Dye sublimation printers use heat to vaporize and deposit solid dyes onto the surface of a sheet of glossy photo paper. These dyes permeate the paper’s surface, creating smooth, lifelike gradations of color before returning to a solid form. The printer then applies a special coating to the paper to protect your photos from fading and provide resistance to moisture and fingerprints. Lots of folks prefer dye sublimation printers because they excel at producing realistic colors with even, continuous tones. Dye sublimation printers create crisp, clear, continuous tone frequently used for medical images, unlike ink jet printers, which comprise tiny discrete drops of ink.
A printer that produces continuous-tone images that look like photographic film. Also called a “thermal dye printer,” the print cartridge contains a cellophane ribbon with panels of dye the same size as the page to be printed. There are four panels for each print: one each of cyan, magenta and yellow (CMY) and a final clear coat that allows the print to be handled immediately without smudging. Special dye-receptive paper is used.
Because the same amount of ribbon is used no matter how much color is in the image, the cost of ribbon and paper is always the same per print. Consumables for dye sublimation printers generally cost more than for inkjet printers. However, dye sublimation printers do not require head cleaning, parts break down far less often because there are fewer parts that move, and the prints always are ready to handle immediately after printing because of the way the sublimation process works.
The paper and ribbon are passed together under the printhead for each color panel. The printhead contains thousands of heating elements that produce varying amounts of heat. The hotter the element, the more dye is released. By varying the temperature, shades of each color can be overlaid on top of each other. The dyes are transparent and blend into continuous-tone color.
The “sublimation” means that the dye turns into a gas without first turning into a liquid. . Lots of folks prefer dye sublimation printers because they excel at producing realistic colors with even, continuous tones. The use of a heating element instead of inkjets allows dye sublimation printers to have smaller footprints that are more suitable to mobile use. However, dye sublimation printers typically require a user to carry a paper tray separate from the printer that is inserted in the printer during printing. More specifically, the dye sublimation printer has plural processing components disposed in a housing that accept photographic information and transfer the information to a print media as an image using a dye sublimation printing mechanism. One example of an important technical advantage is that a dye sublimation paper tray integrates with a dye sublimation printer for improved portability and usability.
The result, however, is worry-free printing. You send the job to the printer and seconds later you have a saturated, durable, borderless print. You can choose to have a white border instead, but why? The protective coating resists finger prints too, so a border isn’t really necessary unless you just like the look.