craftychick

I've made a couple of memory quilts by printing on fabric sheets for the printer. I definitely was not happy with the last one I made because of the color. The colors weren't sharp. I printed on 100% cotton muslin sheets. I see they have 100% polyester sheets out there but haven't used them. Can anyone recommended cotton vs polyester for printing? Can someone also recommend a printer for printing on fabric? I have an HP Envy 7100 series. Thank you so much for your help.

Gay

I'd be a bit leery printing on polyester 'cause if using an ink jet printer the fabric needs to be hot ironed to set the picture, but you can only try it. I have printed on fine silk with success. Can't help with the color issue except to say starching may be a drawback.

aashley333

I let Spoonflower do all my printing on fabric. They have over 20 types of fabric. I order a sampler with 30 "swatches" for about $35 (last time I ordered). Vibrant colors. I have even created my own fabric!

bkay

I wouldn't think polyester would work well. I tried "tea dying" a polyester shower curtain. It kind of worked. Basically, polyester doesn't absorb anything well, except grease stains, that is.
bkay

SueZQ from MN

I know that you probably have already tried this, but have you adjusted your printer to the maximum number of dots per inch in the quality setting? I usually print most things at the lowest setting and then I forget to reset when I want quality print jobs. I have found that the newer HP printers, even the very high end models do not print as clearly or as vividly as they used to. The colors now all look muddy and the edges of the print are fuzzy. If all else fails, you could make a copy of your file and take it to a local commercial print shop (or maybe even Kinkos or Office Max could do it) and have them run your fabric through their commercial printer. My local printer does odd size copies for me occasionally and their print quality is incredible because they are using a really expensive top of the line printer. It might be worth checking out and shouldn't be too expensive. Good luck.