Manufacturer · USA

Sawgrass: all devices

Sawgrass is a US manufacturer of sublimation inks and desktop sublimation printers, best known for the A4 and A3 printers SG500 and SG1000 with its own SubliJet ink. The devices are regarded as a ready-tuned complete system of printer, ink, colour profiles and software. Sawgrass is interesting for small businesses and ambitious hobbyists who sublimate mugs, textiles or hard goods and do not want to use a converted office device; in Germany the devices are available only through retailers.

In the wiki: 2 Devices in 1 Category.

Pros and cons of Sawgrass

Facts

History

According to the short biography of founder Nathan Hale, Sawgrass was founded in 1988 in Columbia, South Carolina, as a software and systems integration company, moved to Charleston in 1990 and then specialised in inks and software for digital decoration; the same source cites 161 patents and distribution partners in over 124 countries (undated). A core part of the business is patents on liquid sublimation inks for inkjet printers, which Sawgrass enforced in court and licenses to other ink makers, for example after a settlement with BASF or to the Italian company J-Teck3. With the SG500 and SG1000, Sawgrass launched its own desktop printers designed for sublimation, and in 2025 VersiFlex was added, an ink and paper system for cotton and other uncoated materials, which was presented for Europe at FESPA 2025 in Berlin. According to its own website, Sawgrass has its headquarters in Charleston, a site in Sheffield and over 200,000 customers in more than 115 countries; revenue and employee numbers are not published.

Customer support and warranty

Support is provided through the Sawgrass Care portal (care.sawgrassink.com) with a knowledge base, plus, according to the manufacturer, free one-to-one setup appointments, workshops and video tutorials; the support portal is in English; a German-language manufacturer site exists at sawgrassink.com/de, but there is no direct shop for Germany. In Germany you buy through authorised retailers, who handle initial advice and service; Sawgrass does not publicly name specific German authorised retailers. According to the manufacturer, the warranty for the SG500 and SG1000 is three years or 100,000 prints for purchases from 1 October 2025, two years before that, for the original buyer only; a UK authorised retailer, by contrast, states two years and makes the warranty conditional on original Sawgrass ink, and it is not clearly documented whether the new terms apply in the EU across all retailers. On Trustpilot, sawgrassink.com has 1.5 out of 5 stars from 30 reviews (as of October 2026), 97% of them 1 star; according to Trustpilot, Sawgrass replies to around 60% of negative reviews, usually after more than a month.

Environment and commitment

Sawgrass stresses that the inks are made in small batches in Charleston, and offers free training. A sustainability or social programme with specific targets is not mentioned.

Criticism and problems

No recalls or official notices found. The most common criticism is the tie to expensive original Sawgrass ink: Trustpilot reviews report that printers no longer accept expired or third-party cartridges after firmware updates, plus slow email support. On 1 February 2025 Sawgrass discontinued the CreativeStudio and Sawgrass Print Manager software (replacement: MySawgrass and Sawgrass Print Utility), and designs had to be exported; some users report lost files. The printers are supposed to stay switched on permanently because they clean automatically every 10 hours, which uses ink. Sawgrass has actively enforced its ink patents against competitors in the past, for example against Tropical Graphics in 2003.

Research as of 10/2026. Information on support and reviews changes; please report errors via the Contact form.

Sawgrass does not sell these devices directly in Germany, but through retailers.

Official help and wiki: Sawgrass Care