Can regular printer paper be used in sublimation?

You can certainly use any paper you want for sublimation and get results; however, you probably will not get good results. If you use regular bond paper or copy paper, the water-based inks will soak into the paper fibers and not maintain clarity on the paper because the liquid ink will soak outward a bit. Also, when you use the cheap paper and sublimate your product, the sublimation dyes do not release from the paper as well and go into the coating on your blank product, so you won’t get really good and bold colors. Sublimation papers have a coating on them to maintain the image crispness on the paper, and also to release the dyes into the blank product. In short, you get better-quality sublimated products with better-quality paper.

   —Duraluxe