It is printing that gives the final character to your chosen mug. Printed mugs can tell us many things; the company logo, the company message, and the print method you choose can help the receiver of the mug to gain a further insight into your company. A good logo is designed to create associations that are pleasing. And the layout and colours used for the design can add to the effect.

To see this in action, visualize a china mug, intensely black. The black colour itself creates a strong impact. Now visualize an image that stands for a currently popular theme - say, renewable energy represented by a brilliant yellow sun powering up a home. Provided the meaning is clear, it can create an association with responsible use of resources.

Now add a short message for your company below the image, of how your company takes it responsibilities seriously. If everything has been done tastefully, your company's brand is promoted favourably.

All these become possible with printing. There are different printing techniques that can produce different results in terms of sharpness, richness and variety of colour, etc. The material used for the mug can also dictate the particular printing technique used.

Screen Printed Mugs

Screen-printing can be done directly to the mug, without the need to create a water slide transfer first for subsequent transfer to the mug. Screen-printing is economic, and suitable where the design and the colour schemes are simple, with few colours and sparing use of half-tones (if any).

This method is used for earthenware mugs, and in cases where thousands of mugs have to be printed every day. The comparatively lower costs and higher productivity makes it ideal for budget promotional mugs.

Transfer Printed Mugs

Transfer printing involves first creating a water slide transfer image on special paper, and coating it. This print is then transferred to the mug by hand. Transfer printing is labour-intensive and more expensive. It is used for creating detailed images with tight registration and for more complex colour schemes. For bone china mugs, transfer printing works best.

Digital Printed Mugs

This is a modern version of transfer printing. The transfer images are created using modern digital printing techniques and then transferred to the mugs. The design can be created in digital format in a computer (without the need for screens) and then a few or hundreds of transfer images can be printed, for later transfer to mugs.

Dye Sublimation Printed Mugs

Dye sublimation allows creating images in brilliant colours. The solid organic dyes - cyan, magenta and yellow - are converted into gas particles and transferred to the media, and then over coated with a protective layer. The layer, however, might not protect the brilliant finish against too much bright light and heat, and frequent washing.

Dye sublimation printing is done using computers, and can give results resembling traditional kiln-fired enamel colours (though not as durable).

Heat Change Mugs

This variety of printed mugs creates a dramatic effect, as the images appear when the mug is filled with hot liquid. The designs are cured on earthenware mugs, and are dishwasher and microwave safe.