This is a really common question! The answer is: any software that allows you to create or import your image, size it accurately, and print it. That sounds flippant, but it’s true. Sublimation printers are just like any other printer, just with ink that has different colorants in it. Any program that can print to a regular printer can print to a sublimation printer. There’s no difference.
This means that if you have a favorite program to design, resize, and print from, you can still use that.
If you’re asking this question, though, you might not have a favorite program and you need some ideas. You’ve come to the right place!
How do you get your images?
Before you can choose your software, you have to know how you’re going to get your images. Here are several basic ways to get your images:
- Use an existing image (photo, free clipart, or purchased image)
- Personalize an existing image by adding a name or logo
- Use a library of images to combine several images, shapes, and text elements into a new image
- Create them yourself from scratch using a drawing program.
Types 1 and 2, using existing images and personalizing them, can use quite an array of programs. As long as it can pull in your image, resize it, and in the case of personalization, you can add shapes or text with fonts, colors, and sizing, you’ll likely be happy with it. These programs are typically very easy for users to learn and, in some cases, you may have already learned to use them for school or work or use them in your day-to-day computing life. Let’s call this software category Image Printing.
Type 3 is a special case of using existing images and personalizing them. The key there is having a library of existing images. Some software comes with a series of images, usually a subscription or extra fee is required to use all the images. You can also subscribe to sites that have image libraries for use in any of these kinds of software. Programs that have extensive libraries are typically easy to use; the drawback is that they don’t have the power (and complexity) of programs designed for creating your own images. Let’s call this software category Image Libraries.
Type 4, creating your own images, can accommodate all of the above. You can purchase an image, add personalization, and/or create your own images from scratch. These programs are typically quite powerful and have many options. Many new users complain that they are difficult to use. The interfaces look intimidating, having an array of tools to select that have many different options along with seemingly endless menus of functions and options. Looks can be deceiving, however! You only need to know a handful of commands to pull in an image, resize it, and print it. A few more will help you customize your image. You can be quite proficient knowing a small subset of what is displayed! Just ignore what you don’t need! And nobody knows all of the commands. Think of the hardware store departments: plumbing, electrical, paint, siding, windows, drywall, etc. Few people are an expert in all of those! Graphics programs have similar specialties, too. Let’s call this software category Graphic Design.
The good news is that you don’t have to limit yourself to just one category! There are times where I create my images in some graphic design software like Inkscape, but then I want to put several designs on a page and it’s just easier for me to do that in Word. Each software program has it’s strengths and weaknesses. Each person has their own preferences, too. Use what works for you!
A note about software: These lists contains software that runs on both Mac and Windows computers or run online in any browser.
Image Printing Software
These programs are perfect for bringing in images, doing some minor edits, adding text and shapes, resizing to exact sizes, and printing. They are typically easy to use.
| Program | Price | Kind | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mircrosoft 365: includes Word, PowerPoint, Designer | $9.99+/mo subs., $99+/yr subs., $149 purchase | Software | One of the most popular options. Subscriptions come with 1TB storage on OneDrive. (Formerly Microsoft Office) |
| Microsoft 365 online Lite versions of Word, PowerPoint, Designer | Free with free Microsoft account | Online | The free version runs online only and isn’t as fully-featured as the software version, but it does pretty much anything you’d need for sublimation. (Formerly MS Office). |
| Google Drive: Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Drawings | Free with free Google account | Online | Google’s offering of a word processor, presentation software, and drawing software (among others). |
| OpenOffice: Writer, Impress, Draw | Free | Software | A free and open source software (FOSS) that includes a word processor, presentation software, and drawing software (among others). It’s over 20 years old and quite robust. |
| LibreOffice: Writer, Impress, Draw | Free | Software | A free and open source software (FOSS) that is built on OpenOffice includes a word processor, presentation software, and drawing software (among others). |
| Epson Photo+ | Free with purchase of Epson printers | Software | Free software that comes with the printer to edit, resize, and print photos and images. Download this from epson.com/support for your printer and operating system. |
Image Library Software
These are great programs to use if you want to have access to an image library. These are typically easy to use. Lots of people coming to sublimation from the vinyl cutting world like to use Cricut Design Space and Silhouette Studio. You can use these, however there are limitations. Cricut Design Space is geared only for Print-then-Cut, so it must print the registration marks. You can cut them off, but they do limit how large the design can be (some don’t like wasting the ink, either). More worrisome is that there are random glitches that can cause an image to pixelate or colors to print terribly. There is no ability to legally export your data (screenshotting, printing to PDF, and finding the .PNG image all violate Cricut’s Terms of Use). For these reasons, I can’t recommend it for sublimation printing (unless you’re doing stickers). Silhouette Studio seems to be pretty solid and doesn’t have the limitations Design Space does, but I don’t know about its copyrights, and for this reason, I recommend other software that’s geared for printing (especially if you don’t have a Silhouette machine, though there’s no requirement having one for printing).
All of these programs could contain copyrighted material, usually at an extra cost; mind the copyrights!
| Program | Price | Kind | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mircrosoft 365: Designer | $9.99+/mo subs., $99+/yr subs., $149 purchase | Software | The paid version of Microsoft Designer. It has a large collection of icons, illustrations, images, and AI art. |
| Microsoft 365 online Designer | Free with free Microsoft account | Online | The free version of Microsoft Designer runs online only and isn’t as fully-featured as the software version, but it does pretty much anything you’d need for sublimation. |
| Canva | Free, $120/yr for Canva Pro | Online or Software | Design your own images with a large library of illustrations and photos, either in your browser or on a desktop or mobile app. The Pro version unlocks access to a larger library, more features, and AI. Note: Canva does not have the ability to print to a printer. Save it as a file and use another program to print from. |
| CreativeFabrica.com Studio | Free, $9/mo or $47/yr subs. | Online | The free version is quite limited, but an all-access subscription unlocks unlimited use. Includes the entire Creative Fabrica library, background removers, AI generator, and other features. |
| Adobe Express | Free, $99/yr | Software | The free version offers some digital assets (images, illustrations, videos, etc) and limited AI generations, while the paid version opens up millions of assets, more AI, and more features. |
Graphic Design Software
Graphic design software comes in three flavors:
- Illustration software. Usually a vector format, these are geared towards creating your own artwork. They can import most any kind of file (PNG, JPG, SVG, etc). These are usually the gold-standard for creating your own designs.
- Paint/Photo Editing software. Usually a bitmap format (PNG, JPG, RAW), these have tools geared for editing and retouching photos as well as paint-style creation tools. Some can pull in SVGs, but you’ll save these in a PNG or similar format. These are fantastic for tweaking the colors to get them more vibrant, much better than changing settings on your printer (remember, printer settings for color correction cannot be displayed on your computer, so they will always print different colors than you see on the screen).
- Content Creation software. Typically used for publications, these use text and/or graphics to create designs for brochures, reports, etc. Some people find these wonderful to work with for creating sublimation designs.
These are typically a little more difficult to use because of the sheer number of tools and the jargon associated with graphic design. They all will pull in images, resize them accurately, then print them, using a handful of commands that are easy to learn (then you can ignore all the rest). Most of these have an amazing support community, so there are numerous free and paid tutorials and reference material. After watching a few videos, you can learn another handful of commands to place text. Then you can watch another few videos on whatever kind of artwork you’d like to design. You likely will hit a frustration point in learning the more advanced commands, which means you are about 80-90% of the way to learning it — keep going! One good thing to know is that there isn’t a user out there that knows all of the commands. You can be proficient in these programs knowing just a handful of them. As you gain confidence, you’ll start clicking on other tools out of curiosity and you can look them up and see if that’s something you need or not.
| Program | Price | Kind | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illustration | |||
| Inkscape | Free | Software | A powerful editor geared towards SVGs, but can export to PNG, JPG, and others. Favorable comparisons to Adobe Illustrator. |
| Affinity Designer (non-US link) | $69 | Software | The benefit to this software is that it is a single purchase. |
| Corel Vector | $69/yr | Online | Corel is an established graphics software company that produces good products with loyal followings. For Windows only, they have an Essentials program for $129 that is a simplified version for occasional users that includes both an illustrator and photo editor tool. |
| Adobe Illustrator | $23/mo | Software | The gold-standard illustration program that is used by professionals. |
| Painting/Photo Editors | |||
| GIMP | Free | Software | GIMP stands for Gnu Image Manipulation Program. A powerful photo editor software that can also be used to create new images. Has many filters and color correction tools to alter the look of images. |
| Photopea | Free, $5+/mo | Online | An online paint/photo editor software with AI capabilities. The free version is ad supported, offers a little online storage, and has limitations on features; the paid version has more online storage, no ads, and accesses all the features. |
| Krita | Free | Software | A program that is favorable compared to both GIMP and Photoshop. Many examples are geared towards anime, but can be used for any kind of artwork. Many tutorials and training videos that are paid (€5-€15 or so) which supports development of the software. No printing capability; save as an image and print from another program. |
| Affinity Photo (non-US link) | $69 | Software | A solid photo retouching and graphics design tool that is a one-time purchase. |
| PaintShop Pro | $79+ | Software | A solid photo retouching and graphics design tool that is a one-time purchase. |
| CorelDRAW Graphics Suite | $17/mo, $399 | Software | A little pricey, but CorelDRAW has been around for decades and has a very loyal following. For Windows only, they have an Essentials program for $129 that is a simplified version for occasional users that includes both an illustrator and photo editor tool. |
| Adobe Photoshop | $23/mo | Software | The gold-standard painting and photo-editing program that is used by professionals. |
| Content Creation | |||
| Affinity Publisher | $69 | Software | Print publishing software (flyers, brocures, etc.) that can work well if your designs incorporate a lot of text. |
| Adobe Express | Free, $99/yr | Software | The free version offers some digital assets (images, illustrations, videos, etc) and limited AI generations, while the paid version opens up millions of assets, more AI, and more features. |