Designing new stuff and printing it on different items is liked by many people and the number of these people is increasing day by day. But many of us don’t know that there are best apps for sublimation available for designing cups and other items. This article here presents to you a list of ‘Top 10 best sublimation design software for beginners’. Let’s get into the details.
Best Softwares for sublimation
1. Adobe Photoshop for sublimation printing:
The first one of the best apps for sublimation that comes to our list is the most popular Adobe Photoshop. There is hardly any internet user who doesn’t know about Photoshop. It is a photo and graphic editor that is one of the first software developed by Adobe Inc. back in 1988 specially for Windows and macOS.
This software provides you many useful plugins and graphic editing tools to enhance your design materials to a different level. You can easily make image editing and 3D extrusion as well from this software. This software is an excellent tool in the hands of designers and is especially helpful for designing cool stuff for sublimation printing.
Adobe Photoshop has a subscription plan of $33.99 per month.
2. Adobe Illustrator:
This is another fantastic piece of software from Adobe. It is a vector graphics editing tool and designing software that was initially designed for Apple Macintosh. It is a companion product of Adobe Photoshop, where Photoshop primarily focuses on digital photo enhancement, Illustrator helps in typesetting and making logo graphic design.
It provides you with various tools from adjusting layouts to draw and edit your design. It is compatible with Inkscape that exports designs in the native format of SVG supported by Adobe illustrator. This is a great tool for sublimation designing.
I think Adobe illustrator is the best software for sublimation printing on this list. It has two subscription plans, $9.99 for personal use and $33.99 for enterprise use.
3. Adobe Indesign:
This is another one of the best software for sublimation printing from Adobe that can be very useful for sublimation designing. Adobe Indesign is a typesetting software that helps you in creating posters, magazines, ebooks and other such designing related stuff.
It is available in different versions and has many text settings and special text settings for Arabic and Hebrew as well. It is a complete package of creating perfect designs when used with Photoshop and illustrator together.
Adobe Indesign comes with a monthly subscription of $20.99 and with the full creative cloud at $52.99 per month.
4. GIMP:
GIMP is one of the best sublimation design softwares as a fantastic image manipulation program, it is an open-source graphic editor that mainly helps in image editing and transcoding between different images to bring out a perfectly designed image for your next sublimation printing.
This free sublimation design software is available for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux and it offers you various features like color changing, image editing, editing of layers and many more features.
This program imports various image formats and works perfectly with mobile clicked or images from digital cameras. It exports in many different formats and source code files as well. This can be your next essential software for the final touchup to your designs.
GIMP is an entirely free open-source platform.
5. Pixlr:
Pixlr is an online photo editor that is liked by many designers. The most important thing about this software is that you can edit photos directly from your browser for free. This editor can edit almost any image format be it Photoshop (PSD), JPEG, PNG or any other.
This software gives you smarter tools to enhance your photo and is very quick. You can edit and create content easily to print fantastic designs for your printing shirts business.
Pixlr also offers its subscribers millions of stock contents that help a lot in improving designs and helps them stay updated with the latest trends.
Pixlr has a free version and two subscription plans of $4.99 per month and $14.99 per month.
6. Inkscape:
Inkscape is a fantastic graphic design software for sublimation that has a user-friendly interface and can help a lot in improving your sublimation printing design. It has many gradients and tools that can be used in separate combinations to make amazing designs.
It also offers you many ready-made plugins that can be customized as per your need and also has many preset filters to get your work done in seconds.
Inscape is a free open-source platform. Maybe it’s the best free sublimation software for Epson printers.
7. Corel Draw:
Corel Draw is a powerful and easy to use graphic designing software. It has an amazing content library with thousands of templates, gradients and photos. Its user interface is very flexible and can be easily customized.
Corel Draw offers you great features to innovate and enhance your designing skills and works perfectly with smooth transition without any lag. It can import files in many formats and can export in 48 different file formats starting from AutoCAD to Powerpoint which is great for designers.
Corel Draw has a monthly subscription of $16.50 and the full version for a lifetime is just $474.
8. Sketch:
another one of the best apps for sublimation is Sketch.
Sketch is an excellent platform for vector graphic design with a creative user interface. It can be used both on mobile as well as on the web. It offers great responsive screen templates and has many custom plugins to support the designer.
Sketch allows users to mirror designs and share through cloud storage. It autosaves the design works after every step to avoid losing the design in case of any technical error and is a great tool for sublimation designers.
Sketch just has a yearly subscription of $99.
Read more: Sublimation Printers vs Silk Screen Printers: Which one is better for you?
9. Affinity Designer:
Affinity Designer is like Adobe Illustrator, it offers many grid systems and snapping options to lock objects and continue designing elements using multiple things. It offers both pixel and vector designing facilities and has a zoom feature of a million times.
Designers can use this software for sublimation printing and create cool designs using its smooth and clean interface. It is a cheaper and better alternative to Illustrator.
Affinity Designer has a one time cost of $4,499.00
10. Gravit Designer:
Gravit Designer is one of the best apps for sublimation and it’s an excellent graphic designing software based on HTML coding. It helps a lot in designing creative ideas on board with its easy dashboard and cross-platform portability. And, It has many designing tools such as Pen tool, Lasso and Bezigon.
It is customizable and easy to use with multiple file export formats that are very handy for designers and also it allows you to edit vector graphics too. And, It is a perfect option for sublimation designing.
Gravit Designer has a free version and a Pro subscription of $50 per year subscription.
Read more: Top 5 Best Epson Printers for Heat Transfer in 2022
How to choose the best apps for sublimation designing?
There are many softwares available for sublimation designing but to choose the best among them you need to look for some key features in them. Let’s look at them below.
- Flexible user interface: While looking for a sublimation designing software, always check for interfaces that can be customized and are flexible and easy to use.
- Free or Paid: There are many free softwares available that will help you create awesome designs. And also there are paid ones, but before purchasing the paid ones, make sure to compare the features and choose the cost-effective one.
- Tools and Plugins: This is perhaps the most important thing that you must look for before choosing any software. Always look at the tools and features available and then go with the software.
- Graphic or Vector: Lastly, look for the type of editing that the software offers, whether it is a graphic editor or a vector one and choose as per your need.
Conclusion
Sublimation designing is a highly creative work and to support creativity you need modern and efficient tools. The sublimation design softwares listed above will enhance your designing creativity and will help you to bring your ideas to life. Design your ideas and market them to spread creativity and reach as well. All the best.
