Dye Sublimation Printers

Dye Sublimation Printers

Dye-sublimation printers give you the capability to print photo-lab-quality pictures at home. With the prices of these printers falling, more and more digital-camera owners are taking advantage of this technology. In dye-sublimation printing, colors are not laid down as individual dots, as is in inkjet printers. In photos printed from an inkjet photo printer, individual dots can be seen at a relatively close distance, making digital pictures look less realistic.

If youwere to look inside a dye-sublimation printer, you would see a long roll of transparent film that resembles sheets of red, blue, yellow, and gray colored cellophane stuck together end to end. Embedded in this film are solid dyes corresponding to the four basic colors used in printing: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The print head heats up as it passes over the film, causing the dyes to vaporize and permeate the glossy surface of the paper before they return to solid form. I worked at a CompUSA store several years ago and we had a dye sublimation printer out for a demonstration model.  They were fairly new at the time and were very expensive.  It required special paper and was only available in 4"x6" size.

  The main difference between dye sublimation (dye-sub) and other types of printing has to do with heat. The vaporized colors permeate the surface of the paper, creating a gentle gradation at the edges of each pixel, instead of the conspicuous border between dye and paper produced by inkjet printers. Because the color infuses the paper, it is also less vulnerable to fading and distortion over time as are inkjet printers.

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