How to Make Sublimation Designs in Canva (2026)

There is no white ink in sublimation. None. Which means every white area in
your Canva design is not printed at all — it is simply whatever your blank
happens to be.

Design the normal Canva way, on a white background with white text, and you
have made something that works perfectly on a white mug and falls apart on
every other blank you own. Nothing fails. The printer does not misfire. The
white mug was hiding it the whole time.

And the thing nearly every tutorial gets backwards: “export transparent or
you’ll get a white box” is a PRINT ON DEMAND rule, where a provider lays white
ink onto a dark shirt. Your sublimation printer has no white ink at all, so a
white background and a transparent background do exactly the same thing. Export
transparent anyway — not for the printer, for you.

📄 FREE — The Canva Sublimation Card: the white-ink rule, what the blank must
be made of, the sizing arithmetic and the seven pre-press checks, on one page:
https://geniusjunkie.net/get-sublimation-card/

🎨 Sticker & Illustration Kit — flat, bold, original artwork with no Canva
licence problem, in the style that actually sublimates well:
https://geniusjunkie.net/sticker-illustration-kit/

🗂 All template packs & the Template Club: https://geniusjunkie.net/templates/

WHAT THIS COVERS
0:00 There is no white ink in sublimation
0:39 The free card, and three principles
1:12 The size your supplier decides
1:55 Delete the background — do not make it white
2:35 The licence names mugs
3:21 THE TRAP — watch the white disappear
4:12 It only works on polyester
4:53 Canva is RGB. Your press is not.
5:34 The export myth, and the real reason
6:32 Mirror once. Never twice.
7:08 Give the artwork somewhere to go
7:46 Three lines, every new blank
8:20 The seven checks
8:48 Close

THE RULES, FROM THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE THE KIT
· “Dye-sublimation printing requires polyester fabrics or polymer-coated
surfaces.” — Epson
· “Dye sublimation requires light-colored materials because there’s no white
ink in the standard process. White areas are inherent to the product
itself.” — Printify
· Sawgrass, who make the ink, say the same of their VersiFlex system: it does
not print white, so “you will need to be smart about the colors of material
you choose.”
· “When your design is sent for printing, the colors are automatically
converted from RGB values to the closest possible CMYK match.” — Canva Help
Centre
· Transparent background on download is “only available to Canva Pro, Canva
Teams, Canva Business, Canva Education, and Canva for Nonprofits plans.” —
Canva Help Centre
· Canva’s Content Licence Agreement names MUGS in the prohibited uses of Pro
content, and permits free content for resale.
Verified 5 October 2026.

THE SIZING
Inches × 300 = pixels. A 9 × 3.5 in mug wrap is 2700 × 1050. A 10 × 12 in
shirt area is 3000 × 3600. Your blank supplier publishes a template and THAT
is the number that counts — suppliers differ, and a mug wrap from one is not a
mug wrap from another.

NOT CLAIMED IN THIS VIDEO: the price of any printer, ink, paper or blank;
which brand is best; or a universal blank size. None of that was checked
against a manufacturer’s own pricing page, so none of it is stated.

#canva #sublimation #sublimationdesigns #canvatutorial #sublimationforbeginners

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