color is off, Sawgrass support knows their own machine, their own ink, and their own profile, and there is nobody to blame but them. For a hobbyist that is overkill. For a shop taking custom orders through the holidays, it is the safest letter-size machine sold on Amazon.

Brother arrived late to sublimation, and the SP-1 shows it took notes. Rather than sell a bare printer, Brother bundles the machine with everything a first project needs. The listing states a full ink set, 160 sublimation transfer sheets, 50 blanks, and heat tape, which is a complete first weekend of mugs and coasters in a single box. For a holiday gift to a crafter, that completeness matters more than any spec.

Because the SP-1 is sold as a sublimation printer, it sits in the same warranty-safe category as the Epson F170 and the Sawgrass SG500: nobody drained photo ink out of it, and Brother supports what you are doing with it. The trade-off is history. Epson and Sawgrass have years of owner feedback and mature third-party ink and paper markets behind them; the Brother is still building that record, so if you like reading a hundred forum threads before buying, the other two give you more to read.

Letter size is the ceiling, same as the Epson and Sawgrass. If you already know you will want 13 x 19 transfers, skip ahead to the wide-format Pinckney conversion. If you want the fewest possible decisions between unboxing and a finished mug, this bundle is the one.

This is the converted EcoTank you have read about on every craft forum, except a seller has already done the conversion. Pinckney takes a cartridge-free supertank inkjet, fills it with sublimation ink instead of the photo ink it shipped with, and sells the result as a bundle. The listing describes it as a super-tank printer with sublimation ink, easy fill, and a built-in scanner and copier. It does not name the underlying printer model, and we will not guess for it.

Why buy one anyway? Price and ink cost. At $330 it undercuts every factory sublimation printer here, and because the ink lives in bottles and tanks, the cost per transfer is as low as sublimation gets. Owners who print every week report years of service from converted supertanks. The people who regret them are the people who print once a month: sublimation ink in a photo-ink head dries and clogs when it sits, and cleaning cycles burn ink.

Color management is the other job you inherit. A factory machine ships with profiles; a conversion needs you to find or build an ICC profile for your ink and paper, or accept slightly off colors. For a hobbyist who prints weekly and is comfortable in printer settings, this is a good deal. For anyone who wants to press and forget, spend the extra on the F170.

Sheet size is the one spec you cannot fix later, and 13 x 19 is the line between a mug shop and a shirt shop. A letter sheet gives you left-chest logos and drinkware. A 13 x 19 sheet gives you full-front designs on adult shirts, 12 x 12 ceramic and metal photo panels, tote bags, and the option to gang up four or six mug wraps on one sheet, which is how small shops keep per-item cost down.

This Pinckney bundle is the wide-format version of the letter-size conversion above: a cartridge-free supertank printer with sublimation ink installed, a built-in scanner and copier, and printing up to 13 x 19 inches per the listing. The same honesty applies. The listing does not name the base printer, the manufacturer's warranty does not extend to sublimation use, and you will be managing your own color profiles.

Print weekly, keep the tanks topped up, and store paper flat and dry. Treated as a working tool rather than an occasional toy, a converted wide-format supertank can carry a small shirt line for years at an ink cost that cartridge machines cannot touch.

We include the ET-2400 because a huge share of the sublimation printers in American craft rooms started life as exactly this, and it is worth being precise about what that means. Epson sells the ET-2400 as a wireless color all-in-one home printer with refillable ink tanks. It ships with Epson's own dye ink bottles. It is not a sublimation printer, Epson does not market it as one, and Epson's warranty covers it with Epson ink.

The conversion works because a supertank printer has empty tanks waiting for bottles, and nothing stops you from filling them with sublimation ink instead. The rule every walkthrough repeats: never install the included Epson ink. Fill the tanks with sublimation ink the first time, run the initial charge, and the head has only ever seen sublimation ink. Trying to convert a printer that has already run photo ink means flushing, and flushing is where most home conversions go wrong.

If that trade reads as a good one, pair this printer with the Hiipoo ink set below, and print something every week so the head never dries. If it reads as a headache, the F170 is the same idea with Epson standing behind it.

Sublimation ink is the whole trick, and this Hiipoo set is the most common way EcoTank owners get it into their tanks. The listing states compatibility with the ET-2400, ET-2800, ET-2803, ET-2850, ET-2980, ET-4800, and a run of other EcoTank models; match your printer against that list before ordering, because tank shapes and bottle keys differ across Epson generations.

What you are buying is the ability to print at bottled-ink cost. A converted EcoTank running this set costs pennies per letter-size transfer, which is the economic argument for conversion in the first place. The price of admission is color management. Hiipoo, like most ink makers, publishes an ICC profile; install it, print a color chart onto a blank, and compare it to your screen before you promise a customer a specific shade of teal.

Buy two sets if you are converting a new printer: the initial charge on a supertank swallows a surprising amount of ink, and running dry mid-charge is the most common first-day mistake we read about.

Paper is the cheapest part of sublimation and the one beginners most often get wrong, usually by grabbing photo paper by mistake. Sublimation paper has a coating that holds the ink on the surface instead of soaking it in, so that under heat nearly all of it leaves the sheet and enters the blank. A-SUB's 125 gsm letter pack is the one most owners settle on after a round of experimenting: heavy enough to feed straight through a supertank without curling, coated for a high release, and cheap enough to test-print freely.

It is printer-agnostic. The Epson F170, the Sawgrass SG500, the Brother SP-1, and every converted EcoTank use the same paper, so you can change printers later without changing your paper stock. The only version question is size: this pack is 8.5 x 11, and wide-format owners want the 13 x 19 cut.

Print mirrored, tape the sheet to the blank with heat tape, press to the blank maker's time and temperature, and peel hot. That sequence, on this paper, is the whole craft.