No colour
guarantee
A screen emits light. Fabric reflects it. Those are two different media, and they will never match exactly. No fabric printer can honestly promise otherwise, including this one.
- stated tolerance
- ΔE ≤ 4
- fabrics, all different
- 17
- digital proof
- Free
- printed swatch
- Free
On this pageWhy fabric moves the colour
What we can do is narrow the gap and tell you where it sits. A free digital proof on every order. A free printed swatch of your own artwork. A stated tolerance of ΔE ≤ 4.
Colour is the most common argument in printed fabric. It moves differently on each of the 17 fabrics, and this page says how. Measured, not promised.
01 · Dye-sub · ink into fibre
Why fabric moves the colour
Dye-sublimation turns solid ink into gas under heat. The gas bonds into the polyester fibre rather than sitting on top of it.
So the cloth is part of the print. Weave, base white and finish all change where a colour lands, and all three differ across the 17 fabrics.
Same file, six fabrics, six results
| Fabric | What the cloth does to the colour |
|---|---|
| Spun polyester, 140 gsm matte | Absorbs more ink and scatters more light. Colours read slightly flatter, and black settles closer to a deep charcoal. |
| Printed satin, 120 gsm gloss | Reflects light off a smooth face. Colours read deeper and more saturated, and the tone shifts as you change viewing angle. |
| Hi-vis fluorescent knit, 115 gsm | The base is not white. Every colour printed on it takes the cast of the base underneath. |
| Blockout polyester, 250 gsm | Dense and bright white. Holds deep navy and rich black better than any lightweight knit in the range. |
| Crystal velvet, 850 gsm pile | Pile direction changes tone across the same panel. Brush it one way and it reads darker. |
| Mesh polyester, 120 gsm, ~30% airflow | Roughly a third of what you see is whatever is behind it. Pale colours lose strength against a dark wall. |
Weight, base white, finish. Those three explain nearly every shift you will notice.
02 · Hardest colours · named
Which colours give the most trouble
Some colours land close on any fabric. These are the ones that move, and it is better to know before you approve.
Saturated orange and bright green
Both sit outside the CMYK gamut. Process ink cannot reach them, so they render duller than the screen version every time.
The shift is largest on the brightest values. A near-fluorescent green loses the most.
Deep navy and rich black
These depend on fabric weight and base white. A 250 gsm blockout holds a dense black, while a 95 gsm flag knit lets it drift towards charcoal.
Build blacks as a rich build rather than 100% K. Ask for our recommended build for your fabric before you send the file.
Pastels and skin tones
Small shifts show most in light, low-saturation colours. A 2% cast is invisible in a dark blue and obvious in a face.
Skin tones are the single most common reprint request. Print a swatch of the actual image, not a colour patch.
Fluorescent base fabrics
The hi-vis knit distorts everything laid over it. Treat the base as a colour in the design, not as white paper.
Metallics and neons
Process ink cannot reproduce either. There is no gold, no silver and no fluorescent ink in a dye-sublimation build.
Not ideal for
A metallic or neon brand colour reproduced as printed ink — process ink has no equivalent.
Consider instead
The 130 gsm silver-coated satin face, which produces a metallic effect from the fabric rather than the ink.
03 · No colour guarantee
What we promise, and what we don't
We do not guarantee an exact colour match. Written plainly, because the alternative is arguing about it after despatch.
Here is what we offer instead
- A free digital proof on every order. Nothing prints until you approve it. The proof catches layout, size and content, though it is still a screen.
- A free printed swatch of your own artwork. Your file, your fabric, our press. This is the only sign-off that means anything on colour.
- A stated tolerance. ΔE ≤ 4, measured against a printed reference on the same fabric.
Inside that tolerance, the print is correct as made. Outside it, the fault is ours and we reprint free.
The same number governs a reprint claim. See Returns & Reprints.
04 · Pantone · a target, not a promise
Pantone and brand colours
A Pantone reference is a target we aim at. It is converted to the closest achievable process build on your specific fabric.
Pantone spot colours are mixed inks on paper. Dye-sublimation builds every colour from process ink, gassed into cloth. Those are different systems, and the conversion is an approximation by definition.
Some references convert closely. The ones listed above as hardest convert least well, and a bright orange or green is where you will see the distance.
Send Pantone codes or CMYK values. A screenshot carries your monitor's profile and tells us nothing about the colour you want.
05 · 5 steps · closest match
How to get as close as it gets
Five steps, in order. Follow all five and colour stops being a risk.
- Send values, not screenshots. Supply Pantone references or CMYK values. Never an RGB screenshot, a phone photo of a screen, or a colour picked off a website.
- Print a swatch of the real artwork. Your file, on the fabric you have chosen, from the press that will run the job. A generic colour chart cannot answer for your image.
- View it under the real lighting. Daylight, tungsten and LED each read differently on cloth. Take the swatch to the venue, the studio or the shop floor and look at it there.
- Approve against the swatch. The swatch is the reference, not your monitor. Sign off colour on cloth and the argument is finished before it starts.
- Keep the fabric constant across a set. Order every piece in a matched set on the same fabric. Mixing a knit and a satin in one set guarantees a visible difference, whatever the file says.
Colour critical?
Order a printed swatch of your artwork before the full run — free.
06 · Batches · one run
Repeat orders and matched sets
Fabric arrives in batches, and batches vary a little. Base white drifts, and dye-sub renders colour against that base.
So a piece ordered in March and a piece ordered in September can sit slightly apart, from the identical file. It is small, and it is real.
Where consistency across pieces matters, order the whole set in one run. One batch, one press session, one result.
The same logic applies across a seam. Panels for one piece are printed together for that reason, as set out in the Fabric Width & Seam Guide.
07 · 5 questions · colour on cloth
Questions people ask
Why does my print look duller than it did on screen?
Your monitor emits light and can display colours process ink cannot reach. Saturated orange, bright green and anything near fluorescent lose the most in the conversion.
Can you match a Pantone exactly?
No. A Pantone reference is a target we aim at, converted to the closest achievable process build on your specific fabric.
Pantone spot colours are mixed inks on paper. Dye-sublimation builds every colour from process ink gassed into cloth. The conversion is an approximation by definition, and the hardest colours convert least well.
I ordered the same file twice and the two pieces differ. What happened?
Fabric arrives in batches, and base white drifts a little between them. Dye-sublimation renders colour against that base, so the same file can sit slightly apart on cloth from two different batches.
Order a matched set in one run and the whole set comes off one batch, in one press session.
Do you print white or metallic ink?
No. There is no white, no gold, no silver and no fluorescent ink in a dye-sublimation build. White in your artwork is the base cloth showing through, not an ink.
For a metallic effect, the 130 gsm silver-coated satin produces it from the fabric rather than the ink.
What is ΔE, and do I need to understand it?
ΔE is a single number for how far two colours sit apart — measured, rather than judged by eye. You do not need to work with it.
Read our ΔE ≤ 4 this way: inside tolerance is a difference you have to hunt for, side by side, under neutral light. A shift you spot from across the room is not inside tolerance.
08 · One honest limit
What a screen will never tell you
The free swatch pack answers weight, opacity, finish and hand. It carries our test print, not your file.
Not ideal for
Signing off a brand colour from a monitor or a product photograph — neither is the material you are buying.
Consider instead
A printed swatch of your own artwork on your chosen fabric, viewed under the lighting the piece will live in.
Printed in 24–48 hours. In your hands in 7–10 days.
Questions before you order? Email us and ask for a printed swatch of your artwork — free.