22 April, 2026
Color migration in textile printing
Color migration in garment printing – what is it and how do you prevent it?
In this article:
- What is color migration?
- Which types of fabrics cause color migration?
- How can you prevent color migration?
- Can color migration be fixed?
- Color migration vs. transparency
When you print garments with heat transfers, sooner or later you’ll run into the problem of color migration. You carefully place your garment under the heat press, apply a nice white logo, follow all instructions – but when the press opens, your bright white logo has turned… grey.
Or even worse: the logo comes out of the press looking perfect, but hours or even days later it discolours or develops ugly stains.
This problem is called color migration or dye migration, and it occurs with specific fabrics such as sublimated polyester and softshell. In this article, we’ll explain what color migration is and, more importantly, how to avoid it.
What is color migration?
When printing textile with transfers, logos can suddenly discolour: the heat from the transfer press reactivates the colour pigments in the fabric, causing them to migrate into the transfer and discolour the print.
Most often, this happens with coloured garments printed with a white logo: on black garments the print will turn grey, on red garments the logo may develop a pink tint.
Dye migration is a chemical process triggered by the pigments in the textile. Sometimes the problem is visible immediately when the press opens, but more often it only shows hours or even days after application – or even after washing.
This makes it especially tricky, so it’s important to know which fabrics trigger the color migration and how to prevent the issue.
Which types of fabrics cause color migration?
Three fabric types are notorious for causing color migration: sublimated polyester, softshell, and synthetically dyed garments.
1. Sublimated Polyester
Sublimated polyester is polyester coloured using the sublimation technique. The design is first printed with special inks on sublimation paper and then transferred into the polyester fibres with a heat press. The fibres absorb the inks completely, resulting in permanent, seamless colouring.
You can recognise sublimated polyester because it’s only coloured on the outside – the inside of the garment is usually white.
This method is widely used in sportswear: football shirts, cycling kits, basketball or hockey uniforms are often made of sublimated polyester.
When sublimated polyester is decorated with transfers, the heat of the press reactivates the sublimation inks, causing the colour pigments to migrate into the logo and cause discolouration.
Fortunately, there is a solution: anti-migration transfers with a subli-blocker.
2. Softshell
We know softshell as a comfortable material for light, warm and windproof jackets and body warmers, but it is also notorious for the problems it causes with color migration when printing with textile transfers.
The outer layer of softshell is a synthetic material, often made of polyester and elastane. When printing on softshell with textile transfers, the dyes in the softshell are activated and can migrate into the print.
What makes softshell especially tricky is that the discolouration doesn’t appear immediately. It often takes hours or even days before the migration becomes visible.
To prevent dye migration on softshell, use silicone-based transfers or transfers with a special softshell blocker.
3. Synthetically dyed garments
Most garments are made of cotton, polyester or blends, dyed in a dye bath where the textile absorbs the colour evenly. Normally, these fabrics can be decorated with standard textile transfers without any issues.
However, we increasingly see color migration even on these garments. The reason: a growing use of synthetic, non-water-soluble dyes, which behave like sublimation pigments – they can gas out under heat and migrate into transfers.
The risk depends on the quality of the dyes used and how well they were fixed during fabric production. For this reason, we recommend using subli-blocker transfers for all synthetically dyed garments.
How can you prevent color migration?
The good news: there are reliable solutions to print on garments prone to color migration. The key is
Anti-bleeding Transfers with a Subli-Blocker
These anti-migration transfers include an extra double blocking layer of special black ink printed behind the logo. This barrier prevents the colour pigments in the garment from reaching the print.
We can apply a subli-blocker to all of our transfer qualities, so your logos remain crisp and bright white – even on difficult fabrics:
- Araflex Antibleeding: onze universele zeefdruktransfer op waterbasis, geschikt voor alle gesublimeerde en geverfde polyester
- Digiflex Antibleeding: onze premium full color bedrukking, ook beschikbaar met een speciale blocker voor softshell
- Nylonflex Antibleeding: voor waterafstotende stoffen die problemen geven met doorbloeding
- Industrial Antibleeding: voor zware werkkledij die industrieel gewassen wordt
Silicone Transfers
In some cases, even a double subli-blocker isn’t enough – especially on softshell. And sometimes, the logo is so fine that there isn’t enough space for a blocker layer.
Ook voor deze bedrukkingen hebben wij de geschikte oplossing: onze silicone transfer Superflex is een zeefdruk transfer die gemaakt wordt met inkten op siliconebasis. De silicone inkten hebben als eigenschap dat ze geen kleurstoffen kunnen opnemen, en daardoor dus gegarandeerd antibleeding zijn, zonder dat er een subliblocker nodig is.
Silicone transfers are therefore the number 1 choice for printing on softshell without risk. They are also extremely elastic, ideal for stretch sportswear such as cycling kits or gymnastics leotards.
We also recommend silicone transfers for very small or detailed logos where anti-migration is still essential but a blocker won’t fit.
Can color migration be fixed?
Unfortunately not. Once a logo is discoloured by dye migration, it cannot be restored. The only option is reprinting the garment with an anti-migration transfer – but this is complicated and not recommended. Prevention by choosing the right transfer is the only reliable solution.
Color migration is not the same as transparency
Finally, it’s important not to confuse dye migration with transparency. Light-coloured prints on dark garments can appear dull if the fabric colour is visible through the ink. For example, a yellow logo on black fabric may look greenish.
The solution here is simple: we apply a double layer of white as a backing layer behind the colours. In most cases, this white underbase is already included in our transfers by default.
