A photo printer that uses gaseous color dyes to create a continuous tone image that resembles a traditional photograph.
Despite the name, dye-sublimation (dye-sub) units work through a process of thermal diffusion. When the solid dyes embedded in the film are passed through the heated print head, the dyes vaporize and diffuse onto the paper before they return to solid form. In doing so, there are no dots to deal with and you'll sometimes hear dye-sub outputs as continuous-tone prints. Dye-sub printers are expensive and slow but produce outstanding results. As an upside, most dye-sub prints have a scratch-proof and water-proof surface protecting your photos.
A printing process used in some computer printers, whereby ink on sheets of ribbon material is heated and fused with the surface of a sheet of special dye-sublimation paper. Like printing presses, dye sublimation printers reproduce color by using varying combinations of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Unlike printing presses, dye sublimation printers produce a CONTINUOUS-TONE image. Dye sublimation printers produce high quality but costly printouts.
A loss of dye due to evaporation of the solid without formation of a liquid phase.
A printing process using small heating elements to evaporate pigments from a carrier film, depositing these smoothly onto a substrate.
Dye sublimation is the print process Fargo Card Printer/Encoders use to print smooth, continuous-tone, photo-quality images. This process uses a dye-based ribbon roll that is divided into a series of color panels. The color panels are grouped in a repeating series of three separate colors along the length of the ribbon: yellow, magenta and cyan (YMC). As the ribbon and card pass simultaneously beneath the printhead, hundreds of thermal elements heat the dyes on the ribbon. Once the dyes are heated, they vaporize and diffuse into the surface of the card. Varying the heat intensity of each thermal element within the printhead makes it possible for each transferred dot of color to vary saturation. This blends one color into the next. The result is continuous-tone, photo-realistic color images.
A printing method in which the color (toner or ink) is thermally converted to a gas that hardens on the special substrate used by the printer. When printers use this process, the output appears in the form of soft-edged dye spots that produce smooth, continuous tones.
An imaging method for transferring controlled quantities of printer ribbon dye onto a plastic card.
A heat transfer process. Gas-forced ink is heated so that it evaporates into the product. A special type of paper (one with acrylic or coating) is also used that can be printed on a Canon-type printer and then we would transfer over to the product with heat.
A color printing technology that uses thermal heads along with a transfer material to create an image on a receiver paper.
A type of printing in which an image is placed on laminated paper when the printer's thermal print head passes across the ribbon. The heat causes the color on the ribbon (cyan, magenta, or yellow) to be transfered to the paper. Variations in the print head temperature cause the various colors to appear.
Primarily used for color, these printers heat a ribbon containing dye and diffuse the dye to the paper.
A printing process that uses a thermal print head to create color images from a digital file. Dye sublimation printers are often used for color proofing.
A continuous-tone printing process in which a solid printing medium is converted into a gas before it hits paper.
Describes a printing method for half-tone images or pictures. The process uses heat to transfer colour from a printer foil onto paper.
A photographic looking color print created by heating dyes on the substrate instead of using inks. Often used for proofing.
A type of printing process in which a dye ribbon is heated by the print head creating a gas that hardens onto a special paper. This creates soft edged spots of colour that melt into each other and give the appearance of a continuous tone photograph.
Color printing technology that creates a photo-graphic-quality image by delivering gaseous dyes to a receiver material using a thermal transfer system usually involving transfer paper and a heat press.
Color printing technology that produces images by means of gaseous dyes through a thermal printing driver.
An imaging process that vaporises colorant with heat and pressure, and deposits it on to a substrate in order to simulate a continuous tone image.
A type of continuous tone printing process that produces a vibrant 300ppi color print. The pixels are printed by a thermal print head that sublimates (vaporizes) the dye from a colored saran wrap like ribbon onto the dye-sublimation paper. The hotter the element on the thermal printing head the darker the spot of color.
