The History of Sawgrass: from Sublimation Ink to the SG500, SG1000 & VersiFlex

By Southtrend Corp., an authorized Sawgrass dealer serving the printing industry since 1996 | SawgrassInks.com

Most people meet Sawgrass through a printer — usually an SG500 or SG1000 sitting on a craft table next to a heat press. But Sawgrass did not start as a printer company. It started as an ink company, and that origin explains almost everything about how the brand works today. As a dealer that has sold and supported this equipment for decades, here is the history as we have watched it unfold — with the dates, the turning points, and the honest context the marketing pages tend to skip.

It began with chemistry, not hardware (1988)

Sawgrass was founded in 1988 in Charleston, South Carolina, under the name Sawgrass Systems. From the start, the company's expertise was the ink itself: the dye chemistry that turns a printed sheet of paper into a permanent, full-color image once heat and pressure are applied. Dye sublimation as a process predates Sawgrass, but it had largely been confined to industrial equipment. Sawgrass focused on the formulations and color management that would make sublimation practical on smaller, more affordable printers.

That focus produced a deep patent portfolio — more than 160 patents over the years — and a business model built on licensing and supplying ink rather than only selling machines. For a long stretch, Sawgrass was the chemistry behind systems that carried other companies' names. The inks were, and still are, developed and manufactured in Charleston, with additional operations in Sheffield, England.

From ink supplier to printer brand (the Virtuoso era)

The decisive shift came when Sawgrass began offering complete, branded desktop printer systems rather than just the ink inside them. Built around reliable Ricoh print engines and paired with Sawgrass ink and software, the Virtuoso line (the SG400 and SG800 of the mid-2010s) gave small businesses and crafters a sublimation setup that worked out of the box, without the converted-inkjet workarounds many people had relied on.

In 2019, Sawgrass replaced that generation with the SG500 and the wide-format SG1000 — the printers still at the center of the lineup. The two share the same components and ink system and differ mainly in maximum print size, which is why the choice between them usually comes down to how large you need to print rather than any difference in quality. You can compare them on our SG500 and SG1000 collection page.

SubliJet UHD: the sublimation standard

If one product defines the Sawgrass reputation, it is SubliJet ink — and its current generation, SubliJet UHD. Engineered specifically for Sawgrass printers, it is built to flow cleanly through the print head, resist clogging, and deliver consistent, fade-resistant color. For most operators, SubliJet UHD is the everyday workhorse: vibrant, repeatable results on polyester apparel and polymer-coated hard goods such as mugs, tumblers, photo panels, and ceramic blanks.

The consistency is the point. When you are producing a batch of products that must all match, an ink and color-management system engineered as one unit removes a lot of the guesswork that plagues improvised setups.

The cotton problem Sawgrass spent years working around

Here is the part the brand story usually understates. For most of its history, traditional sublimation had one stubborn limitation: it bonds to polyester and polymer coatings, not to natural fibers. That meant 100% cotton — the single most requested fabric in custom apparel — was effectively off the table for a pure sublimation workflow. Sawgrass offered partial answers over the years, including transfer-based products like EasySubli and ChromaBlast that let users put designs on cotton, but each came with extra steps, materials, or compromises.

For a company whose whole identity is ink chemistry, the cotton barrier was the obvious problem to solve — and solving it cleanly took time.

VersiFlex: the 2025 breakthrough

In 2025, Sawgrass launched VersiFlex at the FESPA trade show. A wet-transfer decorating system, it extends a single SG500 or SG1000 to cotton, natural fabrics, blends, wood, and more — not just the polyester and coated blanks sublimation has always handled. The industry took notice, naming it a 2026 III Awards winner for best new heat-press decoration technology.

What makes VersiFlex significant is not just that it prints on cotton, but that it does so from the same SG500 or SG1000 a shop may already own, without adding a separate DTF or DTG machine, vinyl weeding, or powder steps. For a maker who wants to offer cotton tees alongside their usual mugs and polyester products, it collapses several workflows into one. As with all Sawgrass ink families, VersiFlex runs as its own dedicated system — more on that in the FAQ below.

From a single ink to a complete system

The throughline across nearly four decades is that Sawgrass kept absorbing more of the workflow. What began as ink grew to include the printers, the color-management and design software (Sawgrass Print Utility, Creative Studio, the MySawgrass platform, and the Sawgrass Exchange suite added in 2023), the education and onboarding, and a global dealer network spanning more than 100 countries and 200,000-plus users. Today a new owner can buy a printer, ink, paper, and software that were all engineered to work together — which is exactly why results tend to be predictable from day one.

Sawgrass at a glance: a timeline

What this history means for you today

Understanding where Sawgrass came from makes the buying decision simpler. Because the company engineers the ink, the printer, and the software as one system, the questions that matter are not about brand quality — they are about format and material:

Choose the SG500 if you mostly produce standard-size items and want a compact desktop printer; choose the SG1000 if you need larger prints and oversized transfers. Run SubliJet UHD if your products are polyester apparel and coated hard goods like mugs and panels. Choose VersiFlex if cotton, natural fabrics, blends, or surfaces like wood are central to what you sell. The one rule that follows directly from the chemistry: a given printer runs a single ink family, so it is best to decide your primary workflow before you buy. Our team works with these machines every day — if you are unsure, call us at 305-653-0037 before ordering.

Frequently asked questions

When was Sawgrass founded?

Sawgrass Technologies was founded in 1988 in Charleston, South Carolina, originally under the name Sawgrass Systems. It began as a sublimation ink and color-science company before building complete printer systems.

What does Sawgrass make?

Sawgrass designs and produces sublimation ink (SubliJet UHD), the SG500 and SG1000 desktop printers, the VersiFlex decorating system, and the color-management and design software that ties them together, along with education and support.

What is SubliJet UHD?

SubliJet UHD is Sawgrass's flagship sublimation ink, engineered for its printers to produce vibrant, fade-resistant prints on polyester fabrics and polymer-coated hard goods such as mugs, tumblers, and photo panels.

What is VersiFlex?

VersiFlex is a Sawgrass wet-transfer system launched in 2025 that lets a single SG500 or SG1000 decorate cotton, natural fabrics, blends, wood, and more — beyond the polyester and coated blanks of traditional sublimation — without a separate DTF, DTG, or vinyl process. It won a 2026 III Award for best new heat-press decoration technology.

What is the difference between the SG500 and SG1000?

The two printers share the same components and ink systems and operate the same way. The main difference is maximum print size: the SG500 is a compact desktop printer for standard formats, while the SG1000 handles larger prints and oversized transfers.

Can Sawgrass printers print on cotton?

Traditional sublimation with SubliJet UHD does not bond to 100% cotton — it works on polyester and coated surfaces. To decorate cotton and natural fabrics on a Sawgrass printer, you use the VersiFlex system instead.

Where are Sawgrass inks made?

Sawgrass inks are developed and manufactured in Charleston, South Carolina, where the company is headquartered, with additional operations in Sheffield, England.

Can you mix ink systems in one Sawgrass printer?

No. A Sawgrass printer should run a single ink family. Switching between systems such as SubliJet UHD and VersiFlex can contaminate the printer, cause color and reliability problems, and typically requires a full ink flush. Many shops that need multiple workflows keep a dedicated printer for each.

SawgrassInks.com is operated by Southtrend Corp., an authorized Sawgrass dealer serving the professional printing and customization industry since 1996. Questions about choosing a Sawgrass system? Call 305-653-0037.